Olympic Panic Sets In

We Americans are afraid of losing. Stiffled by our fear, we refuse to admit defeat, clinging to the belief that America can't lose, no matter what the situation.

We can't lose an economic war with Japan. We can't lose a real war in Vietnam. We can't. We just can't. We're America.

Unlike life, sports marks a clear distinction between winning and losing. In sports, you don't have to consult economic figures or causualty lists. You just have to look up at the scoreboard.

This year, the Olympic hockey team--a team trying to live up to the gold medalist, "miracle" team of 1980 and trying to avenge the honor of the disappointing seventh-place unit of 1984--will finish no higher than seventh place.

Already, critics--and the Boston Globe's Kevin Paul Dupont comes to mind--are wondering what happened. Why, they ask, can't the USA do better than seventh place? Who, they ask, is to blame?

Is it Coach Dave Peterson, who emphasized a high-powered offense, and--say the critics--neglected to mind the defensive side of the game?

Is it general manager Art Berglund, who plotted out a 60-game, pre-Olympic tour for Team USA composed primarily of games versus college varsity squads?

In some cases, the college teams had not played a single regular-season game before facing the Olympians.

The Olympians, say the critics, might have gotten a better workout playing against members of the Ice Capades.

Or is it simply--as other critics have suggested--a lack of talent and maturity on the squad? What can a bunch of college-age kids hope to accomplish against two-dozen hardened Soviets, many of whom are in their middle 20's and have skated for years on Soviet select teams?

Facing the prospect of finishing seventh for the second time in a row, some people are calling for a wholesale re-evaluation of the Olympic hockey program. They're saying, we can't compete. They're saying, we have to win.

In Monday's Boston Globe, Dupont suggested that the "miracle" in Lake Placid would remain some kind of mystic beacon for succeeding U.S. Olympic Teams to fall short of. Dupont and others have hinted that it would be better if pros were brought in. Forget the upstart collegians. Bring in the guys who make a living playing hockey. Let them take on the Russians. Let them kick some...

Imagine, though, that the pros donned Olympic garb in 1980. Would the "miracle" have been as miraculous? Would it have been as much fun?

And would you deny the chance of a lifetime to some excellent college hockey players--like Harvard's Allen Bourbeau and Lane MacDonald--so that you could lease some pros for a couple of weeks, let them win the gold and then go back to their jobs?

This year, the USA did not win the gold medal. It didn't win any medal. But it did not disgrace itself.

The USA lost to both Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union by a pair of goals. Is this reason to hit the panic button?

What's wrong, after all, with losing once in a while?

Past Olympic Results Year  Site  Finish  Coach 1984  Sarajevo, Yugoslavia  Seventh  Lou Vairo 1980  Lake Placid, NY  First  Herb Brooks 1976  Innsbruck, Austria  Fourth  Bob Johnson 1972  Sapporo, Japan  Second  Murray Williamson 1968  Grenoble, France  Sixth  Murray Williamson 1964  Innsbruck, Austria  Fifth  Eddie Jeremiah 1960  Squaw Valley, CA  First  Jack Riley 1956  Cortina, Italy  Second  John Mariucci 1952  Oslo, Norway  Second  Connie Pleban 1948  St. Moritz, Switz  Fourth  John Garrison 1936  Garmish, Germany  Third  Albert Prettyman 1932  Lake Placid, NY  Second  Alfred Winsor 1928  Not Represented 1924  Chamonix, France  Second  William Haddock 1920  Antwerp, Belgium (Unofficial)  Second  Ray Schooley