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The United States is no stranger to taking home gold medals in the Olympics. It’s certainly not easy, but time and time again, United States sports teams and athletes have come out of the prestigious four-year tournament victorious.
From dramatic victories to deserved domination, there are countless Olympic events where the United States won gold. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look back at some of those golden highlights!
The greatest American swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps, and his record-setting performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games will forever be remembered. A sitting record of 7 Gold Medals attained by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Munich Olympics would be outshined by Phelps 36 years later.
In terms of most victorious USA performances, this one may be the most dominant (by one athlete), as Phelps easily acquired 8 total Gold medals for the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay. This feat would also give Phelps the record for achieving the most gold medals in one Olympic Games.
When you hear of the “Dream Team” in sports, it refers to the 1992 terrorizing all-star United States Men’s basketball team. During the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games, the United States, composed of Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and even more fierce talent would go on a rampant trip to the finals, and win the entire thing 8-0 to take gold against Croatia.
To make things hurt even more, the US reached over 100+ points in every game without allowing their opponents to do so, making it one of the most memorable USA team performances to date.
With Nazi Germany on the rise and WWII on the horizon, African-American Jesse Owens shattered Adolf Hitler’s perception of an “inferior race” during track and field at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. What made this Olympics so special for the US was that this was a time when Hitler’s main goal was to show the unmatched “superiority” of German athletes, particularly white-skinned ones resembling an Aryan race.
Owens crumbled this evil perception, showing skin color does not to how well you perform. Dedication and hard work do, and Owen would go on to claim gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump.
A spitting image of Jesse Owens, this time with a less political purpose known as Carl Lewis, would make for another one of the most memorable moments in the 198 LA-based Summer Olympics. Just like his predecessor and sole inspiration, Lewis would manage to accomplish Owens’s exact goals, earning gold in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, and long jump, just as Owens did.
Seeing another human athlete achieve the same as Owens did 48 years ago was truly a spectacle to behold, and the fact that it was another American winning 4 gold medals in the US Olympics made it that much sweeter.
One of the most memorable Olympic moments of all time, The Miracle on Ice, makes for one of the greatest Cinderella sports stories of all time. By the 1980s, the Soviet Union’s Hockey team was nearly unbeatable, with season veterans playing in professional hockey leagues. The United States team, composed of mostly young amateurs, would go on to face the invincible Soviets in the Semifinals of the 1980 US-held Olympic Games and commit one of the most shocking upsets in any sport to date.
The US team held a 4-3 lead over their Soviet rivals in the dying seconds, leading to one of the most iconic ends to a game in history. From here on, the U.S. team would take gold in a 4-2 victory against Finland in the finals.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.