6 Of The Biggest Upsets In Olympic History

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Zatopek became the only person to win the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon races in the same Olympics. More astonishing though, was that Zatopek entered the marathon on a whim. He arrived at the event minutes before it was scheduled to start and decided that his strategy to compete in his first ever marathon would simply be to keep up with Jim Peters, the man who held the record. As Zatopek continued to accelerate and push the pace, he came away with victory. 

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One of the greatest underdog triumphs belongs to Rulon Gardner who entered the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games as a complete unknown Greco-Roman American wrestler, but managed to make it to the final. There, he met Aleksandr Karelin, a three-time gold medallist who had been undefeated for 13 years. No one believe in Gardner, but he proved his doubters wrong and did the unthinkable, shocking Karelin to win gold.

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If ever there’s an underdog, the face of Im Dong-Hyun belongs next to the title. The Korean archer won team gold medals in Athens and Beijing, as well as a second place in the 2012 London Olympic Games. While that alone is cause for celebration, what’s more remarkable is that Im is legally blind, with vision of 20/100 in his right eye and 20/200 in his left. 

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Since basketball was introduced at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the sport had been dominated by the United States team. However the days of the Dream Team came to an end at the 2004 Athens Games when American lost to Puerto Rico in its opening match. Somehow, the US team mangled to make it to the semifinals where they met an Argentina team led by Manu Ginobili, the San Antonio Spurs star who made 29 points and four of his six three-point attempts. The loss was so devastating for the US that it completely overhauled their Olympic basketball program. 

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Hauled as the greatest upset in sports history, the 1980 Winter Olympics in New York saw the Society Union considered the favourite team tow in gold in the men’s ice hockey. Having taken home gold in five of the previous six Olympics, it was almost written off as a sure thing. That is until a young American team managed to hold their own against the Soviets. With just ten minutes remaining, Mike Eruzione managed to score against the U.S.S.R. and put the Americans in the lead. With seven seconds to go, the U.S. team managed to clear the zone as sportscaster Al Michael’s declared, “Do you believe in miracles?”

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