Mike Eruzione on Bob Suter, possible 1980 U.S. Olympic team reunion, more

By Nick ZaccardiOct 6, 2014, 2:18 PM EDT

Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that won gold after the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid, discussed Olympic hockey, the recent passing of Olympic teammate Bob Suter and more in a Q&A with OlympicTalk last week.

Here’s a portion of the conversation from NFL Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti‘s Fund to Cure Paralysis dinner in New York:

OlympicTalk: What are your thoughts on the possible return of the World Cup of Hockey?

Eruzione: I’m a huge fan of it. I’ve been promoting that. I said that to many people years ago. I think the World Cup of Hockey is a better opportunity for all the countries to practice together, train together and compete to see who the best team in the world is. The Olympic Games, I felt, you don’t practice together, you go over there, and you start playing games. If you want to see who the best team in the world is, let them practice together for a couple of weeks, let them train together, get used to each other and then play the tournament.

OlympicTalk: What did you think of the Sochi Olympic tournament?

Eruzione: I’ve watched every Olympic game since 1980. I really think that, for the United States standpoint, we belong with everybody now. In 1980, we might have opened the door. Today’s players have knocked the door down. We go into a tournament now as a favorite. I think it was a very disappointing finish for the U.S. team in Sochi [fourth]. I thought, the way they started out, they were going to take a real good run at it.

OlympicTalk: When was the last time the entire 1980 U.S. Olympic team was together?

Eruzione: Salt Lake City [2002 Olympics] there were 19 [out of the 20] of us together [Mike Ramsey missed the Opening Ceremony, where team members lit the cauldron, due to coaching commitments with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. The reclusive Mark Pavelich did not attend. Eruzione didn’t specify which player arrived later in the Games].

When [coach] Herb [Brooks] passed away [in 2003] there were 20 of us together. Unfortunately, when Bobby Suter passed away, I think there were 10 or 12 of us that were able to get back to pay tribute to Bobby. We’re hoping next year, with the 35th anniversary, there might be a couple opportunities for us to get together as 19 guys. We’re sad that Bobby’s moved on, that all 20 of us couldn’t get together more often.

OlympicTalk: How hard was that, hearing about Bob?

Eruzione: As a team, we’ve experienced nothing but great moments. The only two negative or sad moments are when Herb passed and now, clearly, when one of your teammates passes. You think, 35 years, usually something happens to 20 guys. We had hung in there and been all part of that moment. It’s going to be interesting and sad to think about the next time we’re together as a team that one of us is not there but not for a family function or a speaking engagement but the fact that he’s no longer with us. There are going to be more of those moments. It makes us realize that maybe, this year, it would be nice if we could get everyone together.

OlympicTalk: Did you go back for Bob’s service?

Eruzione: I went back for the service. I couldn’t get there for the wake. Mark Johnson spoke [at the tribute service], and Mark was dead-on awesome talking about Bobby, what he meant not only to the hockey world but to the people of Madison. I don’t think people realized how important Bobby was to hockey in Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve said this before, with all due respect to my teammates, I think nobody has done more for the sport of ice hockey with the youth level and the high school level than Bobby did in Madison. So he’s not only missed by us as a teammate but clearly missed by his community as well as his wife and kids.

OlympicTalk: Bob had an ankle injury and reportedly didn’t play against the Soviet Union. Do you remember him playing?

Eruzione: I’ve got to think Bobby took a couple shifts in that game, I could be wrong. I’ve only see that game twice, and the last time was probably 20 years ago.

OlympicTalk: You sold some of your 1980 souvenirs to a 9-year-old boy named Seven last year. Any regrets?

Eruzione: No. I made a decision, and my grandkids are going to benefit from what I did. I said many times I did it for the right reason. I’m not destitute. I’m not financially broke. I thought this was the time to do something for them. I guess, if you look back on it, maybe I could have waited 10 years, 15 more years, but I wanted to see where it was going to go. God forbid something happens to me, and then it’s being sold, I won’t see the rewards or the results of it. This is better that I can see that the money is going to go to them.

OlympicTalk: If the 1980 team gets together for the 35-year anniversary, is there a setting you would like it to be at?

Eruzione: It would be awesome if we could be back in Lake Placid, for Lake Placid’s sake. Because it’s such a great little place and where it all started. If not, maybe Augusta [Ga.], where we could all go play golf [laughs]. The perfect setting and the right setting probably should be and hopefully will be Lake Placid.

source: — Courtesty ORDA/Whiteface Lake Placid

OlympicTalk: When was the last time you were at Lake Placid?

Eruzione: Last year. I get back quite a bit to Lake Placid for speaking engagements and functions. Interestingly, Bobby went back for a hockey tournament this year with Buzz Schneider, and they spent the weekend there and signed autographs and did some visits. Then, the day of Bobby’s funeral, they hung his jersey from the rafters [at Herb Brooks Arena] with the score of the U.S.-Soviet game.

OlympicTalk: What do you think of driving through Lake Placid nowadays?

Eruzione: It’s like Pleasantville. It hasn’t changed. It’s what makes the place so unique. Every store you go in, there’s videos of the Olympic Games. Eric Heiden or Beth Heiden, Linda Fratianne, the bobsledders. As great as a moment it was for us as a team, they kind of hang their hat on that moment as well. It’s good for them, because it’s such a great place, and the people there are so nice. I highly recommend you go.

The doors, when you walk into the rink, the picture is of us winning. And then the door opens, and you walk into the building. I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of people over the years that have come up to me and said, “I brought my son to a tournament in Lake Placid,” or, “I went on vacation in Lake Placid, and I can’t believe how special it is.”

Photos: Lindsey Vonn ski training in Austria

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Primoz Roglic wins Giro d’Italia over Geraint Thomas

Associated PressMay 28, 2023, 1:30 PM EDT

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Primoz Roglic expanded his Grand Tour portfolio by winning the Giro d’Italia on Sunday to add to his three Spanish Vuelta titles.

The former ski jumper became the first Slovenian rider to win the Giro and he did it in dramatic fashion, claiming the lead in the penultimate stage — taking the pink jersey from Geraint Thomas in Saturday’s mountain time trial.

It was the direct opposite of what happened in the 2020 Tour de France, when fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar took the lead from Roglic in another penultimate-day mountain time trial.

During the podium celebration, Roglic’s son, Lev, joined him on the stage and seemed more excited than his dad.

“I’m trying to enjoy all the emotions, and everything that happened yesterday,” Roglic said. “At the end, it’s always nice to win, in this spectacular city … all these amazing buildings, it’s super beautiful.”

Riding a pink bike and wearing a pink helmet and pink socks, Roglic took it easy during the mostly ceremonious final stage, an 84-mile leg through the cobblestoned streets of Rome that concluded next to the Roman Forum.

Mark Cavendish, who recently announced that he will retire at the end of this season, won the 21st and final stage in a sprint finish.

Roglic, who rides for the Jumbo-Visma team, finished 14 seconds ahead of Thomas and 1 minute, 15 seconds ahead of Joao Almeida in the overall standings.

It’s the smallest finishing gap between the top riders in the Giro since Eddy Merckx won by 12 seconds ahead of Gianbattista Baronchelli in 1974.

Roglic’s time trial victory on Monte Lussari was his only stage win of the race. He was injured after crashing on a wet and slippery descent in Stage 11, one of several falls he had during the three-week race.

It was Cavendish’s 17th career stage win in the Giro, to go with his 34 victories at the Tour de France and three at the Vuelta — for a total of 54 stage wins at Grand Tours. The British rider started his sprint early enough that he was ahead of a crash in the final straight involving several competitors.

Also, at age 38 Cavendish became the oldest rider to win a Giro stage, beating the record held by Paolo Tiralongo, who was 37 when he won a stage in 2015.

“It was a long hard slog to get here to the end of the Giro but we’ve come close a couple of times before and my boys did incredible,” Cavendish said. “I’m pretty emotional, to be fair.

“My first Grand Tour victory was in 2008 in the Giro, down in Reggio Calabria,” Cavendish added. “To win here in Rome it’s beautiful. That’s a bucket-list win to do, outside the Colosseum.”

Alex Kirsch finished second in the stage and Filippo Fiorelli crossed third.

Cavendish will next attempt to break his tie with Merckx for the most career wins at the Tour.

Roglic has now won all three races he’s entered this year after also finishing first in the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya — both week-long races.

Roglic, who excels at climbing, descending and time trialing — won three consecutive Vueltas in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Before he became a professional cyclist, the 33-year-old Roglic was a competitive ski jumper. He won a gold medal in the team jumping event for Slovenia at the 2007 junior Nordic ski world championships. He stopped jumping in 2012 and took up cycling.

The final stage concluded with six loops of an 8.5-mile circuit in the center of Rome, taking the peloton past the Baths of Caracalla, the Colosseum, the Vatican and the Circus Maximus.

The 24-year-old Almeida won the white jersey as the race’s top under-25 rider. Thibaut Pinot won the mountains classification and Jonathan Milan won the points classification.

The Tour de France starts July 1, airing on NBC Sports and Peacock.

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French Open: Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk says crowd ‘should be embarrassed’ for booing her

Associated PressMay 28, 2023, 12:28 PM EDT

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus (left) and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine before their French Open first round match./Getty

Unable to sleep the night before her first-round match at the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the Grand Slam tournament’s No. 2 seed, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine checked her phone at 5 a.m. Sunday and saw disturbing news back home in Kyiv.

At least one person was killed when the capital of Kostyuk’s country was subjected to the largest drone attack by Russia since the start of its war, launched with an invasion assisted by Belarus in February 2022.

“It’s something I cannot describe, probably. I try to put my emotions aside any time I go out on court. I think I’m better than before, and I don’t think it affects me as much on a daily basis, but yeah, it’s just — I don’t know,” Kostyuk said, shaking her head. “There is not much to say, really. It’s just part of my life.”

That, then, is why Kostyuk has decided she will not exchange the usual postmatch pleasantries with opponents from Russia or Belarus. And that is why she avoided a handshake — avoided any eye contact, even — after losing to Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Day 1 at Roland Garros.

What surprised the 20-year-old, 39th-ranked Kostyuk on Sunday was the reaction she received from the spectators in Court Philippe Chatrier: They loudly booed and derisively whistled at her as she walked directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire instead of congratulating the winner after the lopsided result. The negative response grew louder as she gathered her belongings and walked off the court toward the locker room.

“I have to say,” Kostyuk said, “I didn’t expect it. … People should be, honestly, embarrassed.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Kostyuk is based now in Monaco, and her mother and sister are there, too, but her father and grandfather are still in Kyiv. Perhaps the fans on hand at the clay-court event’s main stadium were unaware of the backstory and figured Kostyuk simply failed to follow usual tennis etiquette.

Initially, Sabalenka — who had approached the net as if anticipating some sort of exchange with Kostyuk — thought the noise was directed at her.

“At first, I thought they were booing me,” Sabalenka said. “I was a little confused, and I was, like, ’OK, what should I do?”

Sabalenka tried to ask the chair umpire what was going on. She looked up at her entourage in the stands, too. Then she realized that while she is aware Kostyuk and other Ukrainian tennis players have been declining to greet opponents from Russia or Belarus after a match, the spectators might not have known — and so responded in a way Sabalenka didn’t think was deserved.

“They saw it,” she surmised, “as disrespect (for) me.”

All in all, if the tennis itself was not particularly memorable, the whole scene, including the lack of the customary prematch photo of the players following the coin toss, became the most noteworthy development on Day 1 in Paris.

The highest-seeded player to go home was No. 7 Maria Sakkari, who lost 7-6 (5), 7-5 to 42nd-ranked Karolina Muchova in what wasn’t necessarily that momentous of an upset. Both have been major semifinalists, and Muchova has won her past four Slam matches against players ranked in the top 10 — including beating Sakkari at the French Open last year. Also out: No. 21 Magda Linette, a semifinalist at the Australian Open, who was beat 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 by 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez, and No. 29 Zhang Shuai.

The first seeded man to bow out was No. 20 Dan Evans, eliminated 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by wild-card entry Thanasi Kokkinakis. No. 11 Karen Khachanov, a semifinalist at the past two majors, came all the way back after dropping the opening two sets to beat Constant Lestienne, a French player once banned for gambling, by a 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 score in front of a boisterous crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen. Two-time Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas came within a point of being forced to a fifth set, too, but got past Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7). No. 24 Sebastian Korda, who missed three months after hurting his wrist at the Australian Open, was a straight-set winner in an all-American matchup against Mackenzie McDonald, the last player to face — and beat — Rafael Nadal. The 14-time French Open champion has been sidelined with a hip injury since that match in January.

Sabalenka called Sunday “emotionally tough” — because of mundane, tennis-related reasons, such as the nerves that come with any first-round match, but more significantly because of the unusual circumstances involving the war.

“You’re playing against (a) Ukrainian and you never know what’s going to happen. You never know how people will — will they support you or not?” explained Sabalenka, who went down an early break and trailed 3-2 before reeling off six consecutive games with powerful first-strike hitting. “I was worried, like, people will be against me, and I don’t like to play when people (are) so much against me.”

A journalist from Ukraine asked Sabalenka what her message to the world is with regard to the war, particularly in this context: She can overtake Iga Swiatek at No. 1 in the rankings based on results over the next two weeks and, therefore, serves as a role model.

“Nobody in this world, Russian athletes or Belarusian athletes, support the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Nobody — normal people — will never support it. Why (do) we have to go loud and say that things? This is like: ‘One plus one (is) two.’ Of course we don’t support war,” Sabalenka said. “If it could affect anyhow the war, if it could like stop it, we would do it. But unfortunately, it’s not in our hands.”

When a portion of those comments was read to Kostyuk by a reporter, she responded in calm, measured tones that she doesn’t get why Sabalenka does not come out and say that “she personally doesn’t support this war.”

Kostyuk also rejected the notion that players from Russia or Belarus could be in a tough spot upon returning to those countries if they were to speak out about what is happening in Ukraine.

“I don’t know why it’s a difficult situation,” Kostyuk said with a chuckle.

“I don’t know what other players are afraid of,” she said. “I go back to Ukraine, where I can die any second from drones or missiles or whatever it is.”

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