“On a similar note, do you think the women’s hockey team winning the gold medal will garner equal coverage as the men’s did in 1980?”
It can’t.
The 1980 Lake Placid Olympics came at the depths of the Carter Despair when absolutely everything was going wrong for the United States.
Gas lines, inflation, Watergate, the collapse of Vietnam, Soviet Adventurism unopposed all over the globe and Iran hostages.
And then suddenly out of nowhere a bunch of college kids beat the invincible Soviet Union hockey team.
Even the Soviet players stood in shocked admiration, you can see it in the film clips. Winning the Gold two days later by beating Finland was almost an anticlimax.
I’ve always had the sneaking feeling that this played a role in Reagan winning the Presidency eight months later.
Yes, 1980 Lake Placid was a magic moment for America and Americans, as was the 1980 Presidential election!