'Miracle on Ice' Captain Eruzione to Newsmax: Send Athletes to Beijing Olympics

America's athletes should be allowed to compete at the Winter Olympics in Beijing this coming February, as politics should not play a role in the games, 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey legend Mike Eruzione insisted on Newsmax Wednesday.

"I get what's going on in China," Eruzione said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "There are other ways, we can find a way to punish the Chinese people. Hurt them in the pocketbook. You'll find ways to do things like that. But let our athletes go."

Back in the Lake Placid Games, Eruzione's team captured the gold medal with a stunning 4-3 win over the then-Soviet Union team. The win came after President Jimmy Carter had boycotted the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow to protest the late 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but the Winter Olympic Games went on in Lake Placid, New York.

"If you think about 1980, when we boycotted the Summer Games because the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, look what happened in Afghanistan, and yet our athletes didn't have an opportunity to compete," said Eruzione. "I'm kind of old school. I think you take the politics out of the Olympic Games."

Olympians train for years for that "one chance" to compete, Eruzione continued, and to take that chance away would be "wrong and unjust," especially considering how difficult it has been to train during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There's been no competition because of COVID," said Eruzione. "They've had to find places to train on their own. The sacrifices they are making just for the opportunity to go and compete is incredible now."

And for the fans back home in the United States, "wouldn't it be nice to sit at home and watch our athletes compete, watch them stand on the podium, see your flag being risen, and hear your national anthem?" said Eruzione.

The big question now, though, will be whether athletes, including those from the National Hockey League, will want to risk being quarantined in China should they become ill there.

"I think that's going to be a decision that a lot of the athletes can have to make individually and obviously from a team," said Eruzione. "But let the athletes go. Let them compete. They've worked too hard and trained too hard. Like I said, what better message to send and see our athletes standing on that podium, representing us and all the hard work and determination that they put in again just with that opportunity to be there."

He pointed out the speedskater, "who skates one race. They trained for years for that one moment. We can't take that way from them."

President Joe Biden has announced that there will be a diplomatic boycott of the Games, but not one for athletes, and Eruzione said that is okay.

"I went to Vancouver with Peggy Fleming and Vonetta Flowers, and then-Vice President Biden," Eruzione said. "We were part of the U.S. delegation for the Games in Vancouver, and, you know, basically all we did was go to sporting events and a couple of dinners here and there. If the diplomats aren't going to be there, so be it. Let them stay home."

Even when the United States boycotted the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, the Soviet Union refused to boycott the Lake Placid Games, because they believed they would dominate the games in the United States, he added.

"The one sport that they were supposed to dominate, we ended up winning and sent the message to Russia that ''hey, look what can happen when a group of people believe in the work ethic commitment that our team put together to accomplish that moment," Eruzione said.

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