Top 5 Upsets in Olympic History | Top Moments

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The incredible win of Steven Bradbury, Puerto Rico's basketball offering the first defeat for Team USA since 1992, Rulon Gardner defeating an Olympic Wrestling legend, the Japanese Softball team beating the all-time favourites USA and a team of USA amateurs performing a "miracle" against the standing champions USSR, which is your most memorable upset in the Olympic Games?
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[@psychodelicjoey6710]

Billy Mills winning the 10,000 meters in the 1964 Olympics at least deserves a spot on this list, if not #1. No one had ever heard of him, he was 2nd in the U.S. trials after losing to a high schooler(Lindgren) and the only people who believed in him was himself and his wife. He had never won a 10,000m race before winning Gold and he dropped more than a minute off his previous best to win Gold.

[@jgrab6]

STEVEN BRADBURY

[@vogelmeister6809]

icon

[@ZhangtheGreat]

I would love to see a list of athletes who finally won gold after multiple tries. Two names come to mind: Dan Jansen in 1994 (speed skating) and Hicham El Guerrouj in 2004 (middle distance running).

[@keithsmith4780]

The USSR - US hockey game in Lake Placid was the next-to-last game, but it wasn't a "semi-final." They didn't use direct elimination; the teams in the final round all played one another in a round robin. I believe that before the last game against Finland it was still mathematically possible for the U.S. to be shut out of the medals entirely.

[@MarkSmithhhh]

Yes it was

[@TheCleaner76]

A lot of people think it was the gold medal match when the beat USSR but it was part of the round Robin. 👍🏻

[@RoyalMela]

Even after USA beat Soviet Union, it was still possible that USA would not even get a medal.

[@MikeSmith74653]

Have always been and will always be, the Miracle on Ice!!!

[@rahulkadian3469]

Ah yes. Like World series of baseball

[@XxxX-wx3er]

Steven Bradbury was the other Miracle On Ice

[@1002l]

bradbury only 5th, what were you guys drinking???

[@craZ4cheese]

If America owns Puerto Rico, then wouldn't that match just be the US beating the US

[@adamd0ggg2]

Owning Puerto Rico sounds a bit harsh and hopefully they will become a state in time. They are a territory. But yeah they are US citizens. Why they even get an Olympic team is purely because they asked to be one and the Olympics officials kinda shrugged at each other and said "sure".

[@davewalker9899]

No different to Bermuda and the Cayman Islands with the U.K.

[@CSLucasEpic]

@@adamd0ggg2 Which begs the question: IF they become a state (which I believe will never happen for several reasons), will they stop having an Olympic team or keep it? If they keep it, then what is stopping other states like Texas, California, Hawaii or Alaska from asking to have an Olympic team themselves?

[@MarkSmithhhh]

@@adamd0ggg2 why aren't they a state

[@YoungVDL]

@@CSLucasEpic as a Puerto Rican myself, the answer of that ? would be yes, we would have to stop having representation on the olympics

[@Liamflynnphoto]

We all already knew what number 1 would be

[@rickbruner5525]

Billy Mills winning the 10,000 meters in Tokyo 1964

[@helpu2health]

Alexander karelin was 887 wins and 1 loss his entire wrestling career....Rulon Gardner made him 887-2.....just sayin'

[@gradyhamilton2026]

RULON GARDNER SHOULD BE NUMBER 1!!!!!

[@ethanhatcher5533]

Do you believe in miracles? YES!

[@CSLucasEpic]

So, Puerto Rico beating the Dream Team is an upset, but Lithuania and Argentina beating them is not?

[@sylvcast9948]

Great britain 4*100 relay in Athen? Blankers-Koen who "was too old"? Emil Zatopek Marathon?

[@canada5532]

i may be Canadian but i thought Puerto Rico was American

[@RickeGnool]

Swedens loss to Belarus in hockey at the 2002 Olympics.

[@alexandredaigle8479]

That was arguably a more impressive upset than the miracle on ice, so it should’ve at least been in the top 5

[@codeword632]

@@alexandredaigle8479 no miracle on ice was a bunch of ametrurs beating pros

[@MarkSmithhhh]

@@alexandredaigle8479 no way man, the us had 0 pros, average age of 22, against a team of NHL level players...not even close...

[@RoyalMela]

This was Miracle in Ice part II. Belarus had only one NHL player, Ruslan Salei, who was not even a big name. Reliable journeyman. Belarus had players even from Swedish first division and now debunked EEHL. Sweden had only three players outside NHL and those who were from Swedish league, went to play in NHL the following season. Two 40 goal scorers fro NHL that season, seven players with 50+ points in NHL, two players receiving votes for NHL MVP and finishing 2nd and 4th in scoring that season, three players finished in top 12 for goal scoring, Norris Trophy winning defenseman...

[@briansergeant]

You can add snowboarder Ester Ledecka borrowing Mikela Shiffrin's skis and winning Alpine Skiing Super-G in Pyeongchang 2018 to that list now!

[@heppolo]

the borrowed skis is a clickbait-y news article, in fact this specific type of skis were tested by Shiffrin first and she gave advice to Ledecka to try them.

[@Suchac_cz]

In 1998, I was sorry for the upset Wayne Gretzky, after Canada lost the semis with us. But only for a little while :))

[@pankajk.r2448]

Who is here after India defeated Australia in Quarterfinals of Women's Hockey of Tokyo Olympics

[@yg9912]

What about the 2008 men’s 4x100 freestyle relay?

[@Liamflynnphoto]

What are you talking about? The US didn’t lose in 2004. Their B team simply won that game

[@piccadilyroad66]

These is not about upset, but happy ending stories!

[@최창락-d3e]

소프트볼도 왼손잡이 있네

[@Kpucmu1239]

How about McKayla Marooney - Vault 2012

[@danpaul2989]

The 2004 USA basketball team was hardly a "dream team". USA basketball got cocky, and got embarrassed.

[@Anonymous_30]

Why is it an upset if one team loses the other team wins

[@thefozzybear]

Germany almost beat OAR for the Gold medal in men's hockey but blew it.

[@HH3222]

You mean Russia?

[@roxy5588]

In 2018 Russia was banned from The Pyeongcheng Winter Games because of the doping scandal. They banned 15 athletes and the rest were tested and they were completely drug free and were allowed to compete but not under their own flag.

[@panzerp1167]

So what? It doesn't change the fact that Russian team was there and got the gold.

[@alexandredaigle8479]

Except you don’t have to call them Russia because oar is literally short for Olympic athletes from Russia anyway

[@fredact]

That PR basketball win wasn't even the biggest basketball upset. USSR in 1972.

[@YoungVDL]

Actually no because at that time the US didn't had NBA players, while in 2004 they had the dream team

[@fredact]

@@YoungVDL It was a tremendous upset. Albeit a tainted one, as the Russians cheated at the end.

[@devisinghyadav5471]

super

[@MrLeiduowen]

What about the Czech ice-hockey team beating them all in Nagano 1998? And that included los yanquís in quarterfinals, if that's the criterion for your list.

[@skaftonmd8916]

Fair point about the Czechs in 1998, but, while the weren't favored, they still had an amazing team with future Hall of Fame NHL players. They also knew their NHL opponents very well and both the USA and Canada played terribly in the knock-out stages. So while it was an upset, it's not to the same level as those on this list.

[@davewalker9899]

America has an unfair advantage in many of the sports because they’re the only countries that take softball, basketball and hockey seriously apart from maybe Russia and Canada with hockey

[@MrLul]

Haha, now theres another one called 'germany vs canada-semi finals in ice-hockey'

[@RoyalMela]

You mean the games where pros were not taking part and Team Canada was filled with minor league players from Europe? Yeah, does not count. Canada had 450 players in NHL and another 300+ in AHL and could not participate. Germany had all their best players with only 4-5 playing in NHL.

[@gabrieldodds9081]

#1 should be Lindsay Jacobellis losing at the 2006 olympics

[@jessran70]

No Argentina beating the US in Basketball? Come on now.

[@yonatansina2093]

No me jodas es en serio? Ponen el de puerto Rico pero cuando Argentina eliminó a estados Unidos no lo ponen? Pésimo vídeo, dislike! Argentina es la verdadera sorpresa, eliminamos al dream team y ganamos el oro!

[@lonewolfx499]

Early

[@احمدالورفلي-س3ذ]

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[@jamessygrove7079]

1st

[@daveo2882]

Bradbury all the way....fkn awesome still in 2019.

[@ohioskibidifanumrizzler]

How can u say Bradbury's win was 5th it is hot as in Australia so he cant train in the cold all the time but Americans have cold places everywhere

[@paulfri1569]

STEVEN Bradbury the best gold medal 🏅

[@Tblay35]

You guys are wrong on the last one. The Miracle on Ice wasn't a semi-final game. It was a medal round game. The medal round consisted of the top 2 teams from the first round groups playing against each other (USSR, USA, Finland and Sweden). At the end of the 3 games, USA won the Gold because they finished the round with the most points out of the 4 teams (1 point for tie vs Sweden, 2 for win vs USSR and 2 for win vs Finland.). They won the Gold with 5 points; USSR took the Silver with 4 points.

[@skaftonmd8916]

True enough, but to be fair, The Miracle on Ice was a semi-final for whoever would've won that game (which happened to be the United States) because their final game would be for gold.

[@Siniset]

Not true. Had USA lost their final game (which was against Finland), Soviets would have won gold even after losing that game against USA. The order would have been USSR 4, Finland 3, USA 3 (Finland getting silver because of head-to-head), Sweden 2.

[@KauaiGtan]

Russia won Silver because they won after they lost to USA. Had they lost two in a row, no silver bronze - done

[@mothmadi_]

youre seriously telling the olympic youtube channel theyre wrong

[@RoyalMela]

@@skaftonmd8916 Nope. There was a chance for Sweden and Finland to win the gold too.

[@Pwn3dbyth3n00b]

4. America's plan to beat America at olympic basketball is with America

[@masonpyle5929]

I wasn’t even born but the miracle on ice will be the greatest upset of all time.

[@danielbarna3609]

They made a movie out of the last one. Unsurprisingly, the movie got named “Miracle”

[@realser9]

Super 🙌💖😚

[@mst3kanita]

Sarah Hughes!

[@roxy5588]

Where’s the USSR beating the Americans in the Basketball at the 1972 Munich Olympics? 🏀

[@MsJchaparro]

Caitlin Frawley Hello. No NBA players in those days.

[@TheCleaner76]

If you know all the details of that game the USA was robbed by 3 terrible decisions

[@May-ve6sr]

Well, it took the British timekeeper and the refs giving them three chances before they made their last basket so sure. Just the Olympics being Olympics.

[@rahulkadian3469]

You know there is a world outside of the US teams?

[@May-ve6sr]

Ok, instead of just say that. It would have been better to give some examples.

[@nahuelrobles5405]

Puerto Rico winning to the USA. It was better if they put Argentina winning to Serbia and Montenegro and the USA in Athenas 2004 and then winning the gold medal principally winning to the USA because it was in semifinals

[@closed11609]

Not a miracle... The miracle.

[@vincentcuendet3880]

😂

[@maxarosev89]

So inaccurate. In 2004 top US players withdrawn for various reasons and young guys like LeBron (who went to become a superstar later) were invited. Then 1980. You mentioned that US hockey team was made up of amateurs but you failed to acknowledge that it was IOC's fault that Soviet shamateurs (full-time players who were listed as soldiers) were allowed to play.

[@franckmory6551]

Johnny Diego

[@Outcastskins]

lol chill

[@tylerstevens1904]

Canada didn't send a team in 1972 and 1976 for this very reason.

[@mike04574]

Max Arosev so? It was still a great team

[@heppolo]

LeBronze

[@sylv2904]

Miracle on Ice will forever be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.

[@thesmilingtitan]

Watching USA lose is so satisfying