Nobody who lived during the Cold War would say that solo Olympic sports weren't part of a team sport, the team being your nation. A solo gold medal in one of th

Nobody who lived during the Cold War would say that solo Olympic sports weren't part of a team sport, the team being your nation. A solo gold medal in one of the premier events (100m dash, gymnastics all-around, figure skating) was just as intense as any professional league championship ever was. It's not an exaggeration to say it was proxy warfare and possibly prevented actual global war. It was a way for those nations to express dominance off the field of battle.