His work for Sports Illustrated included the renowned cover photo of the United States men’s hockey team celebrating their upset win at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
In 1980, Heinz Kluetmeier found the perfect angle at the Lake Placid Olympic Center to chronicle the underdog U.S. hockey team’s 4-3 semifinal victory over the Soviet squad. His photograph ran on the cover of Sports Illustrated without any explanatory headline or caption.Credit...Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated
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- Jan. 19, 2025
Heinz Kluetmeier, a prominent photographer for Sports Illustrated who captured the exultation of the United States men’s Olympic hockey team when it upset the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Games and the swimmer Michael Phelps’s minuscule margin of victory in a gold medal race at the 2008 Summer Olympics, died on Tuesday at his loft in Manhattan.