One day Cammi Granato is down in her family’s basement in Downers Grove, fighting with her brothers to play the role of Mike Eruzione.
The next day she is racing up the stairs of Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium and, along with skier Picabo Street, handing the Olympic torch to Eruzione himself.
“To actually run up the stairs with the torch after having watched so many Opening Ceremonies and seeing that happen, and then I was actually doing it was something I’ll never forget,” Granato said of Friday night’s Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Games. “It was really special.”
Handing Eruzione the torch to light the Olympic cauldron and then having him call for his 1980 teammates as he did on the gold-medal stand in Lake Placid was just as Granato remembered seeing it as a 9-year-old.
For a kid who would grow up to be captain of the U.S. women’s gold-medal team in 1998 because she was inspired by the 1980 team, this was a personal little miracle. One day she’s watching a movie of these underdogs holding up their index fingers on the podium. The next day she has a front-row seat for a sequel of sorts.
“Growing up as a kid, `Miracle on Ice,’ you know, that movie with Karl Malden? We wore that out,” Granato said. “We watched it over and over. We re-enacted the scenes, we knew it so well. The loser had to be the Russian team in the basement.”
Granato had known for several weeks that she would be part of the torch relay inside the stadium. She didn’t find out her exact role until the night before.
“I was trying to get out of the building pretty fast before they changed their mind,” she said.
Best part was that Granato knew who was going to be at the top of those steps, even if she wasn’t supposed to.
“I kind of found out by mistake,” she said. “I saw all their Olympic jerseys the night before, so I had a feeling I was handing the torch to someone and then 19 more people were [supposed to come] out.”
That was only part of Granato’s amazing night. When President Bush declared the Games open while standing amid the U.S. athletes, Granato was riding shotgun.
“He came to address the athletes before the Opening Ceremony,” Granato said.
“He stood up on the podium with the [presidential] seal and we were like 2 feet away from it, so we got some pictures. A couple of girls handed him their cell phones and he talked to their moms.”
Granato got to meet the president, she got to carry the Olympic torch, she got to hand it to the captain of the team that helped shape her goals. Hat trick.
“It’s one of the most special nights for me ever,” Granato said. “I was just incredibly honored. I still can’t believe I was selected.”