MIRACLE History – Part 3
Cover of the March 1980 issue of Sports Illustrated (credit: Heinz Kluetmeier)
Little did Heinz Kluetmeier know when he snapped the photograph above that his artistic vision would encapsulate one of the greatest feats in the history of amateur sports. He would also make a powerful political statement about the strength of American resolve found in ordinary men. Team USA Men’s Ice Hockey victory over the Soviets at the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games in 1980 was a defiant action toward a nuclear-capable Communist/Socialist aggressor. American sentiment toward the Soviets prior to 1980, the history of the 1980 Team USA Men’s Hockey Team, and the visual components and compositional elements of Kluetmeier’s work reveal a timeless truth about American valor: America does not need superheroes or super weapons to prevail in its struggles; it needs only patient and consistent principled competition among good men to prevail.
Note: For a complete list of outside works referenced in this series, please click here. Read Part 1 of the series here. Read Part 2 of the series here.
Kluetmeier very deftly exemplifies the concepts of team and discipline in “Miracle on Ice.” Although some of the figures embracing each other on the ice appear to be mangled, and are difficult to count, approximately fourteen figures appear in the photo, including the player’s arm reaching in from the left border. This accounts for seventy percent of the twenty players on a hockey roster; we can surmise that, had this been a double-page spread, Kluetmeier could have included the entire team, including the coaching and training staff as well. Teams train together; teams practice together; teams live and eat together; teams sweat and bleed together…and teams celebrate together. The body positioning of the players in the photograph suggests a camaraderie that transcends the boundaries of coworker relationships. The embraces suggest a distinct familial connection between each of the players; the dog-pile to the left of the net, while a common celebration among athletes, suggests that they are not teammates, but brothers.
Despite all their differences as former college rivals, these men discovered that victory would demand unique contributions from each unique skill set of each unique member to achieve the triumph which they celebrate in this depiction. No one of them defeated the Soviets alone; they achieved victory as a unit, and their interlinked bodies, albeit contorted, demonstrates this unitary quality. Their frozen mouths and squinted eyes, depicting a glee unparalleled by children on Christmas morning, suggests that even youthful vigor and innovation can deflate the dogmatic, machine-like systematic approach of their more senior counterparts.
Team USA was not only good; they proved better than the Soviets. The line contours in Kluetmeier’s photograph buttresses tenets of American idealism that we hope will remain timeless. The three metal supports holding up the panes of plexiglas in the middle-ground resemble the columns of Greek architecture. This classical architecture, found all over this nation’s capital, from the U.S. Supreme Court to the Lincoln Memorial, suggests a virtue inherent in American political institutions which has spanned the boundaries of time and which has rooted itself Athens, the birthplace of Western democracy.
The saluting sticks, a familiar hockey tradition, reach from bottom-left to top-right. It is as if they reach up to Heaven, and point toward the right. But they also point up to Old Glory; if the viewer squints his or her eyes, the figures resemble the Marines hoisting the American flag at the Iwo Jima Memorial, with their hockey sticks becoming the very flagpole which Old Glory adorns. This icon reminds us of the myriad struggles and growing pains our young nation has endured, and reinforces our belief that patient and persistent effort will help us to continue to develop. The triangular shape of Old Glory, and the implied triangular contour of the mass of player bodies provides another visual element to the piece: stability. Triangles are very widely-recognized in the world of visual art as contributing stability to a piece. In the context of “Miracle on Ice,” the triangular shapes suggest that America, when operating like Team USA, is not only stable, but always will be. Although the United States is a secular nation, the player arms outstretched toward the heavens seem to be praising the very God in whom “we Trust.”
The 1980 U.S. Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team fought a protracted uphill battle. Boys became men; factions became a unit; simple men became national heroes. The twenty men who skated for Team USA during the 1980 games at Lake Placid accomplished a feat that conventional wisdom regarded as impossible. Heinz Kluetmeier captured the pinnacle of the celebration of this feat and, through the lens of his camera, has allowed us to participate in that struggle with the players. We are encouraged to soak in the easing of forty years’ tensions about the nuclear arms race, fears that the Soviets would invade the United States, and worse, that America would not be able to adequately defend herself. As ordinary Americans, we identify with and empathize with the players in the photograph. We cheer them on as national pride swells up inside of us. We recognize and rest upon the notion that disciplined teamwork, dedication, and constitution of character will always prevail over our encroaching enemies. We recognize that the process of democratic gains requires a melting pot of personalities, skill sets, and ideals.
Thank you for joining IntelligencePlease.com for this look back at the 1980 Team USA Hockey team. GO USA!
