With that in mind, I have decided to do a countdown of what I feel are the 25 Greatest American Moments in Summer Olympic History.
Notice the bold and italic on American as there will be this article while not feature great performances and moments from other countries, such as Jamaica’s Usain Bolt’s three world records in 2008 and Romania’s Nadia Comaneci's seven perfect 10s in gymnastics in 1976.
Plus, these are moments that occurred in the Summer Olympics, so the 1980 “Miracle On Ice” is not included.
Also not included are political moments, such as the Black Power Salute by Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics.
And no off-the-field moments like Muhammad Ali’s lighting of the torch in Atlanta in 1996.
These are the 25 best moments that occurred in Olympic competition done by American athletes.
With all that out of the way, let the countdown begin:
25. 2008-Redeem Team(Basketball)
After losing three games in the ‘04 Games in Athens and having to settle for the bronze medal, the US Basketball team restored their place as the best country in the world when it comes to basketball as they won the gold medal as they average margin of victory was about 28 points per game.
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| The "Redeem Team" surround head coach Mike Kryzyzewski after winning the gold medal in 2008. |
24. 2000-Laura Wilkinson(Diving)
Despite three broken bones in her right foot that required her to wear a special boot to climb the stairs, Wilkinson became the first American diver in 36 years to win the gold medal in the women’s platform event.
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| Laura Wilkinson celebrates with her coach after winning the gold medal in the women's platform diving event in the 2000 Olympics. |
23. 2004-Paul Hamm(Gymnastics)
It seemed like Hamm was out of medal contention when he fell down while trying to land his vault during the fourth rotation of the all-around competition, dropping him to 12th place.
However, with a pair of 9.837 routines on the final two rotations(for Hamm, the parallel bars and the horizontal bar) plus mistakes by the rest of the field, Hamm not only was able to finish on the medal stand, but won the gold by .012 in the smallest margin of victory ever in a Olympic men’s all-around final.
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| Paul Hamm was the first and thus far only male American gymnast to win the all-around Olympic title. |
22. 1976 Boxing Team
Many great American boxers such as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman won gold medals at the Olympics, but there wasn’t a boxing team quite like the one that competed in Montreal in 1976.
Five boxers won gold medals-Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, Leo Randolph, and Howard Davis Jr, with all of the medalists except Davis, would go on to win world championships when they turned professional.
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| Sugar Ray Leonard won the light welterweight gold medal, one of the US' five gold medals in boxing at the 1976 Olympics. |
21. 2012-Gabby Douglas(Gymnastics)
After winning a gold medal with the “Fierce Five” in the team competition, Douglas went on to win the all-around gold medal, marking the third straight time an American won the event and becoming the first African-American gymnast to win the all-around title.
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| Gabby Douglas joined Mary Lou Retton, Carly Patterson, and Nastia Liukin as women's all-around champions from the United States with her win in 2012. |
20. 1960-Rafer Johnson(Track & Field)
In what is considered the greatest decathlon in Olympic history, Johnson defeated Taiwan’s Yang Chuan-Kwang by 68 points as the lead was traded three times between the two rivals over the course of the 10 events, with Johnson taking the lead for good after the discus throw which was the seventh event.
19. 1996-Amy Van Dyken(Swimming)
Van Dyken became the first female American to win 4 gold medals at the same Olympics as she won two individual gold in the 50 meters freestyle and 100 meters butterfly and two relay gold as she was a part of the winning 4x100 Freestyle relay and 4x100 Medley Relay teams.
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| Amy Van Dyken with the four gold medals around her neck that she won at the 1996 Olympics. |
18. 1984- Carl Lewis (Track & Field)
The legend of Carl Lewis began as he won four gold medals: the 100 meter-dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, and the 4x100 meter relay, winning gold in the same four events Jesse Owens did back in 1936.
Lewis would go on to win five more gold medals over the next three Olympics, three of them in the long jump joining the next man as one of three Olympians to win a gold medal in the same event in four consecutive Olympics….
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| Carl Lewis won four of his nine career gold medals at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. |
17. 1968-Al Oerter(Track & Field)
Oerter entered the 1956 Games in Melbourne as an underdog in the men’s discus event, but a throw of 188 feet and 22 inches gave him the gold medal.
This was only the start of his dominance in the discus event as Oerter broke the Olympic record in 1960 with a 194 feet and 2 inches throw for his second straight gold medal, followed by a 200 feet throw in 1964 to earn his third straight gold medal, and then finally a 212 and a half throw in 1968 to become the first Olympian to win gold medal in the same event at four consecutive Olympic Games.
16. 1968-Dick Fosbury(Track & Field)
In 1968, almost all the competitors in the high jump were using the straddle method, jumping over the bar face down and lifting their legs to cross the bar.
All except Dick Fosbury, who had developed a technique in which he jumped over the bar backwards, then curve his body to cross the bar, and then finally kicking up his legs to make sure they don’t hit the bar before he landed.
With this unorthodox style, Fosbury won the gold medal with an then-Olympic record jump of 7 feet and 3 ¼ inches.
Four years later at the Munich Olympics, 28 of the 40 competitors in the high jump used the new method which became known as the “Fosbury Flop”.
15. 1988-Florence Griffith Joyner(Track & Field)
“Flo-Jo” cemented herself as the “fastest woman in the world” as she won the 100 meter dash in a Olympic record time 10.59 seconds, then broke the world record in a 200-meter semifinal, only to break it again in the final as she won the gold with a time of 21.34, which still stands as the world record.
“Flo-Jo” would add a gold medal in the 4x100 relay and a silver medal in the 4x400 relay.
14. 1964-Billy Mills(Track & Field)
Mills was not expected to contend for a medal in the men’s 10,000 meter race as he had finished a minute slower than world record holder and favorite Ron Clarke of Australia in qualifying.
However, it looked like Mills was going to up end on the medal stand as he was engaged in a three-man race with Clarke and Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia as the 25th and final lap of the race began.
Gammoundi took the lead with Clarke in second, but in the last 50 meters Mills sprinted past both of them to win the gold in a time of 28 minutes and 24.4 seconds, 46 seconds better than his career best time.
After the race, an official came up to Mills and asked “Who are you?” as Mills became the first and thus far only American runner to win the 10,000 meters.
13, 2016-Simone Biles (Gymnastics)
Biles set the American record for most gold medals by any gymnast at a single Olympic games as she won four gold medals as a member of the "Final Five" which won the team all-around competition plus the women's all-around title and wins in the vault and floor exercise competitions.
She also won a bronze in the balance beam event.
Biles set the American record for most gold medals by any gymnast at a single Olympic games as she won four gold medals as a member of the "Final Five" which won the team all-around competition plus the women's all-around title and wins in the vault and floor exercise competitions.
She also won a bronze in the balance beam event.
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| Simone Biles became the most decorated American gymnast in history with her performance at the 2016 Olympics. |
12. 1996-Michael Johnson(Track & Field)
Wearing his golden shoes, Johnson became the first man to win the 200 and 400 meter dashes in the same Olympics.
Johnson completed the first half of his double by winning the 400 in an Olympic record time of 43.49 seconds, then three nights later, won the 200 by lowering his own world record by more than three-tenths of a second, dropping from 19.66 to 19.32.
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| Michael Johnson screams in excitement after shattering his own world record in the 200 meter dash. |
11. 1984-Mary Lou Retton(Gymnastics)
Retton overcame a knee injury and Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo to became the first American gymnast to win the women’s all-around title as she scored perfect 10s on her final two events, the floor exercise and the vault to beat Szabo by .05 points.
10. 1968-Bob Beamon(Track & Field)
Beamon headed into the ‘68 games as the favorite to win the long jump, but after overstepping the foul line on his first two qualifying attempts, he was in danger of not making the final.
Beamon got a good jump on his last attempt to qualify for the final where he made history on his first jump of the final when he jumped 29 feet and 2 ½ inches to break the world record by nearly two feet, giving him the gold medal.
9. 1988-Greg Louganis(Diving)
While attempting a reverse two-and-half somersault dive during the preliminary rounds of the springboard competition, Louganis hit his head on the diving board, leaving him with a concussion and a gash on his scalp, that required five stitches.
Thirty-five minutes later, Louganis returned to the diving board and made a dive that scored 87.12, the highest score during the preliminary round as Louganis would go to win the gold medal in the springboard and platform events for the second Olympics in a row.
8. 1960-Wilma Rudolph(Track & Field)
Rudolph did not seem destined for Olympic greatness as she suffered through bouts with polio and scarlet fever during her childhood.
But Rudolph overcame those struggles to become a track & field star and at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics as she won the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and was a member of the 4x100 meter relay team that won gold.
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| Wilma Rudolph crosses the finish line to win one of her three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics. |
7. 2000-Rulon Gardner(Wrestling)
When Gardner made it to the gold medal match of the Super Heavyweight division in Greco-Roman wrestling, it seemed certain he was going to walk away with the silver medal because of who he was going up against, Aleksander Karelin, who had not only won the gold medal in this division at the previous three Olympics, but had lost a match in international competition in 13 years and had not yielded a single point in his matches in six years.
But after he broke out of the clutch of Karelin during the second period of the match to earn a point, Gardner had done the unthinkable as he won the match to win the gold medal and hand Karelin his first and only career defeat.
After the match, Gardner celebrated with a cartwheel after winning the “Miracle on the Mat”.
6. 1992-Dream Team(Basketball)
In 1989, the International Basketball Federation, or FIBA, changed the rules to allow players from the NBA to participate in international competition.
This allowed the United States to comprise its ‘92 Olympic Men’s Basketball team of almost all NBA players or the “Dream Team” as they became to known.
The team, which consisted of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, and Christian Laettner(who had just finished his senior season at Duke), steamrolled to win gold as their average margin of victory was almost 44 points per game, with their closest game coming against Croatia in the gold medal game, in which they only won by 32 points.
Even though there was no competition in the tournament, the “Dream Team” helped bring global interest to the game of basketball as 74 players from 35 different countries were on NBA teams during the 2011-12 season, compared to just 23 players from 18 different countries in the 1991-92 season.
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| The Dream Team on the medal stand after their dominating run to the 1992 gold medal. |
5. 1972-Mark Spitz(Swimming)
Before the ‘68 games in Mexico City, Spitz predicted he would win six gold medals, but came away with only two golds, both coming in relay events.
Four years later, Spitz not only accomplished his goal of six gold medals, but won an additional gold medal as he set an Olympic record for most gold medals in a single Olympic games as he won seven gold medals all in world record time(100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 4 x 100 freestyle relay, 4x200 freestyle relay, 4x100 medley relay).
4. 2008-Jason Lezak(Swimming)
It looked like Frenchman Alain Bernard’s prediction that his country was going to “smash” the Americans in the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay as Bernard was given a full body length lead over Lezak as both began the anchor legs of the relay.
Bernard was still ahead by half a body with 25 meters to go when Lezak turned on the jets to nip the Frenchman by 0.08 of a second to give the US the gold medal as Lezak swam the fastest 100 meter freestyle split in history with a time of 46.06.
Lezak’s incredible swim allowed for...
3. 2008-Michael Phelps(Swimming)
Phelps broke Mark Spitz’s record of most gold medals in a single Olympics as he won eight gold medals, with seven of them coming in world record time.
Phelps easily won five individual gold(200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley) and three relay gold(4x100 freestyle, 4x200 freestyle, 4x100 medley), but it was his race in the 100 butterfly that was the most dramatic as he was in 7th place and trailing Serbia’s Milorad Čavić by 0.62 seconds after the first 50 meters.
It looked like Phelps was going to lose, but as Cavic coasted to the wall, Phelps took one extra stroke that allowed him to beat Cavic by 0.01 second and tie Spitz’s record.
The next night, Phelps broke the record as part of the 4x100 medley relay team.
2. 1996-Kerri Strug(Gymnastics)
The US Women’s Gymnastics Team seemed on their way to the gold medal in the team competition when on the team’s final rotation, Dominique Moceanu fell on both of her vault attempts, meaning that Strug needed a good score on one of her two vault attempts to secure gold for the US.
But on her first attempt, Strug fell and injured her left ankle, giving her a score of 9.162, leaving the Americans vulnerable to falling to 2nd place.
Strug shrugged off the pain and ran for her second vault attempt, this time landed on both feet, earning a 9.712 score to clinch the gold for the United States.
Despite suffering two torn ligaments in her ankle, Strug joins her teammates, the “Magnificent Seven” as they become known as, on the medal stand as her coach Bela Karolyi carries her to the medal stand.
1. 1936-Jesse Owens(Track & Field)
It isn’t so much that Owens won four gold medals, but the fact of where he did and who did it in front of, is what makes this greatest American Olympic moment of all time.
Owens won gold in the 100 meter and 200 meter dashes, the long jump, and the 4x100 meter relay, in front of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime as the games were held in Berlin.
While Hitler refused to shake his hand or acknowledge his accomplishments, Owens’ performance won the hearts of fans across Germany as they applauded and gave the African-American Owens a standing ovation for his performance.
If you want to my article on the 25 Greatest USA Winter Olympic Moments, click on the link: 25 Greatest USA Winter Olympic Moments
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