BEIJING — My introduction to the Olympics occurred in a quaint town in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. You might have heard (or seen a movie) about the U.S. men's hockey team pulling off a stunning upset at Lake Placid in 1980 and confirming the power of believing in miracles.
In the era before the internet or cellphones, Lake Placid was a charming but isolated place with a main street named — what else — Main Street. There were few ways to know the dramatic impact the hockey team was having on the outside world with its preliminary-round romp before its supposedly impossible win over the Soviet Union. The best gauge was the flood of telegrams fans sent from all over the world. Someone thought to post them on a wall at the main arena, and the telegrams crept up the wall to cover it like ivy.
The media center was set up at Lake Placid High School. Newsday, then my employer, was assigned an office in the high school science room. For all I knew it was standard practice for an Olympic office to be equipped with Bunsen burners and sinks. The news conferences, studiously shunned by U.S. hockey coach Herb Brooks, were held in the high school auditorium. On the speedskating track in front of the school, Eric Heiden sprinted and churned his way to five gold medals. In the longer races, some competitors would straggle to the finish line well after Heiden had won and departed.
