History Awesome / OlympicGames

* One of the '''greatest ever''', if not the ''greatest'', ice skating moments would have to go to Torvill and Dean from Great Britain. They have been the ''only'' team to ever get full sixes across the board for artistic merit. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98 Well deserved]]. Their dancing interpretation of Music/MauriceRavel's "Bolero" is legendary. (They also were among those to set a precedent for "dying" in their routine, which is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-0B72qzkeQ no longer allowed]].)

* The opening ceremonies generally qualify, while the closing ceremonies are [[DancePartyEnding much more chaotic and informal]], but the 2008 Beijing Games' opening ceremony deserve a special mention, as do the 2012 London Games' opening ceremony, which features Film/JamesBond, [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen The Queen]], Series/MrBean, Film/MaryPoppins, [[Franchise/HarryPotter Voldemort]], and the Industrial Revolution, among others.

* Special points to one scene in the 2012 opening ceremony, where Film/JamesBond and [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen the Queen]] ''parachute out of a helicopter into the Olympic Park''. All right, they were stunt doubles there, but still... but in the video presentation up to that point ''that was actually the Queen herself'' (and one can't help but wonder if she would have [[ActionGirl jumped out of the helicopter]] as well if given the option). So much awesome in just five minutes of an awesome-packed ceremony.

-->"But look who gets it next." \\
"The Greatest!" \\
"Ohhhh my!"

"The Greatest!"\\

-->"But look who gets it next. The Greatest! Ohhhh my!"

* Spanish [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Mar%C3%ADn Carolina Marín]] became the first non-Asiatic woman to win the gold medal in badminton. After losing the first set.

* The US women's gymnastics team holding on to win silver despite losing Simone Biles after the first rotation. Most of the media coverage focused around them [[SecondPlaceIsForLosers not getting the gold]], but the trio of Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, and Grace [=McCallum=] (all first-time Olympians and Chiles had never even been to a World Championships) deserves major props for what they managed to do: they went into the second rotation without their top performer and with a low score on vault (from the vault Biles performed before withdrawing) that they had to absorb, and still managed to secure a top-two finish. Credit especially goes to Chiles and Lee, who had to add routines on events they hadn't expected to be doing in the final (bars and beam for Chiles, floor for Lee), and Chiles in particular had struggled on those events in qualification, but both hit their last-minute routines in the team final to keep the team in the podium race. Most teams would probably not fare nearly as well under that set of circumstances.

* 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci from Romania gets the first perfect 10 in gymnastics. So awesome that ''it could not be properly registered in the scoreboard''. The scoreboard wasn't designed to handle double-digit numbers, only single digits with decimal points. They hadn't bothered to add a tens place, as it never occurred to anyone that it might actually happen. As it turned out, it happened not just once, but ''seven times''. By the ''same athlete''. That's right--out of the eight routines Comăneci performed in that Olympics, ''seven'' were perfect 10s. She didn't [[BrokeTheRatingScale Break the Rating Scale]]--she left it curled in the fetal position crying for its mother, then cackled and ground it into the dust.

* The Czech National Ice Hockey Team wins the gold medal. In 1998, the NHL allowed to have a break for the Nagano Games for the first time. The national ice-hockey teams could send their very best players and build all-star ideal teams, and Canada and the U.S. were nearly 100% sure that they would be playing the final. However, the U.S. lost to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals--with the Czechs four unanswered goals after being down 1-0 after the first period--and Canada was subsequently beaten by the Czechs in the semi-finals in a nerve-biting shootout. The Czech national team won the whole thing. The Czech national ice hockey team is usually solid and there are always some great players with lots of ice hockey heart, but Nagano took it UpToEleven. Needless to say, everybody in the Czech Republic was watching, every major square in Prague was full of people, and everybody was participating, or at least watching, their welcoming ceremony. It created several [[MemeticMutation memes]] and started a new golden era of Czech ice hockey. It is fondly remembered as one of the most awesome moments of Czech sport ever.

** The opening ceremony marked the first time ''ever'' that all five of the Native American nations indigenous to Utah[[note]]Ute, Goshute, Shoshone, Paiute, Navajo[[/note]] had gathered together in one place at the same time. The leaders [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uUvY8GhVAY conducted a ceremony]] bestowing gifts to the athletes, and imparting their blessing upon the games, ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOnZVR4nufE part 2 here]]) followed by hundreds of native men, women and children dancing to traditional drum circles, and Mohawk rocker Robbie Robertson performing live with the Cherokee women's group Walela.

* Speaking of gymnastics, Carly Patterson's gold medal win in the women's all-around--the first since Mary Lou Retton twenty years earlier, and the first for an American at a fully attended Olympics[[note]]Retton won her gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which was boycotted by two of the three strongest gymnastics powers at the time -- the Soviet Union and East Germany -- as well as other strong Eastern Bloc programs in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. It is generally understood that, had their athletes been present, she couldn't have won[[/note]]. Patterson began what is currently a five-peat all-around women's gold streak for the Americans, followed by Nastia Liukin in the 2008 Beijing Games, Gabby Douglas in the 2012 London Games, Simone Biles in the 2016 Rio Games, and Sunisa Lee in the 2020 Tokyo Games. Even better, another American--Paul Hamm--won the gold medal in the ''men's'' all-around that same year.

* Daniela Silivas of Romania's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDDOI3r3RQQ compulsory floor exercise]], cited as the best compulsory floor routine ever done in Olympic gymnastics. Her artistry, flair, and flawless technique turned it into an absolute masterpiece.

* Daniela Silivas' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDDOI3r3RQQ compulsory floor exercise]], cited as the best compulsory floor routine ever done in Olympic gymnastics. Her artistry, flair, and flawless technique turned it into an absolute masterpiece.

* Epke Zonderland won the first men's gymnastics medal for the Netherlands with an '''epic''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0TM2sOnvyI high bar routine]][[note]]The moment starts at around 18:45[[/note]] that got him gold by a wide margin and led many viewers to dub him the "Flying Dutchman". Plus his name is [[AwesomeMcCoolName Epke Zonderland]].

* Speaking of gymnastics, Carly Patterson's gold medal win in the women's all-around--the first since Mary Lou Retton twenty years earlier, and the first for an American at a fully attended Olympics[[note]]Retton won her gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which was boycotted by two of the three strongest gymnastics powers at the time -- the Soviet Union and East Germany. It is generally understood that, had their teams been present, she couldn't have won[[/note]]. Patterson began what is currently a five-peat all-around women's gold streak for the Americans, followed by Nastia Liukin in the 2008 Beijing Games, Gabby Douglas in the 2012 London Games, Simone Biles in the 2016 Rio Games, and Sunisa Lee in the 2020 Tokyo Games. Even better, another American--Paul Hamm--won the gold medal in the ''men's'' all-around that same year.

* Tommie Smith and John Carlos' iconic Black Power salute while receiving their gold and bronze medals in the 200m dash. Nicely followed by the WhatAnIdiot moment for IOC president Avery Brundage, who denounced it for bringing a political issue into the games...and was then reminded that ''he'' [[{{Hypocrite}} made no such objection to the German athletes making Nazi salutes]] in the 1936 Berlin Games.

* Great Britain winning their first Olympic team medal in women's gymnastics since 1928 (when the sport was so different as to be virtually unrecognizable). In case anyone had been wondering whether their individual medals from the 2012 and 2016 Games were flukes, it's now become clear that GB is here to stay as a contender in the sport.[[note]]The victory was extra sweet because much controversy had erupted around British Gymnastics' decision to leave Becky Downie, a Rio Olympian with an incredible bars set who didn't have a complete all-around program, off the team in favour of four all-around gymnasts -- the argument being "the team has no chance at a medal anyway, so bring Becky, who at least has a medal-worthy bars set". Alice Kinsella, Amelie Morgan, and Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova vindicated themselves and then some by keeping cool heads in a final where more or less every other team fell apart in some way, and came back from a seventh-place standing after the first rotation to take the bronze over, most notably, Italy, France, and ''China''.[[/note]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Chusovitina Oksana Chusovitina]][[note]]Who first competed for the Soviet Union, later for her native Uzbekistan, and then for Germany after she and her husband got help there to save their IllBoy son's life[[/note]] was made of this in Beijing. Not only is she one of the very few gymnasts to return to competition after having kids[[note]]And several girls who compete today consider her an example for that[[/note]], but she won the silver medal for vault ''at the age of 34'', and four years later in the 2012 London Games she did pretty well there too. She has gone to ''six'' Olympics. Most female gymnasts hardly dare to dream of going to ''one''.

** Another meta one for London 2012. After criticism from the right-wing media and rentaquotes[[note]]Led loudly and unsurprisingly by the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]]''[[/note]] saying it was too multicultural -- there were "too many black people"[[note]]Black and brown people have existed in Britain from the beginning, ''literally'' -- there was a [[https://gizmodo.com/turns-out-the-first-people-in-england-were-actually-bla-1822796426 non-white race native to the British Isles 10,000 years ago]] -- then many arrived with the Romans, not just as slaves but as soldiers and even as [[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/evidence-of-upper-class-africans-living-in-roman-york-1914553.html wealthy high class types.]][[/note]], and that it was wrong to praise hardworking doctors and nurses because the NHS = socialism, a backlash ensued, forcing a particularly controversial tabloid paper[[note]]Again, the ''Daily Mail''[[/note]] to edit the article, then eventually pull the article after several people chose to screenshot the article and point out what they'd originally said.

* Great Britain's Women's curling team not only won the nation's first gold medal in the sport since 1924 (though it should be noted that Curling wasn’t an Olympic sport from 1936-1998), they also won it with their ''last'' stone.

* On a similar note, British skip Eve Muirhead finally wins Gold in the Women’s curling at her fourth attempt, adding to the bronze she won with a different rink in 2014. It was also Britain’s first Gold in the sport since 2002. Britain’s men also reached their final, but lost to the aforementioned Swedes, and it was the first time both British teams had made the finals at the same Olympics.

* Finland ''finally'' winning men's ice hockey gold after 70 years of Olympic participation in the sport. Of the Big Six hockey countries[[labelnote:*]]which also includes Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic -- Slovakia is sometimes included to make the Big Seven[[/labelnote]], they were the only team to have never finished atop the standings (with silvers in 1988 and 2006 being their best placements) leading up to this year's tournament. An undefeated record, capped off with a monumental 2-1 win over the Russian Olympic Committee in the gold medal game, propelled the 2022 Finnish men's team to history.

* Finland ''finally'' winning men's ice hockey gold after 70 years of Olympic participation in the sport. Of the Big Six hockey countries[[labelnote:*]]which also includes Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, and the Czech Republic -- Slovakia is sometimes included to make the Big Seven[[/labelnote]], they were the only team to have never finished atop the standings (with silvers in 1988 and 2006 being their best placements) leading up to this year's tournament. An undefeated record, capped off with a monumental 2-1 win over the Russian Olympic Committee in the gold medal game, propelled the Finns to history.