The very different popular reactions to the USA's hockey medals at Sapporo (silver in 1972) and Lake Placid (gold in 1980) reveal a shift in popular American attitudes during he 1970s, away from ...support for détente with the USSR towards open confrontation with the USA's chief Cold War rival. These changed attitudes had significant political impact as they helped elect Ronald Reagan president and set the USA and USSR on course for a 'Second Cold War' in the 1980s.
During the practice sessions for the 1932 Olympic bobsled events, Lake Placid’s Mt. Van Hoevenberg slide endured multiple crashes involving over a dozen athletes. An analysis of the slide from ...inception to construction to competition as well as the resulting management of the accidents produces significant historical insight into the administration of the winter Olympic games. Using David Welky’s paradigm suggesting that the analyses of ordinary Olympic happenings can be used to probe larger issues, this analysis uses the “seemingly mundane” happenings of facility construction and competition to provide historical insight into an attempt to use the Olympics as a promotional springboard to a host city’s future commercial success. As the first sliding facility built in North America dedicated to both an Olympic games and for future commercial programming, this analysis also provides significant historical insight into modern Olympic issues including the fiduciary conundrum of building Olympic facilities with potentially limited post-Olympic commercial possibilities, the sometimes contentious nature of a host city’s environmental stewardship and the final location of those facilities as it pertains to the facilities’ future commercial success, and the nationalistic-laden gamesmanship that often plays out on these facilities during the administration of practice sessions and Olympic competition that can result in decision-making that potentially jeopardizes the safety of the athlete.
