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Crushing moments for every country in the Olympics history

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alko

alko

Registered User
Oct 20, 2004
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Slovakia
Every country has his sad moments in the Olympics. What is yours top 3?

My, for Slovakia -

1. 1998 - couldn't see all NHL stars because this stupid NHL schedule
2. 2002 - Who could imagine, same issue as 4 years ago.
3. 2010 - Bronze game lost after 3:1 lead in the 3. period.
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Nagano final.
The whole Nagano olympics was the first Big sports Event for me. A wonderful hockey tournament from Russia and Bure with an heartbreaking final against the Dominator
 
For Canada it is clearly the semi-final loss to Czech Republic in 1998. Losing in the first Olympic tournament with NHLers was bad, doing so after losing the 1996 World Cup made it worse, and losing in a shootout left many feeling like it wasn't even a conclusive result. I don't particularly care about any Olympic result for Canada prior to 1998 and the 2006 loss to Russia felt inevitable and deserved.
 
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2014: the "drunk" game. Austria beat Norway in the group 3-1 to play rival Slovenia in the first round of the playoffs. We had beaten them in the pre-tournament scrimmages. Michael Grabner was leading the tournaments in goals at the time.

The game was the next day, and that night the players went out for drinks to celebrate the win. How many went is still unclear. 6-8 is the general consensus. The specifics of the story may never be known, but some players were too out of form the next morning to skate.

Whether that really threw the game the next evening we will never know, probably not in my opinion, but that was a huge asterisk on what was otherwise a great Olympics (hanging 4 goals on Finland, beating Norway) and a big missed opportunity. I hope it will never happen again.
 
Finland:
2006: After dominating much of the tournament, it was a close game against arch-rivals Sweden in the final. Unlucky moment with Koivu's stick breaking, leading to a temporary 4-on-3 for Sweden and the deciding goal

1994: Finland was having a great tournament and after playing 20 periods, Finland had not lost a single one (16 wins, 4 draws). Also Finland had never trailed in the tournament. 3rd period against Canada proved to be the only exception, Canada won the period 3-1 (the game 5-3) and went to the final.

1976: Was before I was born but Finland lost the medal in three-way-tie with West Germany and USA. Finland had 9-8, West Germany 7-6 and USA 6-8. Under current rules it would have been Finland being the best but it was found that the deciding thing was goal ratio, therefore West Germany was better. Additionally there was one goal disallowed for kick, I think in the USA game which Finland lost by a single goal.
 
I remember in the 1984 Olympics, Bob Brooke scored to give a US a 3-2 lead on Finland with less then one minute remaining. Then Finland came right back on and tied the game seconds later. Nothing seemed to go right for this team then. US fans were hoping they could make a good showing in '84 to prove that 1980 was no fluke.

 
Germany - Canada in the 92 quaterfinals.
Germany lost on penalties, in the most heartbreaking way possible
 
The most crushing moment for me? Not even being sensational here, but it's definitely the moment that I found out the NHL isn't sending it's players to the Olympics this year. Yeah, that loss in 2010 was a stinger and all that. But I genuinely think the U.S. had it's best shot in a loooong time at winning. I'll always look back at this year and wonder what could have been. Our roster would have been every bit as good as Canada's.
 
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I only vaguely remember 1998, I was 10.
2002 was amazing.
2006 sucked, but it was all during the day and I was in school, though I remember skipping for a couple games.
2010 was amazing.
2014 was amazing.

Maybe the NHL denying participating in 2018, and preventing that from being amazing.
 
I'll give a non hockey moment. I was working in the USA (I'm Canadian) at the time when Ben Johnson was caught "doping." Folks came to me suggesting if I "felt shame" that a Canadian would cheat Anybody that had eyes knew the Mazda Track Club in Toronto was 'dirty". What's the big surprise? I tried to enter the discussion about all the other athletes that were dirty but were not caught or at least their countries had enough influence (money) not allowing their athletes to be caught cheating. Those conversations went nowhere.
Crushed? No I don't worry about millionaire athletes winning or losing, though I like the spectacle of sports.
This years Hockey Olympics, kinda meaningless isn't it?
 
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For me it is probably the 2002 QF loss vs Russia. That Czech team was stacked as hell and to lose the game 1-0 .. tough to swallow.
 
Obviously for the US - the 2010 Olympics was heart breaking. After one of the most epic goals ever scored by Parise which silenced a nation, the US came out and hit the post in OT which would have sealed the deal... that loss still to this day makes me cry.

the 1998 Olympics was simply a farce and the only reason why I do not put it at #1 was because Canada shit the bed as well as all of North America showed up with little or no care - it just changed future teams and how they were built from that day forward.

the 2002 Olympics - Salt Lake City - on home soil against Canada yet again for the Gold. We couldn't pull it out after we had to play against Russia to get to the Gold (despite being the best team in the tourney) and Canada had to play Belarus instead of Sweden...this is the reason I hate Sweden until this day for shitting the bed and letting Canada coast into the Gold medal game!!
 
AmericanDream said:
the 1998 Olympics was simply a farce and the only reason why I do not put it at #1 was because Canada **** the bed as well as all of North America showed up with little or no care - it just changed future teams and how they were built from that day forward.
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I would say that that description is fine for USA, but Canada cared in 1998, until the bronze game anyway. USA hindered itself, Canada just got beaten.
 
JackSlater said:
I would say that that description is fine for USA, but Canada cared in 1998, until the bronze game anyway. USA hindered itself, Canada just got beaten.
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both teams were loaded and should have done better. I have seen many of your fellow countrymen post on that team and all said they didn't show up either. they did better than the US who simply were embarrassing, but from the group that Canada brought they to me from what I saw never looked like they gave it their all...almost like they just expected to win based off of talent..you watched closer than I did for your guys, just saying what I saw..
 
AmericanDream said:
both teams were loaded and should have done better. I have seen many of your fellow countrymen post on that team and all said they didn't show up either. they did better than the US who simply were embarrassing, but from the group that Canada brought they to me from what I saw never looked like they gave it their all...almost like they just expected to win based off of talent..you watched closer than I did for your guys, just saying what I saw..
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I've never heard anyone in Canada claim that the 1998 team didn't care, outside of the bronze game. Seems like a cheap excuse if someone trots it out to excuse the semi-final loss. The usual claim is that Hasek stole the semi-final game plus it was a random shootout loss, which isn't exactly true either. Canada may have been tactically unprepared for the tournament but I don't see the need to question their effort. The American situation in 1998 is different from the Canadian situation in my eyes. Sometimes a team just loses because the other team beats it, as was the case for Canada in 1998.
 
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AmericanDream said:
both teams were loaded and should have done better. I have seen many of your fellow countrymen post on that team and all said they didn't show up either. they did better than the US who simply were embarrassing, but from the group that Canada brought they to me from what I saw never looked like they gave it their all...almost like they just expected to win based off of talent..you watched closer than I did for your guys, just saying what I saw..
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You could make the case for Canada not giving its all in the bronze medal game, but up until they hit the best player in the world at the time (Hasek) having the game of his life, you can't say that they weren't trying.
 
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