Back to Opening Ceremonies, yesterday.

In the final 10 minutes of the show, when famous Russian Olympians were handling the torch … the two most prominent guys out there saw their Olympic careers marred by defeats to …

Americans.

It made me smile.

To wit:

The third torchbearer was an enormous guy named Alexander Karelin. Shaved head. Scary looking. The sort of guy you would hire to enforce discipline at a bouncers convention.

He destroyed all competition in Greco-Roman wrestling for more than a decade and won Olympic gold in 1988, 1992 and 1996.

He reached the heavyweight final at Sydney in 2000, where he ran into a Wyoming farm boy named Rulon Gardner … who handed Karelin his first defeat in international competition.

One of the great upsets in Olympic history. Karelin lost; the Yank won; and there was Karelin jogging along with the torch in Sochi.

The second torchbearer who made me smile was Vladislav Tretiak, who lit the cauldron, along with skater Irina Rodnina.

Tretiak was the goalkeeper for the great Soviet teams of the 1970s and 1980s, and some believe he was the best keeper to play the game. He was named to the all-century team by the Ice Hockey Federation.

He led the Soviets to Olympic gold in 1972, 1976 and 1984.

And then there was 1980 …

In the semifinals, the Soviets faced the U.S. national team, made up of college boys. This was pre-NHL, of course.

Tretiak played for the USSR national team in what was really a full-time professional job. All he did was play hockey.

The U.S. team was amateurs.

If you are over age 45, you probably remember it — the Miracle on Ice.

The Soviets were prohibitive favorites to defeat Herb Brooks‘s amateurs, but he seems to have convinced them they could beat the Big Red Machine, and they did not play as if they were intimidated, which they should have been: The Soviets had beaten them 10-3 in an exhibition 13 days earlier.

The first period ended at 2-2, with the U.S. getting their second goal one second before the end of the period when Tretiak was unable to control a shot, and the rebound was rifled home by Mark Johnson.

The Soviet coach, Viktor Tikhonov, apparently panicked. He decided he needed to change goalies, bringing on Vladimir Myshkin, who was good but wasn’t Tretiak — even if Tretiak hadn’t quite seemed like Tretiak in the first period.

You may know the rest. Tretiak watched from the bench as the U.S. won 4-3, then beat Finland for the gold medal.

Maybe the greatest upset in Winter Games history.

And the guy who lit the cauldron last night? He was on the losing side in that game.

Tretiak and Karelin were two great champions. The Russians were right to honor them with torchbearer duties last night.

But we American sports fans are entitled to smile, at a couple of the rare moments when they were shown to be human.

I was pleased with myself for remembering that, too. I recognized Karelin, and as soon as I heard “Tretiak” (who I saw play at Sarajevo) … it all clicked. Ha!