The Olympics, at their best, produce moments that carry meaning beyond sport. Here are some that did.
Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Adolf Hitler had intended the Berlin Games to showcase Aryan supremacy. Jesse Owens, a Black American from Alabama, won four gold medals and broke three world records. It was one of the most powerful repudiations of racist ideology in sporting history.
Nadia Comaneci: the first perfect 10
At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci of Romania performed a flawless uneven bars routine. The scoreboard was not programmed to show 10.00 — it displayed 1.00. The audience knew immediately. She received seven perfect tens across the Games. The scoring system in gymnastics was subsequently rewritten.
The Miracle on Ice, 1980
At the height of the Cold War, the US amateur ice hockey team defeated the heavily favoured Soviet Union in the Lake Placid semifinal. The Soviets had won every Olympic gold since 1964. Sports Illustrated called it the greatest sports moment of the 20th century.
Michael Phelps: 23 gold medals
By the time he retired after the 2016 Rio Games, Michael Phelps had won 23 Olympic gold medals and 28 medals in total — more than many entire nations. His dominance across four Olympic cycles is unlikely to be repeated.
