Top 10 Most Amazing Come From Behind Wins at The Olympics

How many lives does an Olympic skier have? Austrian alpine racer Hermann Maier was full on tiger-blood-winning the sport when he suffered a cranial crash during a race in the 1998 Winter Olympics. He shook that off and managed to win gold in the giant slalom and super-G disciplines just days later. In 2001, Maier endured a devastating motorcycle crash, resulting in massive reconstruction surgery and the projected end of his career. While he did sit out the 2002 Salt Lake City games, he would return to Olympic competition at the 2006 Turin games. Although he didn’t return to gold form, he did medal in both the super-G and giant slalom, earning silver and bronze respectively.

Prior to the 2018 Pyeongchang games, Czech snowboarder and skier Ester Ledecká had never finished in the top three in an alpine competition. When she followed defending Olympic gold medalist Anna Veith in the super-G, nobody (least of all Ledecká) expected that she’d win. Despite two significant errors during her run, the underdog finished a mere one hundredth of a second faster than Veith, and her reaction says it all. Ledecká became the first woman to win gold in two disciplines in the same Winter Olympics, and she did so on skis borrowed from a fellow racer. The win was so unexpected that when asked why she had her goggles on during her press conference, she said, “[...]I don’t have makeup.”

In the 1996 match for men’s soccer gold, South American superpower Argentina held a commanding 2-1 lead over underdog Nigeria. The African nation had overcome underfunding and political unrest to make it this far, and they’d already surprised the world by beating gold-favorite Brazil in the semifinals. With just seventeen minutes left, and Argentina ahead after a controversial penalty call, an electrifying shot by Daniel “the Bull” Amokachi tied the match. As the final two minutes ran off the clock, Nigeria’s go-ahead goal stood as the final point, and the Super Eagles stood victorious over two of the world’s greatest football teams. The unexpected win boldly declared that the African athletes would not go quietly into the night.

#7: Japan Defeats the USA in Softball

Also in:

Is Japan The Next Space Superpower? | Unveiled

Softball’s appearance in the Summer Olympics has been brief, featured only a handful of times since its debut in 1996. Team USA owned the gold for the first three Olympic tournaments. In 2008, they were sailing with seven wins and a combined 53 runs and seemed utterly invincible. For Japan and for the gold, starting pitcher Yukiko Ueno took the mound against Cat Osterman and Monica Abbott. Ueno gave up only one run, while the Japanese offense took three from Osterman and Abbott, the latter of whom was fresh off five perfect innings. Ueno had achieved a perfect nine of her own in 2004, but her 413 pitches in Beijing ended the US winning streak and made softball look like the great Japanese pastime.

Now here’s a woman who took the immortal words of Chumbawamba a bit too literally. Kerri Strug, a member of the ‘96 U.S. gymnastics team, was the last member to go in the vault competition against Russia. While the other women had struggled, Strug seemed to hammer in the final nail when she fell and injured her ankle. Determined still to clinch the gold, Strug limped to the runway for her second attempt. Incredibly, she landed on both feet, standing for only an instant before collapsing in pain. That instant was enough, as her score secured the US victory. Her coach would carry her to the podium in a historic and inspiring image worthy of a Disney movie…and one solidified in Olympic history.

Considered one of the greatest divers in history, Greg Louganis was already a gold medal champion before the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In the three-meter preliminary rounds, Louganis’s head collided with the springboard and suffered a concussion. Just minutes after stitches, the diver was on his feet and dove again, completing the preliminaries in third place. He would go on to ultimately earn the gold by a margin of twenty-five points. Louganis later revealed that he had been diagnosed HIV positive just six months earlier. It seems like nothing would keep the great titlist from doing what he loved. He has since become a prominent advocate for LGBTQ rights and HIV awareness, continuing to inspire the world with his story.

Most of us with gallstones wouldn’t be able to move let alone compete in several long distance races. This wasn’t a problem for runner Kipchoge Keino who, at the 1968 Olympics, competed in two races before the 1500m event. Arriving minutes before the start thanks to getting stuck in traffic, he ended up having to run to the stadium to make it on time. He was able to win gold over heavily favored runner Jim Ryun by 20 meters, the widest margin of victory for the event. He had already been disqualified from the 10,000m race for leaving the track after collapsing in pain with just two laps to go and won silver in the 5,000m race.

When truth becomes as dramatic as fiction, we get stories like Nancy Kerrigan. Prior to the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, Kerrigan became a household name when she was attacked and injured after practice. The assault was later discovered to have been orchestrated by the ex-husband of rival skater Tonya Harding. Despite withdrawing from the U.S. Championships, Kerrigan was named to the Olympic team at the insistence of rival skaters, and the world watched Nancy and Tonya square off. Harding broke down and placed eighth, while Kerrigan rose to deliver the skating performance of her lifetime. Though she controversially only took silver, Nancy Kerrigan’s remarkable ascension over injury and scandal would be remembered long after and dramatized in films like 2017’s “I, Tonya.”

Steven Bradbury’s out-of-nowhere victories seemed bafflingly magical from start to finish. Astonishingly mismatched at the 2002 Salt Lake City games, Bradbury only made the short track skating semifinals after the disqualification of defending champ Marc Gagnon. Fast-forward to the finals, and the Australian trailed all front-runners significantly up until the race’s final seconds. Suddenly, a four-way collision caused all of the other skaters to flounder and allowed a visibly stunned Bradbury to coast across the finish line. Bradbury had previously passed the semi-finals, also because other competitors had crashed. It seemed like destiny, and perhaps a bit of sneaky strategy, propelled this Aussie to claiming the gold. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. The Soviets’ Final Seconds A Controversial Clock Reset Changes the Outcome Britain Gets Gold in Athens Americans Fumble Batons & Underdog Brits Invade the Finish Line “The Flying Housewife” Fanny Blankers-Koen, Mother of Two, Astonishes With Four Gold Medals Simen Hegstad Krüger Gets Back Up Krüger Recovers From First-Lap Fall to Win Gold Charlotte Kalla On the Final Turn, Kalla Swerves to First from Third Charlotte Kalla https://youtu.be/HhJjYh6XvaA

“Do you believe in miracles?” Those everlasting words of commentator Al Michaels still echo to this day. It was 1980, and the Eagle and the Bear were pitted against each other in the rink. The Soviet four-time gold defenders seemed titanic, stacked with professional athletes astoundingly more seasoned than the American amateurs. But coach Herb Brooks had recruited not the best players, but the right ones. The Americans matched their adversary in physical prowess and team synchronization for three intense periods, until the buzzer rang in an unheard of 4-3 U.S. victory. The upset is widely considered the greatest hockey story of the century and a message for all underdogs to never give up.