Olympics: Only the Lake Was Placid

(8 of 10)

Earlier, against the Swedes, the underdog Americans played like future members of the National Hockey League, and, indeed, 15 members of the team have been drafted by the pros. They bashed the Europeans into the boards, they scuffled the puck into the corners. If their pond hockey was not terribly sophisticated, it was good enough —barely. The U.S. trailed Sweden 2-1 going into the last minute of the game.

Coach Brooks pulled out Goalie Jim Craig and attacked with six men. They were aided in planning their strategy by a typical example of Yankee know-how: armed with a walkie-talkie, an aide was up in the stands, radioing weaknesses he spotted in the Swedish defense to an assistant coach, who was on the bench with Brooks. With only 27 sec. to play, Bill Baker drilled home a 55-ft. slapshot to tie the game.

It was on Friday night that the Uncertainty Principle hit Tai Babilonia, 19, and Randy Gardner, 21, the world champions in the graceful art of pairs figure skating. Not only were the Americans still getting better, still adding to their repertoire of lifts and leaps, but they would be competing against the Soviet Union's husband-and-wife team of Irina Rodnina, 30, and Alexander Zaitsev, 27, who had taken the Olympic gold medal in 1976 and who had won six world titles. Last year, when Randy and Tai won the world championship, the Soviets were not competing; Irina was having a child. The Russians too had added new moves to their traditional routines to try to match the young Americans' dazzle. It promised to be a classic encounter: the veterans against the newcomers, the Soviets' grandiose style against the fire and flash of the Americans.

When Tai and Randy skated out onto the ice Friday night with the other pairs for their warmups prior to the pairs short-program competition, the crowd gave a pleasant stir of anticipation. The U.S. pair struck a pose, glided around the rink and then went into a sit-spin. Randy fell out of it. He got up and brushed off the ice. They skated over to Coach John Nicks, talked anxiously, came back and tried the sit-spin again. This time, Randy stayed up, but he had to put a hand down to keep from tumbling.