Even the US Hockey Team victory over the Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics was not broadcast live. I found out the result before they aired it.
Yeah, I remember the “Miracle On Ice” because the studio hosts with the live shots of the Olympic Village were trying, failingly, to not report the outcome while Lake Placid was going bonkers over having beaten the Russians.
Frank Gifford used to tell the story of the ‘76 Winter Games when he had wrapped up the men’s downhill skiing coverage since the first 10-15 guys down the hill almost always win the medals due to deteriorating track conditions when a veteran Austrian skiier named Franz Klammer came from nowhere back in the pack to post the gold-medal winning time with his countrymen cheering madly in the background.
“You’ve got to retape the segment, Frank,” ABC producers told him. “But how can I?, he answered. “The race is already over.” “No problem, we have his run on videotape. You just have to act like it’s live.” “Well, there’s no way it can sound as good...”
Frank fought with the producers but, in the end, he had to sit in a studio and yell at a videotape as if it was happening live and he didn’t know the outcome when he fully knew the outcome.
Thus he had crossed the line from “reporter” to “presenter”.