{"id":124734,"date":"2015-02-28T10:15:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T17:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=124734"},"modified":"2016-04-28T13:06:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T20:06:43","slug":"miracle-on-ice-actually-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/miracle-on-ice-actually-water\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miracle On Ice Was Actually In Water (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX – Today marks the 35th anniversary of the USA Hockey team’s defeat of the Russian Hockey team at\u00a0the 1980 Olympic Games as the miracle on ice. \u00a0Many believe that this was the greatest underdog Olympic moment in history. \u00a0We at\u00a0Swimming World Magazine<\/em> believe that the greatest upset of all time came four years earlier in the water at the 1976 Olympic Games when four young female swimmers took on their entire East German regime in a last chance to win one gold medal for the United States.<\/p>\n

Chuck Warner relived that moment in the January Issue of Swimming World Magazine<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0We think it is only fitting that we relive the greatest story never told today, on SwimmingWorld.com.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s swimming events at the 1976 Olympic Games began with a six-and-a-half-second whipping by the East Germans over the Americans in the 400 meter medley relay. USA assistant Olympic coach Jim Montrella felt it deeply: \u201dIt was very tough. There were things happening that no one was sure about, no one wanted to talk about and no one wanted to admit to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The performance by the women of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in Montreal was arguably the most dominating by any women\u2019s squad in Olympic history. Their rise to the top of the sport had been shockingly abrupt. Not only had they won their first-ever Olympic swimming gold medal in Montreal, but they also had won all but one individual event. Beyond that, they finished first and second in the 100 and 200 freestyle as well as the 100 and 200 backstroke… and 1-2-3 in the 200 butterfly.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the best all-around swimmer in the world might have been a 19-year old American named Shirley Babashoff. The blonde-haired wonder showed off her range by winning silver medals in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles and the 400 medley relay, and finishing fifth in the 100 freestyle. She had forgone competing in the 400 individual medley, an event she had also won at the U.S. Trials.<\/p>\n

During these Olympics, the USA team looked like minor leaguers compared to the Germans\u2014and even to some other countries. There were three events in which they didn\u2019t even qualify a swimmer in the final eight. With a single event remaining\u2014and Babashoff\u2019s performances aside\u2014the USA had won only two individual medals, both bronze.<\/p>\n

A DIFFERENCE IN SYSTEMS<\/span><\/p>\n

On TV, Curt\u00a0Gowdy quizzed Donna DeVarona: \u201cI want to ask about the amazing East German women.\u201d<\/p>\n

She responded by analyzing the differences from the USA team: \u201cOur main problem is that our women are only developed in the club system\u2026our women are just beginning to have college opportunities\u2026 the GDR system is a very professional system, and the state pays for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat have you found about their training program?\u201d asked Gowdy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do high-altitude training in Bulgaria. They go to Leipzig four times a year, where all the coaches come to learn and share techniques…. All their resources are used. It\u2019s very difficult to compete with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The USA women were competing against the most organized system of developing swimmers any country had ever created. And in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay, the Americans had qualified third in the heats behind the Canadian team and the GDR. The simple addition of their best swims in Montreal indicated that the four GDR girls were about two seconds faster than the four Americans.<\/p>\n

While the USA women struggled to get on the award podium, the men were enjoying their most prolific performance in Olympic history. They set 11 world records and took home 12 gold medals. If the American men were so good, how could the U.S. women be so insignificant? How could they only win five individual medals? Was it because they didn\u2019t have an NCAA program?<\/p>\n

Colleagues were also suspicious of the quality of coaching that the USA women\u2019s team received from head coach Jack Nelson and his assistants, Montrella and Frank Elm. Their contemporaries steered clear of them as if they were trying to stroll gracefully by a skunk-sprayed spot in the woods.<\/p>\n

The world didn\u2019t know a secret. The stink wasn\u2019t in the USA team.<\/p>\n

PEYTON VS. ENDER<\/span><\/p>\n

Leading off the 400 freestyle relay for the East German team was Kornelia Ender. At these Olympics, Ender had already become the first woman to capture four gold medals in a single Games. She had set three world records, including the 100 freestyle (55.65). Kim Peyton, who was America\u2019s fastest 100 swimmer with a best time of 56.81, led off for the Americans. After just 25 meters, Ender had powered out to nearly a body length\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

There had been whispers in Montreal about the consistent monotone, masculine, deep voices of the GDR women. In\u00a0<\/em>1976, the concept of performanceenhancing drugs was in its infancy. But it was widely known that the entire country of\u00a0<\/em>East Germany was committed to demonstrating the advantages of a socialistic society through their success in sports.\u00a0<\/em>Ender and her teammates had long been treated by the state as missionaries toward that objective.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ender turned first at 50 meters, while Oregon-native Peyton scrambled through the water, trying to keep up. Peyton followed her coaches\u2019 instructions and swam next to the lane line that separated the two, gaining the benefit of the leader\u2019s wake. She fought desperately to stay at Ender\u2019s knees and finished slightly off her best time with a 56.95, trailing Ender\u2019s 55.79.<\/p>\n

BOGLIOLI VS. PRIEMER<\/span><\/p>\n

On the second leg, the USA\u2019s Wendy Boglioli\u2014a 21-year-old \u201celder\u201d on the U.S. national team\u2014swam with the same maturity with which she had conducted herself in recent years. She was the only American swimming in one of the few women\u2019s college programs at Monmouth in New Jersey. Her efficient, long strokes resembled those of top swimmers in the world today. The East Germans countered with the Olympic silver medalist in the 100 free, Petra Priemer, who maintained the lead.<\/p>\n

Ender, Priemer and their teammates were subject to a covert conspiracy by administrators, coaches and doctors to add to their own athletic ability and resolve by contributing drug-fed power to their muscles. Unbeknownst to them, their training included the advantage of steroid use that decreased recovery time and increased muscle mass and training adaptations.<\/em><\/p>\n

The American women\u2019s adaptations were left to their own coach\u2019s training design and programs for nutrition and sleep. While lacking the same medical support and talent selection system that the GDR enjoyed, they competed on the merits of their old-fashioned, heartpumping, muscle-pulsating work that stretched and widened capillary beds and fought off screaming lactate build-up. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Boglioli improved nearly two seconds from her Trials time and outsplit Priemer, 55.81 to 56. 16. With 200 meters swum, the Americans trailed by 81-hundredths of a second.<\/p>\n

STERKEL VS. POLLACK<\/span><\/p>\n

Jill Sterkel dove into the water one-half body length behind the GDR\u2019s Andrea Pollack. The 15-year old Californian had swum her best time (57.06) earlier in the competition when she finished seventh in the 100. On the first length, Sterkel swam with a high tempo, common to the many endurance-laden programs that permeated the era. She stayed close to Pollack.<\/p>\n

On her second length, Sterkel turned on a thunderous kick that slowed her turnover rate and drove herself to pull even with Pollack.<\/p>\n

The crowd noise in the Olympic natatorium was building, with the possibility of witnessing a tale akin to that of David defeating Goliath. …and then Sterkel passed Pollack. Natural outperformed drug enhanced.<\/p>\n

The possibility of any girl or any boy in the world finding a way to win despite all manufactured impediments was unfolding on the grandest stage in sports.<\/p>\n

At the completion of 300 meters, Jill Sterkel touched in a stunning 55.78\u2014the fastest split of all of the finalists. The Americans had the lead\u2014by 4-tenths of a second, 2:48.54 to 2:48.94\u2014and broadcaster Donna DeVarona screamed, \u201cThey have a chance!\u201d<\/p>\n

BABASHOFF VS. HEMPEL<\/span><\/p>\n

Standing on the starting block for the final American leg was Shirley Babashoff. Earlier that evening, the 5-9 Californian had battled the GDR\u2019s Petra Thumer stroke for stroke in the 800 freestyle. Both girls had broken Shirley\u2019s world record by two seconds, but it was Thumer who pulled away slightly on the last length to touch the wall 45-hundredths of a second faster than Babashoff for the victory.<\/p>\n

The Olympic swimming events were conducted on seven days over an eight-day period, with a day off between the fifth and sixth\u00a0<\/em>days of competition. On that rest day, the U.S. coaches took the women\u2019s relay swimmers to an off-site warm-up pool to work on\u00a0<\/em>exchanges. Their extra effort was paying off with two excellent transitions, followed by a near-perfect one from Sterkel to Babashoff.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Babashoff sprung off the block just in front of Claudia Hempel, who earlier in the week had been out touched by the American in the 100 finals by a mere 4-hundredths of a second for fifth place. Yet this time, Hempel was fresh, while Babashoff had raced the 800 free earlier that evening.<\/p>\n

A few days earlier, Shirley Babashoff had uttered aloud her instinct that something was awry with her competition. Consequently reporters nicknamed her \u201cSurly Shirley.\u201d Actually, this was one of the greatest athletes in the world expressing the possibility of betrayal by a systematic program of cheating that was destroying the most basic tenet of sport: spirited competition within a consistent set of rules.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1998, eight years after East and West Germany reunited to become one democratic nation, Courtroom 700 of Berlin\u2019s state\u00a0<\/em>courthouse heard testimony regarding a \u201cstate\u201d sports program that operated through the 1970s and 1980s. The effects of a program on thousands of athletes conducted by hundreds of coaches, doctors and administrators were exposed at the hearings.<\/em><\/p>\n

Several athletes testified that due to the drugs that had been represented to them as vitamins, they were rendered infertile, bore children with birth defects and\/or had developed ovarian cysts. Even abortions had been performed in the name of demonstrating the power of what was once lauded as the East German \u201cMiracle Machine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Shirley Babashoff\u2019s instincts had been correct, but she had been virtually alone in her willingness to speak out and give voice to her suspicions.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the final exchange, the American team held a miniscule edge that came from heart-pounding work designed to strengthen cardiac muscle. They showed a will that toughens with practice and permeates one\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n

But the Germans were not about to give up. Babashoff had set three American records thus far at the Olympics, narrowly missing two gold medals while surpassing existing world records.\u00a0 But with 85 meters remaining in the race and Hempel charging next to her, one question remained: Would Shirley let Claudia pass?<\/p>\n

Babashoff was considered an elder in the USA at this point of her swimming career. She had graduated from high school, and Donna DeVarona was right\u2014there was little in the way of collegiate opportunity for American girls at that time (the infancy of Title IX). Shirley had been to the \u201972 Olympics in Munich, where she had won a gold medal in the 400 freestyle relay. But history\u00a0<\/em>would attest that in fair competition, Shirley Babashoff might well have left Montreal as America\u2019s \u201cGolden Girl.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Babashoff stroked madly, taking nearly 60 strokes per length, while Hempel powered through the water with greater efficiency. Shirley\u2019s muscles were tired from the effects of her 800 freestyle battle earlier that evening. With 40 meters remaining, Hempel raced at Shirley\u2019s shoulder. Babashoff\u2019s tempo increased even faster. While her muscles were weak, her resolve was like steel. Shirley Babashoff extended her fingertips to the touch pad, stopping the clock 68-hundredths of a second sooner than Claudia Hempel. She split 56.28 to Hempel\u2019s 56.56, and the American team smashed the GDR\u2019s world record by four full seconds!<\/p>\n

VICTORY FOR ALL<\/span><\/p>\n

DeVarona shouted, \u201cI\u2019ve never been more excited to eat my words!\u201d<\/p>\n

Shirley, pumping her fist, shot out of the pool to embrace her teammates. The American girls hugged and leapt for joy, smiling and firing fists in the air. Friends and supporters in the stands as well as those who were watching on television cheered with joyous grins and flooding eyes.<\/p>\n

The incredible triumph that the USA women had delivered still serves us all today. They proved to all of us\u2014even their abused East German sisters\u2014that in the sport of swimming, human will and commitment can defeat drugs and systems.<\/p>\n

On July 25, 1976\u2014200 years after America\u2019s birth represented freedom in the world\u2014Kim Peyton, Wendy Boglioli, Jill Sterkel and Shirley Babashoff (as well as coaches Nelson, Montrella and Elm) upheld the principle that having the freedom to prepare can bring victory\u2014for all of us…forever<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And that is why we believe the USA\u2019s 1976 Olympic gold medal swim in the women\u2019s 400 freestyle relay is the greatest triumph in the history of swimming. \uf076<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Publisher Note: \u00a0Swimming World Magazine has made repeated request to the International Olympic Committee<\/a> to correct the records and recognize that the 1976 Olympic Games were tainted. \u00a0To date, no action has been taken either by FINA or the IOC.<\/p>\n

Watch Coach Jack Nelson Relive The Race In His Own Words On Video
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