Presented sports
Biathlon
Bobsled
Skiing
Skating
Ski nordic
Ski race
Ski jumping
Luge
Figure skating
Hockey
Unfortunately, the US government did not provide adequate assistance to Lake Placid in preparation for the 1980 Winter Olympics. The reconstruction of the sports facilities was not completed, and a new prison building was used for housing in the Olympic village. There were difficulties with transport, problems with the transmission of correspondence. At the same time, the Carter administration spent a lot of money on the boycott campaign in Lake Placid. Olympic Games in Moscow. At the 82nd session of the IOC, US Secretary of State Vance, with the assistance of the American Olympic Committee, insisted on depriving Moscow of the right to host the 1980 Olympics. All of these unpleasant moments did not greatly affect the sporting side of the Winter Olympics.
The competition, in which 1283 athletes from 49 countries took part, was held in an extremely tense struggle. The Olympiad program included 38 competitions: biathlon - 10 and 20 km races, 4 x 7.5 km relay; bobsleigh, men - two and four; skiing, men - races for 15, 30 and 50 km, relay race 4 x 10 km, ski jumping 70 and 90 m; ski nordic event; women - 5 and 10 km races, 4 x 5 km relay; alpine skiing, men and women - downhill, slalom and giant slalom; luge, men and women on 1-seater and men on 2-seater sleds; speed skating, men - 500, 1000, 1500 and 10000 m, women - 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000 m; figure skating ice skating, men and women, single and pair skating, sports ice dancing; hockey.
The gold medals of the debutant of the Olympic Games, athlete from the USSR Nikolai Zimyatov, became a real sensation of the skiers' competition. The World Cup competitions preceding the Olympics convincingly testified that the winners of the competition in cross-country skiing were to be athletes from Sweden and Norway. However, Lake Placid's first gold medal was won by Zimyatov, who won the 30 km race. A few days later, he won the second gold medal- at a 50-kilometer distance. Nikolay Zimyatov received the third gold medal for his victory in the team that won the 4 x 10 km relay. The struggle in the 15 km race was dramatic, in which the Swede Thomas Wassberg was just a hundredth of a second ahead of the Finn Yoho Mieto.
The victory of the US hockey players was unexpected. Composed of the best players from universities and colleges and a well-trained team, they conducted the tournament very confidently and were deservedly awarded gold medals.
Another sensation was the two gold and two silver medals won by the athletes of Liechtenstein. The winner of the gold medals in alpine skiing is Hanni Wenzel in slalom and giant slalom.
Soviet biathlete Alexander Tikhonov performed at the Winter Olympics for the fourth time and won the fourth gold medal.
Irina Rodnina received the third gold medal for the victory in pair skating.
The remarkable skill of American speed skater Eric Hayden, who has won all 5 gold medals, has put the US team in third place overall in the unofficial standings. Hayden's achievement is striking not so much by the fact that the athlete won a record number of medals for some Olympic Games, but above all by victories at seemingly completely incompatible distances - from "clean" sprints to typical stayers. Hayden also achieved high results in cycling - in 1985 he became the US professional champion, and in 1986 he raced in the Tour de France. The athlete turned down tempting offers in commercial activities and preferred a career as a doctor.
Athletes from the GDR did not confine themselves to successful performances in sports, in which they had already become recognized leaders. In Lake Placid, they managed to win gold medals in the women's 10 km ski race - Barbara Pezold, in the women's single skating - Anette Pötsch, in the women's 500 m speed skating - Karin Encke.
53-year-old sportsman from Sweden Karl-Erik Eriksson managed to take only 19th place in the competition of two-seater bobs and 21st - four-seater. However, he became the first athlete to compete in six Winter Olympics.
In the unofficial team competition, the first place was taken by the GDR team, having won 154.5 points and 24 medals - 10 gold, 7 silver, 7 bronze. The second place went to the athletes of the USSR with 147.5 points and 22 medals - 10 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze. In third place was the US team, having won 99 points and 12 medals - 6 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze.
Soviet writer, author of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered. Both Ostrovsky's main novel, depicting the formation of a revolutionary, and the personality of the author (who wrote despite a serious illness, paralysis and blindness) in the Soviet Union were surrounded not only by the official cult, but also by the sincere popularity and veneration of many readers. N.A. Ostrovsky was born in the village of Viliya, Ostrozhsky district of Volyn province (now - Ostrozhsky district of Rivne region, Ukraine) in the family of a distillery worker Alexei Ivanovich Ostrovsky and a cook. He was admitted to the parish school ahead of schedule "because of his outstanding abilities"; He graduated from school at the age of 9 (1913) with a certificate of honor. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Shepetovka. There Ostrovsky from 1916 worked for hire: in the kitchen of the station restaurant, cuber, material warehouse worker, assistant fireman at the power plant. At the same time he studied in a two-year, then a higher primary school (1917-1919). He became close to local Bolsheviks, during the German occupation he participated in underground activities, was a liaison of the Revolutionary Committee. On July 20, 1919, he joined the Komsomol, on August 9, he volunteered for the front. He fought in the cavalry brigade of G.I. Kotovsky and in the 1st Cavalry Army. In August 1920 he was seriously wounded in the back near Lvov (shrapnel) and was demobilized. Participated in the fight against the insurgency in the special forces (CHON). In 1921 he worked as an assistant to an electrician in the Kiev main workshops, studied at an electrical engineering school, and at the same time was a secretary of the Komsomol organization. In 1922, he built a railway line for the supply of firewood to Kiev, while he caught a bad cold, then fell ill with typhus. After his recovery, he was the commissar of the Vseobuch battalion in Berezdovo (in the border area with Poland), was the secretary of the Komsomol district committee in Berezdovo and Izyaslav, then the secretary of the Komsomol district committee in Shepetovka (1924). In the same year he joined the CPSU (b). Ostrovsky's health was affected by his injury and difficult working conditions. His joints ached. The final diagnosis of N. Ostrovsky - Progressive ankylosing polyarthritis, gradual ossification of the joints. In the fall of 1927, he began to write an autobiographical novel "The Tale of the" Kotovtsy ", but six months later the manuscript was lost in transit. 
From the end of 1930, with the help of a stencil he invented, he began to write the novel How the Steel Was Tempered. The manuscript sent to the magazine "Molodaya gvardiya" received a devastating review: "the derived types are unreal." However, Ostrovsky achieved a second review of the manuscript, regarding which the party organs were instructed. After that, the manuscript was actively edited by the deputy editor-in-chief of Molodaya Gvardia, Mark Kolosov, and the executive editor, Anna Karavaeva, a well-known writer of that time (the writer Yuri Buida even credits her with the real authorship of the novel). Ostrovsky recognized the great participation of Karavaeva in the work with the text of the novel; he also noted the participation of Alexander Serafimovich, who "gave me whole days of his rest." In TsGALI there are photocopies of the manuscript of the novel, which recorded the handwriting of 19 people. It is officially believed that Ostrovsky dictated the text of the book to "voluntary secretaries". Professor V.V. Musatov asserts that "the very process of creating the text of the novel was precisely of a collective nature." In doing so, he refers to the testimony of M.K. Kuprina-Iordanskaya, who transmitted the words of the literary critic Heinrich Lenoble (died 1964), who called himself one of the co-authors of the novel. According to her, Lenoble said “that seven people did the novel“ How the Steel Was Tempered ”. The author's version of the novel was completely unreadable. " Kuprina-Iordanskaya asked Lenoble: “Why did you go for this deception?”, To which he replied: “All the same, if it were not for me, someone else did it.” This is just a fantasy that does not correspond to reality. N. Ostrovsky in his letters tells in detail about his work on the novel, there are memoirs of his contemporaries - witnesses of the writer's work on the book. Textual research confirms the authorship of N. Ostrovsky. In April 1932, the Molodaya Gvardiya magazine began publishing Ostrovsky's novel; in November of the same year, the first part was published as a separate book, followed by the second part. The novel immediately became very popular. 
In 1935, Ostrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin, a house in Sochi and an apartment in Moscow were presented to him, and the title of brigade commissar was conferred on him; For the past few months, he has lived on the street of his name (formerly Dead Lane), hosting readers and writers. He made a commitment to write new romance"Born by the Storm" (under the same name as the lost early novel, but on a different plot) in three parts and managed to write the first part, but the novel was recognized as weaker than the previous one, including by Ostrovsky himself. The manuscript of the novel was typed and printed in record time, and copies of the book were presented to loved ones at the writer's funeral. Died in Moscow on December 22, 1936. In 1940, the Nikolai Ostrovsky House-Museum in Sochi and the Memorial Museum in Moscow were opened. A street in the Zheleznodorozhny District of Kursk is named after him. Ostrovsky's works have been translated into the languages of the peoples of the USSR and many foreign languages. In 1935 Ostrovsky was awarded the military rank of brigade commissar. He was awarded the Order of Lenin. Laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1966). There are Ostrovsky memorial museums in Moscow (since 1940) and in Sochi (since 1937), where Ostrovsky lived in 1928-1936 (with interruptions), as well as in the writer's homeland. Essays: Works. (Introductory article by V. Ozerov), volumes 1-3, Moscow, 1968; Works (Introductory article by S. Tregub), volumes 1-3, Moscow, 1969. Literature: Vengerov N., Nikolay Ostrovsky, 2nd edition, supplemented and revised, Moscow, 1956; Timofeev LI, On the artistic features of N. Ostrovsky's novel "How the Steel Was Tempered", 2nd edition, Moscow, 1956; Nikolay Ostrovsky, photographs, documents, illustrations, (text by S. Lesnevsky. Compiled by R. Ostrovskaya, E. Sokolova), Moscow, 1964; Tregub S., Live Korchagin, 2nd edition, Moscow, 1973; Anninsky A., "How the Steel Was Tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovsky, Moscow, 1971: Russian Soviet prose writers. Biobibliographic Index, Volume 3, Leningrad, 1964.
The teams entered the final tournament with the baggage: the USSR - 2 points, Sweden, the USA - 1 each, Suomi - 0. The first match in the bullet was the meeting between the USA and the USSR. A draw was enough for the Soviets to maintain their leadership.
Frustrated by the difficult endings of previous matches, the Soviet hockey players got down to business immediately. Threw at close range twice Zhluktov... Did not score Alexander Golikov... Makarov attacked twice from an uncomfortable hand. And only after that the Americans delivered the puck to the Tretyak goal for the first time. This ratio of attacks - one to four - was approximately observed in the future. And it was not surprising that the debutant Krutov at the 10th minute, he opened the scoring, substituting a club for a shot Kasatonova.
The Americans did little ahead of them, but they did their best. Their top scorer Mark Johnson tried to crawl to the gate in Kharlamov style - between two defenders. And here Buzz Schneider did not philosophize: he clicked, barely entering the zone, and even almost from the side.
The Tretiak slept through this click, and the score became 1:1 ... Makarov was restored to the status quo, but the hosts managed to level the score again in the last second of the period.
Here is how it was. There were five seconds left, with the puck was Dave Christian in their zone. And from there, from behind the red line, he launched the disc towards the alien gate. Already straightened on the occasion of the end of the period Tretiak hit the puck right in front of him, and his partners, too, apparently, were already thinking in the locker room. Unlike Johnson, who managed to finish. Finnish referee Karl-Gustav Kaisla consulted with the referee-timekeeper and counted the goal. Victor Tikhonov, without waiting for a break - and there were only tenths of a second left to wait - immediately changed Tretyak to Myshkina.
He already did such a thing at the Challenge Cup - he put the second goalkeeper at the most decisive moment. But then it was a balanced, deliberate, albeit risky decision. Here it was accepted, rather, under the influence of emotions. Which, however, is quite understandable. If the USSR national team honestly played two goals in the first period, both American pucks came out of nowhere. Rather, it is known - from under the Tretyak. In any case, this is how it could be seen from the bench.
Tikhonov, however, had time to think things over during the break. And nevertheless he left Myshkin at the gates. Prior to that, Vladimir had already played in two matches on the ice of Lake Placid (by the way, some kind of strange - sometimes blue, sometimes white) - against Japan and Holland. Tretiak, according to neutral observers, was not in his best shape at this tournament. However, this replacement was also an additional psychological doping for the Americans.
They could be proud that they had forced the rival coach to remove Tretyak himself from the game!
The second period began, and everything seemed to be falling into place. John Harrington earned deletion on Kharlamov(in the old days, the Americans usually grabbed a lot of unnecessary deletions, but here they tried to play as cleanly as possible), and Maltsev in the majority jumped out one on one with Jim Craig – 3:2 ... He still managed to straighten his helmet on the way while he was running. The advantage could have become even greater if not for Craig. On the other hand, the game of the Soviet team looked too academic. There was no desire to roll the opponent away, just the players tried to do their job soundly, fulfilling the plan for shots and passes.
Surprisingly, it seems that for the third period, the Soviet team simply did not have enough morale. I recalled the pre-Olympic 10: 3, well, and I could not believe that the American team could be defeated. The USSR national team lost to it only once in history - 20 years ago in Squaw Valley (2: 3). First of all, the players are experienced - Tretiak and Valery Vasiliev, recalled that after the departure of the Czechoslovakians, they finally believed in their own invincibility and “drilled holes for the orders” that were promised to them. In addition, the Soviet team usually managed to demonstrate its power precisely in the final period. So by leading 3:2 after 40 minutes, she was in no way prepared for what happened a little later.
Here's what happened. The Americans proved to be as tough as their formidable rival and evened the game. After Krutov was sent off, Johnson scored his second goal. She got stuck at the feet of Sergei Starikov, and Johnson found her first. And after a minute and a half the captain of the hosts Mike Eruzione first brought the US team forward. Myshkin was closed by his own defender Vasily Pervukhin and the puck slipped under his arm.
In the remaining 10 minutes, although the USSR national team created chances, there were no more of them than, say, in the first 10 minutes of the match. Look at the ratio of shots for periods: 18: 8, 12: 2, 9: 6 - in the third
almost equality. Brooks continued to use four links, making quick shifts whenever possible. The final assault did not work out at all - Tikhonov could not even release the sixth field player. The "miracle" happened. Al Michaels, who was reporting on ABC (his expert was Ken Dryden), did not fail to screw the image into his closing words: “11 seconds left, 10, countdown… Morrow gives the puck to Silk… 5 seconds left. Oh, do you believe in miracles? YES!!!"
In fact, it was not yet an Olympics win. The Finns drew with the Swedes (3: 3), and the Soviet team blew Tre Krunur to pieces - 9:2 ... The hosts had to take at least one point in the match with Finland. But the Suomi national team had a very strong tournament and also claimed medals, albeit not gold ones. As well Jim Craig, worked wonders at the gate 33 year old Jorma Valtonen... After two periods, the Finns were leading 2-1, but the Americans turned that game upside down too. Goals Phila Vercotte, Rob McClanahan and Mark Johnson brought them another strong-willed victory - 4:2. Team USA became a two-time Olympic champion.
Perhaps the main effect of Miracle on Ice was that it triggered an unprecedented hockey boom in the United States.
A whole generation of future athletes chose this particular sport, and the fact that in the early 90s there was an active influx of players from American colleges into the NHL, had its origins in that Olympic victory. Almost every 96 World Cup winner claimed that he chose hockey after seeing the Miracle on Ice as a child.
More than half of the US Olympic team players have subsequently played in the NHL. Ken Morrow immediately joined the New York Islanders and became the first ice hockey player to win the Olympics and the Stanley Cup in the same season. Neil Brautin the first American to score 100 points per season in the NHL. Mike Ramsey spent 18 seasons in the league, and Dave Christian- 14. But, perhaps, for each of them Olympic victory was the most memorable moment in her career. And Mike "Rizzo" Eruzione just left hockey right after the end of the Games. At 25 years old. The captain of the gold team considered that one “miracle” was enough for him.
Nobody managed to repeat the "miracle" in the coming years. In the sense - to beat that USSR national team. She won the next three world championships, the next three Olympics, and in the 1981/82 season she defeated the national team made up of the best representatives of the NHL in the Canada Cup final - 8: 1. But if a miracle is repeated, then it will cease to be a miracle ...
Photo: NHL Hall of Fame (hhof.com), Getty Image
Three sets of awards were played in the men's competition. For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, biathletes competed for medals in a 10 km sprint race with two firing lines. Gold in this discipline was won by the main favorite Frank Ulrich from the GDR, who won the sprint at the 1978 and 1979 World Championships. Ulrich missed twice, but this did not prevent him from getting ahead of the Soviet biathletes Vladimir Alikin (1 penalty) and Anatoly Alyabyev (0 penalties). V individual race at 20 km, Ulrich was also the favorite. He showed the highest speed on the track (only Vladimir Alikin lost to Ulrich in less than two minutes), but Frank made three misses (three penalty minutes), while Anatoly Alyabyev shot without misses and was 11.5 seconds ahead of Ulrich. The third was Eberhard Rösch from the GDR, who lost almost three minutes to Alyabyev. 28-year-old Olympic debutant Alyabyev, who had never won a world medal before the Games in Lake Placid, was the only one who did not miss, except for him there was not a single biathlete who missed less than two times.
In the relay, the struggle unfolded as expected between the biathletes of the USSR and the GDR, who had previously won all medals in individual races. The key stage was the second, in which the three-time world champion Klaus Siebert received a penalty loop in prone and standing shooting and eventually lost to Alexander Tikhonov for more than a minute. At the third stage, Frank Ulrich played against Vladimir Barnashov for more than 45 seconds, but in the fourth stage, in the standing shooting, Eberhard Rösch received another penalty loop, which allowed Anatoly Alyabyev to finish alone, the GDR national team at the finish line was 53 seconds behind. Bronze went to the FRG national team, which lost more than three minutes... The USSR national team won all 4 relay races in the Olympic Games since 1968, all 4 times in the national team was Alexander Tikhonov.
Bobsled
Two sets of medals were played in the men's fours and twos competitions. Bobsledders competed on the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run, which also hosted the 1932 Olympic Games. All medals were won by bobsledders from Switzerland and the German Democratic Republic. In doubles, the crew of the multiple world champion 33-year-old Erich Scherer from Switzerland won a landslide victory. The Swiss have won gold in this discipline for the first time since 1948. Scherer and his accelerator Josef Benz won 3 of 4 races, the second GDR crew under the control of a double Olympic champion 1976 Bernhard Hermeshausen (4 years ago he acted as overclocking) lost more than 1.5 seconds to the Swiss. Third place went to the first crew of the GDR, 39-year-old pilot Meinhard Nemer, who won two gold medals 4 years earlier. In the fours' competition, Nemer took revenge on the Swiss, while Hermeshausen this time entered the Nemer's crew as an accelerator. Scherer's crew lagged behind the GDR team by 0.95 seconds. The second GDR crew of Horst Schönau lost 0.10 seconds to the Swiss, although the Swiss were third before the last race.
Skiing
Six sets of awards were played (three for men and three for women), the competition took place on the slopes of Whiteface Mountain, located on the Adirondack Ridge northeast of Lake Placid. Among men, the leader of the world alpine skiing of the late 1970s, the Swede Ingemar Stenmark, who won gold in slalom and giant slalom - disciplines, distinguished himself. At the same time, in both disciplines, 23-year-old Stenmark passed the track relatively unsuccessfully in the first attempt, but won back in the second. In downhill skiing, Austrian Leonard Stock won gold, only his compatriot Peter Wirnsberger lost to Stock in less than one second.
In women, 23-year-old Hanni Wenzel from Liechtenstein performed brilliantly, she won gold in slalom and giant slalom (in slalom, her advantage over Krista Kinshofer, who took second place, was almost 1.5 seconds), and in downhill, Wenzel became second after Austrian Annemarie Moser -Rel. The Wenzel gold medals were the first ever for Liechtenstein at the Olympic Games in all sports (both winter and summer) and remain the only ones to this day (as of the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics). In addition, Liechtenstein is the most sparsely populated country in the history of the Olympic Games, a citizen of which managed to win Olympic gold.
Skating
Ski nordic
One set of medals was played. Athletes performed three jumps each, the worst result was not taken into account. The results in the 15 km race with separate start were recalculated into points, and the winner was determined by the sum of the two events. 27-year-old East German Combatant Ulrich Weling, who was previously the best in combined event at the 1972 and 1976 Games, won his third consecutive victory at the Olympics. Weling took the lead after the jump part, in the race he showed the ninth result, but this was enough to win. In jumps, the American Walter Malmqvist unexpectedly showed the second result, but as a result of an unsuccessful performance on the track, he rolled back to 12th place in aggregate. The silver was eventually won by 23-year-old Finn Jouko Karjalainen, who showed the best time on the track (he was seventh in jumping). The third place went to the 1976 Olympic Games bronze medalist and 1978 world champion Konrad Winkler from the German Democratic Republic (fifth in jumping and eighth on the track). Pole Jan Legerski, who showed second place in the race, failed to rise above 10th place due to 19th place in jumping.
Lake Placid (USA)
The 1980 Games were unlucky. They were held during the most desperate period of the Cold War, when Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, and the United States and its allies were preparing to boycott summer Olympics in Moscow. The opposing blocs poured streams of mud on each other, and the trip of our delegation to the "enemy's lair" was accompanied by a powerful ideological pumping. The USSR team consisted of 86 athletes representing all sports, except for bobsleigh. Most of them spent two weeks in Lake Placid awaiting provocations from the American special services, while Soviet newspapers wrote maliciously about "their morals" and about the numerous punctures of the organizers of the Games.
Venue - Lake Placid, USA
14 - 23 February 1980
Number of participating countries - 37
The number of athletes participating - 1072 (232 women, 840 men)
Medal Sets - 38
Team winner - USSR
Three main characters of the Games according to "SE"
Herb Brooks (USA),
hockey (coach)
Eric Hayden (USA),
skating
Nikolay Zimyatov (USSR),
ski race
IN THE ENEMY'S LARE
There were indeed grounds for dissatisfaction with the organization of the Games. Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics for the second time, and again, as in 1932, made many mistakes. Chief among them was the failure of the Olympic Village project. It was not possible to find an investor for him, and the local authorities did not come up with anything better than to provide athletes with a freshly built prison for juvenile delinquents. The Olympians had to rest in concrete chambers between starts - many complained about the oppressive atmosphere. During the 1980 Games, there were also problems with transport, communication and ticket sales.
Another problem was the lack of snow on the ski slopes. But it was solved with the help of snow cannons. More than $ 5 million was spent on the production of artificial snow - this was the first such case in the history of the Games. For many athletes, artificial turf turned out to be unusual - they had to adapt to new conditions. It is believed that it was the snow from the cannons that helped the Swede Ingemar Stenmark to become a two-time Olympic champion, who won the ski slalom and giant slalom competitions just five months after a severe injury.
But Stenmark's medals are not primarily remembered in connection with the 1980 Winter Olympics. The main event of the Games was the victory of the US hockey team over the great Soviet team, which interrupted the 16-year hegemony of the USSR in Olympic tournaments hockey. Students from student teams overcame the red car sensationally and won gold medals. The match between the USA and the USSR, which was defined in the Western press as "Miracle on Ice", is recognized as the main event in the centenary history of hockey and in the history of American sports in the 20th century.
MIRACLE ON ICE
There are many explanations for the failure of Soviet hockey players - generational change in our team, underestimation of rivals (on the eve of the Olympics, the USSR national team defeated the US team with a score of 10: 3) and the mistakes of our coach Viktor Tikhonov, who was tactically outplayed by American Herb Brooks. But the fact remains - unknown students surpassed the most stellar team in the history of Soviet hockey with a score of 4: 3. By the way, that historic fight was not decisive at all. After him, the US team had to beat the Finns as well. After two periods, the hosts of the Olympics were behind 1: 2, but managed to score three goals in a row and went down in history.
Almost the entire USSR national team at that Olympics consisted of our hockey legends. Vladislav Tretyak, Boris Mikhailov, Valery Kharlamov, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergey Makarov played for her. They won six matches against other rivals with a total score of 60:13. Miracle on Ice overshadowed another major event in hockey tournament- return to the Games after an eight-year absence from Canadians. True, the "Maple Leaves" in Lake Placid did not even manage to get out of the group, showing their worst result in history.
Even the grandiose performance of the American speed skater Eric Hayden, who won all five Olympic distances and became the five-time champion of Lake Placid, setting a record for the Winter Games, was in the shadow of hockey achievements. The lack of planned hockey gold did not prevent the USSR national team from achieving victory in the team competition. Soviet Olympians won 10 awards of the highest dignity, ahead of athletes from the GDR in this indicator. Although the total number of medals best result all the same showed the East Germans.
CHAMPION'S TEARS
Among the Soviet heroes of the 1980 Games are biathlete Alexander Tikhonov, who won first place in the relay for the fourth time in a row, and figure skater Irina Rodnina, who became a three-time Olympic champion in Lake Placid. Rodnina's tears on the podium during the awards ceremony are one of the most emotionally bright moments in the history of Russian sports. After the 1980 Olympics, the most titled figure skater in history will end her career as an athlete, and in 1990 she will go to work as a coach in the United States for 12 years. In 2013, a book of her memories will be released under the title "Tear of a Champion". As for Tikhonov, in the future he will become a sports functionary and entrepreneur. In 2007, the court found him guilty of preparing an attempt on the life of the governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, but would release him from punishment under an amnesty.
The games at the height of the Cold War were generally quite successful for us, despite the political and moral costs. In Lake Placid skier Nikolai Zimyatov scored with two individual and one relay gold medals. In the 50 km marathon, the athlete little-known before the Olympics was ahead of the legendary Finn Juhu Mieto by almost three minutes. Although, probably, this defeat was not as offensive as the loss of the Finn in the 15 km race. From the Olympic champion - Thomas Wassberg - Mieto was separated by only one hundredth of a second. This is the smallest gap between winners in Olympic history cross-country skiing.
Another heroine of ours was the former seamstress from Riga Vera Zozulya, who sensationally celebrated her victory in the German fiefdom - luge. After the collapse of the USSR, the only one in Russian history Olympic champion in luge sports, he will first work as a simple physical education teacher, then as a trainer in Poland, Latvia and Kazakhstan, but will not be in demand in Russia.
Dwarfs versus titans
One of the amazing features of the final medal table The 1980 Olympics became an incredibly high - sixth - place for the Liechtenstein national team, ahead of such winter sports leaders as the Norwegians, Finns and Swiss. The reason was the success of only two skiers - sister and brother Hanni and Andres Vinzel, who won 4 medals in Lake Placid for two, including two gold. In general, Liechtenstein, thanks to its skiers from 1976 to 1988, consistently won medals at Winter Games... It is the most successful dwarf nation in Olympic history.
During the opening ceremony in Lake Placid, the Canadian national team received an especially warm welcome from the public. At the end of 1979, diplomats from this country, during the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by radical students, rescued and took home six Americans. True, another 52 embassy employees remained hostage, and for this reason, the option of the Iranian national team's arrival at the Games was not even considered. But at the 1980 Winter Olympics, the Chinese team returned to the Olympic family, which had not previously played at the Games because of the IOC's position on the Taiwan issue. In the late 1970s, priorities changed and Taiwan was asked to abandon its flag and act as Chinese Taipei. The Taiwanese took offense and boycotted the 1980 Olympics.
However, against the background of global political demarches on Summer Games in the 1970s and 1980s, all these events will turn out to be only minor skirmishes. The main political upheavals, fortunately, only hit the Winter Olympics tangentially.
