Miracle On Ice captain Mike Eruzione on staying small, staying together and three lessons from 1980
Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team, said the famed win is best remembered by how he and his teammates handled the pressure — a simple approach he ties directly to the original miracle on ice and to three lessons he says anyone can use now.
How a little village kept the team focused
Eruzione said the U. S. team stayed in a little village in Lake Placid, N. Y., where there were three TV stations and no social media; he called the living situation "a little cocoon. " That cocoon, he said, kept players from going downtown to bars or restaurants and instead had them "just sharing the time in the village with their teammates, " which he believes was crucial to their attitude throughout the games.
Scoring the semifinal winner against the Soviet Union and beating Finland for gold
As captain, Eruzione scored the winning goal against the Soviet Union in the semifinals and then led the team to a gold medal with a win over Finland. Amid the buildup to those games — and even minutes beforehand — he said he "wasn't thinking too hard about what any of it meant or what would happen if his team won, " adding simply, "I was just enjoying it, " he said, laughing.
Miracle On Ice moment at the White House
It was not until the Miracle On Ice team went to the White House that Eruzione had his "holy s— this thing is huge" moment. Even that late realization, he said, was in many ways a good thing because it preserved the group's ability to feed off one another's positive energy without having to spend time blocking out negative comments.
Three lessons: simplicity, insulation and self-knowledge
Eruzione framed his approach in plain terms: he described himself as not a very "deep" person, even while noting his résumé is stacked with experiences others dream about. That gap between the scale of what he lived through and the casual way he describes it is, he said, part of why he thrived under pressure. He believes anyone can tap that mindset and avoid negative energy in its many forms.
On criticism, self-worth and what stayed with him
"There's always going to be somebody that doesn't like something that you do or are doing, " he said. "You're always going to find somebody that’s critical of you. So ignore it. People can be cruel. And jealous. But we can't control any of that anyway. Laugh it off or smile and just move on with your life. " Eruzione added that his sense of self did not come from Olympic success: "I was very happy with who I was before the Olympics and very happy with who I am today, " he said.
Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; George Tiedemann / Sports Illustrated / Getty Images. This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.
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