I get the feeling that’s the case but understandable given it happened so long ago

37 comments

  1. It’s hard to say because it is very famous event in the sports world but it is difficult to say how many people have an awareness of the sports world. Even if you expanded it to Gen X people, you still might be surprised by how many people don’t know about it because they just don’t follow sports.

  2. Millennials are in their 40s and 30s, I think most of us have heard of the Miracle on Ice.

  3. The majority of millenials have, though they likely don’t remember the details of it. The year (1980), the games (Lake Placid), and that is wasn’t even the gold medal round (Finland).

    I would not ne surprised if Gen Z does not, because why would they?

  4. I am a millennial, and I know about the Miracle on Ice. It is an iconic sports event for the ages. It also helps that a movie was made about it in the mid 2000s.

  5. I’m a millennial and have for sure heard of it. And I loved the movie they made about it.

  7. The 2005 movie is a pretty entrenched end of school year thing, so I think I decent chunk of Gen Z has heard of it.

  8. I would assume everyone who pays any attention at all to either hockey or the Winter Olympics knows about it, and among people who don’t, the threshold at which there would be a stark drop-off in who’s heard of it is “Are you old enough to remember the 2004 movie coming out?” That line is probably half way in the middle of the millennials.

  10. I can’t speak for Gen Z, but it was a recent enough event when millennials were growing up that I’d be surprised if most aren’t aware of it.

  11. I’m gen z and I watched the movie all the time growing up and went to Lake Placid on vacation a couple years ago. But even if I were to ask my friends I would assume they would know it.

  15. No. At least not Millennials, The movie about it from 2004 certainly helped with awareness.

  16. Gen Z, yes.

    Many Millennials are in their 30s and 40s. We may not have been alive for it but there was a movie in the mid 2000s.

  17. Maybe that’s true for Gen Z, but not Millennials. We’re in our 30s and 40s now.

  18. Im 26 and I have but then again I used to live in New York and went to Lake Placid a few times

  19. Anyone who has watched any of the winter Olympic coverage in the US over the last 30 years probably knows about it, because the broadcasters almost always do a retrospective. And then there’s the Disney movie.

    The US doesn’t dominate the Winter Olympics like we often do in the summer games, so I guess we need to keep reliving our largest triumphs.

  20. I have an autographed picture of Jim Craig in my office.

    It’s interesting though that so many people are citing the movie. Millennials are a big generation and I would imagine most of us born in the ‘80s were very familiar with the story long before the movie. We might have been young but the Cold War was still very real and a win was a win – even in an Olympic semi-final.

    It’s also just an iconic sports moment. Anyone who follows sports is bound to hear about it.

  21. I think most millennials have heard of it even if they don’t know much about it, simply because of the movie.

    Gen Z I can’t speak for. I’d imagine it’s less well known among that age group. But I dunno

  22. I’m a millenial, I know about it from the early 2000s movie. My daughter is Gen Z and I don’t think knows about it. Where I live nobody really watches hockey (as far as I know.) I bet if we lived in rural Minnesota the answer to this would be different

  23. One of my highschool teachers was there as a kid and we spent a period watching a documentary on it. I loved that class.

  24. It was a big enough part of our culture that I was taught about it in school. And by taught about it in school, they said,’this is a thing that happened’. Which is roughly the coverage that prohibition or the Underground Railroad got.

  25. No, most Millennials at least would know about it. If you’re a sports fan you likely definitely know about it and culturally there was a big movie about it that came out in 2004 (Miracle).

  26. Millennials are in their mid-30s to mid-40s. We were alive for The Miracle on Ice and we can easily remember it. Millennials are sometimes even old enough to be the parents of Gen Z, so lumping us all together is getting pretty old.

  27. a) Don’t group millennials and Gen Z in the same bubble. Just don’t.

    b) I’d guess most millennials (of which I’m in the younger age range of) probably have, as a result of the movie *Miracle*.

  29. Lol no if you follow sports at all people know it, or at least saw Miracle the Disney movie

  30. Millenials definitely know about it.

    There was even a movie in the early 2000s.

    I’d assume Gen Z that are hockey fans would be aware.

  31. (Millennial)

    It was talked about endlessly in Winter Olympics coverage when I was a kid.

  33. Millennials definitely know about it. There was a popular Disney movie that came out about it when we were younger and most sports fans would likely have heard Al Michaels’s call *”Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”* at some point.

  34. Weeeellllll. Any true Hockey fan knows it. Anyone who lives in Lake placid knows it. And then there’s people like me who have tangible ties to the game. My father was one of the volunteer medics at that game. He has swag from both teams.

  35. Those who are saying Millennials would remember this event clearly are under the impression that the Miracle on Ice was just a 2004 Disney movie and not an actual event. Neither Millennials nor Gen Z would have living memory of the actual event, which occurred in 1980, well before either were born.

    I can’t speak for everyone, but every kid in Minnesota grows up knowing about this as part of our history, since Minnesotans were the vast majority of the team. Including the head coach, who has a statue in front of the Xcel Energy Center.

  36. Prior to the movie: never heard of it. After the movie: heard of the movie.

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