Did Hockey Team Have the Light Stuff for 2002?

While working at the University of Utah on a genetics research project, Zhang Kai from Beijing is volunteering at the Winter Olympics. He was confused during the opening ceremony Friday night when members of the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team emerged from the wings to light the caldron.

“Why would they pick those men?” he asked a friend of mine.

I could have told him. That team of miracle workers is legendary in the United States, a group of college boys who melded at the right time to beat the highly favored professionals from the Soviet Union in 1980 at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Not only that, they did it at a time when American spirits were about as low as they could go. The Cold War raged. The Soviets were thumbing their noses at us in Afghanistan. Iran held U.S. hostages. The economy was stalled. Lines at the gas pumps were long. When the hockey team beat the Soviets, then went on to win the gold medal, it gave us a lift.

For an American, there could hardly be a more fitting choice to play the starring role in the opening ceremony.

But Zhang’s question made me wonder. What must the rest of the world think of a country still celebrating an ice hockey game played 22 years ago?

A geneticist such as Zhang might conclude that we haven’t evolved much since 1980.

I mean, the Cold War ended long ago.

We won.

Having been in Moscow last summer, I can report that fact without equivocation. There are more Marriott hotels in downtown Moscow than there are in downtown Salt Lake City, which is where the corporate headquarters are located. There is a McDonald’s on every corner. I didn’t see a Starbucks, but there are plenty of coffee houses where you can overpay for a latte just the way you can in the United States.

The Evil Empire, which is different from the Evil Axis, is no more.

So maybe it is time for us to move on.

It seemed as if we had done that last week, when we were wrapping not only ourselves but every country participating here in the World Trade Center flag as a symbol of a world unified against terrorism.

The opening ceremony hit all the right notes.

The entrance of the torn and tattered flag that had flown at the WTC on Sept. 11 into the stadium, carried by an honor guard of eight U.S. athletes and two policemen from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was as moving as anticipated.

But an even more meaningful moment for me came when the Olympic flag entered the stadium, accompanied by an international cast of dignitaries: astronaut and Sen. John Glenn from the Americas, former Polish President Lech Walesa from Europe, Archbishop Desmond Tutu from Africa, Japanese ski jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki from Asia and Australian track star Cathy Freeman from Oceania. Along with them, representing the Olympic pillars of sport, art and environment, were French skier Jean-Claude Killy, director Steven Spielberg and Jean-Michael Cousteau.

“Your nation is overcoming a horrific tragedy, a tragedy that affected the whole world,” International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said. “We stand united with you in the promotion of our common ideals, in a hope for world peace.”

One world, united.

Then out came the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team, wearing replica USA jerseys, no less, reminding everyone of when the world was divided.

Was that too much of an American moment?

For the answer, I went Saturday to the Russians.

If anyone might have been offended by the choice, it would have been them.

They weren’t.

“We were glad to play such a major role in the ceremony,” joked Igor Rabiner, a journalist for Sport Express in Moscow. “It took two teams to play that game. Your team and our team.”

Also, he pointed out, subsequent history was kinder to Soviet hockey players. They won gold medals in 1984, ’88 and ’92.

And, he said, so much has happened in the Soviet Union since then, including that there is no longer a Soviet Union, that the people there don’t dwell much on hockey games from 1980.

Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian television personality, confirmed that.

He was much more interested in talking Saturday about the clothing that the Russian team wore for the opening ceremony. He rated it the best.

“From the Evil Empire to the Fashion Empire,” he boasted.

Pressing him on the hockey game, he said, “It’s part of history. We lost. But we’re very happy for the United States, really proud of their team.

“It was a team of amateurs and students and they beat the best team in the world. Everyone can learn from that, your children and ours.”

Besides, he said, when the Olympics next come to Russia, the hosts are planning to have the torch lit by the 1972 gold-medal basketball team.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com