Lane MacDonald describes the challenges hockey players face trying to absorb the Olympic experience. Unlike other competitors who compete only once or twice, the hockey teams play every other day. The constant schedule of games, Lane explains, makes you focus more on the competition, the "ultimate objective ". The schedule was so tight that his team wasn't even able to participate in the opening ceremonies because the networks wanted to have a hockey game on the air directly afterwards and his coach wouldn't let them stand out in the cold for hours. On the other hand, his tight schedule made him ensure that all of his days off counted.
As an undergrad at Harvard, AJ Mlezko remembers meeting and becoming friends with a player on the Canadian women's hockey team. That year they played on the same line for Harvard and won the national championship, throughout which they shared their experiences of the Olympics. When they ran into each other later at the Nagano games they had to put their friendship on the backburner and play on opposite teams, but they always had the utmost respect for each other. Now Harvard has four players on the US women's team and two on the Canadian.
A key part of the Olympics is breaking down barriers. The 1956 games were the first time that the Russians showed up at the winter Olympics. Bill Cleary remembers watching them come on the ice with the most inferior equipment he ever saw in his life and thinking, "how could they play? " But as he soon found out, the Russians could play hockey. He remembers being shocked at their puck handling skills. After the games he got to meet some of them and they turned out to be great people.
At the '88 games, Lane MacDonald remembers seeing the Russians around, but even then they were still kept separate and watched by KGB agents. It was clear to him though that they were fascinated with American culture. He recalls helping a Russian make a call on a pay-phone to a friend in America when no one was around. After winning the games, even though they weren't supposed to be professional athletes, the Russian team got to take home western products like Walkmen.
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