The Summer and Winter Olympics are two of the biggest events on the planet.
The whole planet is glued to screens, cheering on their country in all the different Olympic
events.
A lot of the time, there are favourites to win - athletes who are so good that it seems
like they cant lose.
However, you can never be too sure.
There have been times in the past where some Athletes have defied all expectations and
snatched victory when nobody thought they could.
My name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Biggest Olympic Upsets.
Starting off at number 10 we have Steven Bradbury.
This story is the stuff of olympic legend.
In 2002, this Australian speed skater was far from the favourite.
In the semi finals, he was in last place until 3 of the other competitors in the race crashed
near the end, allowing Steven to advance to the final.
Amazingly, in the finals - with Steven in last place again with 50 m to go - the same
thing happened.
One of the other skaters caused a crash which also brought down the other 3.
Steven became the first person from a southern hemisphere to win a winter olympic event.
He said he saw his medal as a reward for the years of work and not necessarily for the
events that happened in those races.
Next up at number 9 we have the the Mens 2004 Relay.
The USA has always don't well in track and field events and the 4x100 relay is no different.
They were the favourites going in to the race - 3 out of the 4 runners were olympic champions.
However, the relay race isnt just about the fastest runners - its all about the batton
changes.
The USA slipped up their changes while Great Britain and Northern Ireland did theres to
almost perfection - leading to them winning Gold and surprising all doubters.
Next up at number 8 we have Argentinas Basketball Team.
Since 1936, there have been 20 Olympic Basketball tournaments - the US has won 16 of them - its
been complete domination.
One of the years they lost was in 2004.
They made it to the finals as expected where they went up against Argentina.
It was a close game throughout but Argentina pulled away towards the end, beating USA 89-81.
The news stories the next day were a mix of praise for the unlikely Argentina squad and
questions about how an NBA filled all star team like United States could fall short of
expectations …
At the number 7 spot now we have The Miracle On Ice.
In 1980, the USA went up against the Soviet Union in the Mens Hockey Semi Finals.
The odds were not in their favour, the Soviets had won gold at the previous 4 olympic events.
To make things even more unlikely - the entire USA team was made up of only amateurs.
They went in to the 3rd round with the Soviets leading by 3 points to 2.
The USA pulled 2 points back to win 4-3 overall in a huge upset win that would come to be
known as The Miracle On Ice.
Moving on to number 6 we have Rulon Gardner.
In 2000, Russian wrestler Aleksander Karelin was the clear favourite to win the wrestling
gold medal.
He had done so in 1988, 1992 and 1996.
Hed also won 8 of the last 11 world championship.
In a shock upset, he was beaten in 2000 by American wrestler Rulon Gardner.
He won on points and gave Karelin his first loss in 13 years.
Next up at number 5 we have Kostas Kenteris.
Were staying with the 2000 olympics in Sydney for this one for the Mens 200m finals.
American runner John Capel was the favourite to win.
To everyones surprise, as the runners made their way round the bend, it was Greek runner
Kostas Kenteris who started to pull ahead.
He ended up winning and taking gold with a time of 20.09 seconds - the slowest winning
time in 20 years!
At number 4 now we have Japans Softball. 2008 was the last year that Softball was ever played
at the olympics although it is going to be reinstated for the 2020 summer olympics.
There was a rumour going round that it was taken away because the USA was too dominant
at it.
Well Japan proved that wrong when they beat the USA 3-1 in the 2008 olympics.
The USA went home with a silver medal and will no doubt be seeking revenge come 2020.
Next up at number 3 we have Montreal 1976.
At this olympic games, the East Germans were the favourite to win the Womens 4x100m swimming
relay.
They had beaten everyone in their individual races and people expected this to be no different.
However, the US team swam the race if their lives, setting a new world record and beating
the East German team by 0.68 seconds.
Whats even more impressive is that it later emerged that the East German olympic team
had been given performance enhancing drugs which many of them werent even aware of.
That make the USA win even more respectable!
At number 2 now we have Chad le Clos.
(cl-oh).
This South African swimmer pulled off one of the greatest swimming upsets of all time
during the Mens 200m butterfly event at London 2012.
All eyes were on Michael Phelps - widely regarded as the best swimmer of all time.
He wasnt performing as well as he was 4 years before, but youd still be dumb to bet against
him.
Chad le Clos proved everyone wrong by keeping up with Phelps and then timing his reach perfectly
to grab 1st place.
And finally at number 1 we have Emil Zatopek.
At the 1952 olympics, this Czechoslovakian runner had won gold medals in the 5,000 and
10,000 meter races.
That wasnt too surprising - what was though, was that Emil decided at the last minute that
he wanted to run in the marathon race.
His longest competitive races had been less than a quarter of that distance.
The favourite for the race was Great Britains Jim Peters who held the world record at the
time.
Despite all of the odds being against Emil - he passed every runner one by one and crossed
the finish line in 2 hours 23 minutes and 2 seconds - over 2 and a half minutes ahead
of the runner up.
Amazing stories about amazing athletes who didnt get intimidated by other peoples expectations
- I think we can all learn something from that in our day to day lives.
What other Olympic videos do you guys want to see?
My name is Danny Burke, thanks for watching as always and Ill see you all in the next
video.