Media "sport-express internet" founder of jsc "sport-express" editor-in-chief maksimov m. A

Salt Lake City (USA)

The Olympics in the Mormon state of Utah went down in history as the most scandalous of all time. This was largely due to the change of power in the IOC. The 2002 Winter Games were the first for the new head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, who in a number of episodes failed to cope with pressure from the media, and also chose the most painful option of tightening anti-doping policy. For journalists, an endless series of scandals was a godsend, but the reputation of the IOC was greatly shaken. The Olympic movement was on the brink of a severe crisis - it would have erupted if the Russian delegation had followed the lead of the radicals who demanded that our athletes leave Salt Lake City because of the "anti-Russian conspiracy."

Venue - Salt Lake City, USA
8 - 24 February 2002
Number of participating countries - 78
The number of athletes participating - 2399 (886 women, 1513 men)
Medal Sets - 78
Team Winner - Norway

Three main characters of the Games according to "SE"

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway),
biathlon
Janica Kostelic (Croatia),
skiing
Alexey Yagudin (Russia),
figure skating

FIGURISTS AND FIGURANTS

The flames of scandals began near Salt Lake City back in the late 1990s, when information about the money fund, with the help of which the organizing committee "paid off debts" to the IOC members who voted in favor of the American proposal, became public. This is how the secret of the beautiful victory of the capital of Utah in the competition for the right to host the 2002 Olympics was revealed, in which Salt Lake City received almost twice as many votes as the Swedish Östersund, Swiss Sion and Canadian Quebec combined. As a result of the corruption case, 10 members of the organizing committee resigned or were suspended from work. The proceedings also affected the IOC, where new rules were adopted for working with candidate cities.

Five months before the start of the Olympics, terrorists attacked the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, which forced the US authorities and the organizing committee of the 2002 Games to dramatically increase security measures in Salt Lake City. This added nervousness to the already difficult atmosphere around the competition. Remembering the organizational strangeness of the previous Winter Olympics in the United States, many were expecting tricks this time too. Alas, reasons for indignation were not long in coming. The story of the conquest of the champion title in short track speed skating by the American of Japanese descent Apolo Ono was indicative. His Korean rival Kim Dong Soon was unexpectedly disqualified for crossing Ohno's trajectory. This controversial decision by the judges caused a flurry of outrage in Korea. The following year, Apolo was even forced to refuse to travel to the Korean stage of the World Cup due to physical threats received from local fans.

But the main judicial incident happened in the competition of sports pairs in figure skating. At first they were won by the Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. But after that, the North American media made a real hysteria, demanding to explain why the judges put Canadians Jami Sale and David Pelletier only in second place. Unable to withstand the onslaught, the IOC and the International Skating Union went to revise the initial results and presented the Canadian couple with a second set of gold medals. This unprecedented case, which received the name "Scandal on Ice" in the American press (by analogy with the hockey "Miracle on Ice-1980"), will later become a reason for revising the entire rating system in figure skating.

The FBI will investigate the "Scandal on Ice" for several more years. Interest in the case will be fueled by the statements of the French arbiter Marie-Ren Le Gun, who asserted that during the 2002 Olympics she was allegedly under pressure. But the investigation will die out after one of the main defendants - Russian businessman Chevalier Nusuev - in 2005 will be shot by hired killers in Moscow.

RIPPED RECORD

Offended by the "Scandal on Ice" Russian fans will try to organize a rematch in the women's singles skating, where 16-year-old Sarah Hughes won a controversial victory over Irina Slutskaya thanks to just one referee vote. There was no loud protest action, but after the Olympics, Slutskaya will be awarded an alternative medal "For an Honest Victory" in her homeland, which will be cast from a kilogram of 750-carat gold. The men's singles tournament was also unusual in Salt Lake City. Alexei Yagudin, a 21-year-old Russian, scored a difficult victory over his 19-year-old compatriot Evgeni Plushenko. At the same time, in addition to the famous trainer Tatyana Tarasova, Yagudin was assisted by psychologist Rudolf Zagainov, who allegedly "hypnotized" Plushenko during his speech.

With a personal psychotherapist, Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen prepared for the 2002 Olympics. Perhaps it was this that helped the unique athlete to first take sixth place in the 30 km ski race, then calmly win all three biathlon starts and crown his triumph with the relay title. Three gold and one silver medals on the ski slopes of Salt Lake City for Croatian Janica Kostelic can be considered a sporting feat. A brave girl on the eve of the 2002 Games underwent three operations on her injured knee. Despite the colossal health problems, Yanitsa will compete for another five years and at the 2006 Olympics will become the most titled alpine skier in history.

In theory, Larisa Lazutina, a five-time Olympic champion in cross-country skiing, could also claim an eternal record in 2002. But her plans were canceled out by doping scandals. At first, Lazutina was removed from the relay because of the increased level of hemoglobin, and the Russian national team received information about this on the eve of the start and, not having time to make a replacement, missed the race. Lazutina nevertheless won her sixth Olympic title in the 30 km race, catching up with the great Lyubov Egorova and Lydia Skoblikova. But then in the analyzes of Larisa and our other champion Olga Danilova they will find darbepoetin, both will be deprived of gold medals and disqualified. Next year, Lazutina will become a deputy and will settle in the Moscow Regional Duma for more than ten years.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST RUSSIA

The performance of our hockey players did not please at the 2002 Olympics either. Vyacheslav Fetisov, who will soon become the head of all national sports, gathered under the banner of the Russian national team almost all of our stars from the NHL - only Sergey Zubov, Alexander Mogilny and Alexey Zhitnik refused. Even 42-year-old Igor Larionov returned to the team. But in group tournament this “dream team” drew with the Americans and lost to the Finns, and in the semifinals failed to put the squeeze on the US team. The Russians were content with the third place, which clearly did not correspond to their level. And for the first time since 1952, Canadians, led by Mario Lemieux, became champions. But the main hockey sensation is the fourth place of the national team of Belarus, which was only 14th at the world championship a year earlier.

Disqualifications and sporting failures have severely undermined Russia's position in the medal standings. With five gold medals, we took only fifth place - at that time the lowest in the history of the Games. The loss of a leading position against the background of doping and referee scandals was very painful in the country - the idea of ​​a "conspiracy against Russian sports" was seriously discussed. Although, for example, the doping revelations affected not only Russians - bronze medal v alpine skiing Briton Alan Bexter was deprived, and three gold medals were taken away from the Spanish skier of German origin Johan Mülleg after a positive doping test. One of them, by the way, passed to our Mikhail Ivanov.

Among the main events of the 2002 Olympics, it is customary to celebrate the gold of American bobsledder Vonetta Flowers and Canadian hockey player Jerome Iginla, who became the first black champions Winter Games... But the most unusual thing in Salt Lake City was the victory at the 1000 meters in short track by Australian Stephen Bradbury. This little-known athlete first reached the semifinals due to the disqualification of an opponent, and then made it to the final due to the fact that three of his competitors clashed with each other. In the final, Bradbury lagged significantly behind all the participants in the race. But the four leaders dropped each other again just before the finish line. Stephen calmly passed the fallen rivals and became the first winter champion from the Southern Hemisphere. This victory is recognized as one of the most comical in the history of sports.

The 2002 Winter Olympics are not likely to be remembered as the most productive or hospitable. However, a place in the history of the 2002 Olympics has already been secured - such a wave of scandals is international Olympic movement never experienced. Consider the conflicts of the last days.

Figure skating scandals

On February 19, Lithuania sent a statement to the International Figure Skating Association. Representatives of this country are protesting against awarding their skaters the fifth place in the competition of dancing couples. The statement of the Lithuanians, in particular, notes: "although the Italian and Canadian dancers fell in the free program, they still received higher marks than the Lithuanian duet."

As you know, the third place went to the Italians Barbara Fuzar-Poli and Maurizio Margalio, despite the fall of the dancer, who fell while performing the steps. The precedent for such statements was set earlier, when Canadian skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier protested the gold medals of Russian athletes, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikhuralidze.

As a result, they were declared the second pair winners at the Salt Lake City Olympics, and they will receive a second set of gold medals.

The International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union have decided not to annul the gold medals awarded to the Russian pair. As a result, the first place was split between Canadian and Russian skaters.

On Saturday, the president of the International Skating Union, Ottavio Cinquanta, proposed reforming figure skating judging. According to his project, the performance will be judged by the amount of points awarded separately for the implementation of each element of the program. The number of judges will also change - there will be not nine, but 14, and only seven of them will actually determine the place occupied by athletes.

As explained to Vip.site Vladimir Torzhkov, director of the Internet project of the publishing house "Soviet Sport", the version of Chinquanta was not discussed at ISU and was not agreed with the federations. So far, this proposal is a personal proposal of the head of the skating union. However, even if the number of judges is increased to 20, the claims will remain.

The determining factors are not the number of judges, but the prevailing traditions and finances. For example, professional fights of boxers are judged by three judges, and amateur fights - by five. Nevertheless, in professional boxing, there is much more judicial order (and money).

In general, there are many kinds of sports where the "subjective" opinion of the judges is taken into account, including boxing, artistic and gymnastics, synchronized swimming and ski jumping (both in the water and on skis), aerobatics and acrobatics, and so on. At the same time, the judges work in teams, but, although the rules and criteria are formalized, it is difficult to strictly follow them. Figure skating, where artistry is required, is particularly vulnerable in this regard.

The French referee Marie-Reine Le Gougne, who put the Russian couple in first place, and later admitted that she did it under pressure from certain persons from the national federation, was removed from refereeing by the ISU decision. However, after the Canadians received the second set of medals, Le Gun told the journalists of the sports newspaper "Equip" that the pressure on her was not from the national federation, but from the leadership of the ISU. Moreover, for two years, starting with the championship in Nice, Le Gun was persuaded to vote for Salé and Pelletier.

And in Salt Lake City, it came to physical threats. According to "Sovetsky Sport", according to Le Gun, the chairman of the ISU technical committee, Mrs. Stapleford, who has dual citizenship - British and Canadian - demanded that the judge sign a statement of pressure on her from the French federation in favor of the Russians. Psychologically broken, Le Gun made such a statement. Now she claims to be in a state of passion.

We add that according to the existing rules, the marks given by the disqualified judges remain in force.

Russian Federation freestyle protested the results of the performances of alpine skiers

On February 19, the Russian Freestyle Federation sent an official letter to the International Ski Federation regarding the refereeing of Olga Koroleva's performance, Ekho Moskvy reports. By the decision of the judges, the Queen took fourth place in the ski acrobatics competition, and the third place went to the Canadian Deirdre. However, according to the Russian side, the American and Canadian judges underestimated the athlete's marks, as a result of which she lost her Olympic medal.

President of the Freestyle Federation of Russia Lev Kofman noted that the Russians will not beg for a medal for Koroleva, but they are urged to professionally analyze the results of freestyle competitions.

Whether this is a "retaliation" for the skaters situation, or just a use of a fait accompli, the Olympic Games are increasingly beginning to resemble big business with incessant litigation.

The head of the Belarusian national team is expelled from Salt Lake City

And the matter was not limited to sportsmen alone. On February 19, the head of the Belarusian Olympic team, Yaroslav Barichko, was temporarily suspended from his duties. As reported by Sport Segodnya, the International Olympic Committee orders Barichko to leave Salt Lake City. According to the IOC, one of the Belarusian skaters, whose name was not disclosed, had a test "A" that exceeded the permissible norm of the steroid nandrolone content in the body by 400 times. The Belarusian did not show up for the control sample and, possibly, left the Olympics. The IOC is sure that the athlete disappeared on the advice of Barichko.

The IOC intends to investigate all the circumstances of this case and threatens Minsk with serious sanctions. In particular, according to BBC News, financial assistance to the National Olympic Committee of Belarus, which in 2001 amounted to 120 thousand dollars, will be curtailed.

Very often one hears: "Ah, Slutskaya, who was sentenced to Salt Lake City".
Or vice versa, "A, the Salt Lake City Olympics, the same one where Slutskaya was condemned.
And how many times it has been said that in fact Slutskaya is a real Olympic champion!
It seems that Irina herself believes in it.
This stereotype confirms the universal rule: image is everything.

First, a few general words. It is not for nothing that many athletes say that the Olympic medal is mean. It does not always go to the one who deserves it the most. More precisely, there are, as a rule, more worthy medals than medals themselves. The Olympics are somewhat similar to an anecdote about an exhibition of tractors, where the words "the best tractor in Europe" in English, "the best tractor in the world" in American, and "the best tractor in this hall" in Russian. Olympic gold goes to the one who is the best in this hall, here and now.

There is always a certain element of subjectivity in figure skating.
It is no coincidence that the whole team puts out the marks, and often the opinions of experts differ. Probably, the talk about the queue for the podium, about the agreements between the judges and the federations, did not arise out of nowhere. But one must understand that the possibilities of such behind-the-scenes methods are also very limited, only if the strength of the athletes is approximately equal, if each has both undoubted advantages and undoubted disadvantages. As Tarasova correctly said after Yagudin's brilliant and undoubted victory in the same 2002, one must be two heads taller than everyone else, then no one will have any doubts.

What happened in 2002? Of course, the main contender for the Olympic throne was the legendary Michelle Kwan, the favorite of all Americans, it was she who was predicted to win. Following her, they considered not less, and in many ways even more talented Sasha Cohen, incredibly light, flexible, airy, perhaps less experienced and eminent at that time (by the way, now our miracle - Lipnitskaya is called Russian Cohen). The third in the American team was Sarah Hughes, the best in this room, not fading in the shadow of her worthy rivals. At that time, she was the winner of the world championship, had the most difficult arsenal of jumps in the world, and, unlike most rivals, was stable. By the way, not long before the Olympics, in the same season at the Skate Canada International tournament, Sarah beat both Slutskaya and Kwan with the same programs. So talking about her as an accidental misunderstanding in any case is not entirely fair. It should also be noted that the rating system was fundamentally different from the current one. And the point is not only in the range up to 6.0, but also in the fact that the value of jumps was much higher than now. Thanks to one difficult jump, they won the competition, won a place in the national team. Athletes remember: jumped - won, did not jump - did not win.

As far as I remember, Chaikovskaya (maybe not the first one) said in an interview that the Americans then invented and implemented a simple and ingenious, but dastardly combination - they pulled all three of their athletes up in a hitch at any cost: if one fails, the others still won't let anyone seep. This idea was often repeated later. But my question immediately arises: if the combination is simple and ingenious, why have few people tried to repeat it? The answer is simple. Such a combination is possible only when there are three extra-top athletes. But if there are already three extra-top athletes, they (in the sense, one of them) already have great chances to take gold without any intrigues and combinations. It would never occur to anyone to talk about "combinations" when, for example, three Soviet couples won the entire podium. They were just stronger.

And further. The question is for those who believe that Slutskaya was then condemned. Let's imagine that it was not there at all. We have: Hughes the first, Kwan the second, Cohen the third. Do you think Kwan and Cohen sued in this case? Well, yes, they flopped, the jumps were not difficult, but what artistry, what gliding, what a program! But why should Americans condemn their favorites, worthy of the highest awards, in favor of some kind of misunderstanding! That is, after all, Hughes was stronger than the great Kwan. So maybe she was better than Slutskaya?

Now let's look at the program. Hughes jumped two cascades 3 + 3, Slutskaya - none! Let me remind you once again that this is happening at a time when jumping was first of all appreciated. And 3 + 3 is more difficult than 3 + 2, well, probably almost the same as a quadruple is more difficult than a triple.
Hughes did not make a single visible blot, Slutskaya - at least two: she almost touched the ice with her hand during a flip, and made a "raskoryaka" in the cascade, which the commentator Averbukh tactfully called an oiler. Bottom line: Hughes undoubtedly has a more complex and undoubtedly cleaner executed program. Isn't that enough to at least doubt the fact of the condemnation?

Some rightly point out the oddities with the marks, the discrepancy between technical and "for artistry" in comparison with other competitions. But here you can, after all, here is some unaccounted for argument: Sarah was the first among the leaders, and her grades were simply held back, as always the first in the last warm-up. After all, she was not the favorite, and the judges hoped that others would be better. That is, if she were (before) the last, her grades would have been even higher. And Irina is disingenuous, speaking in many interviews about the world championship held after the Olympics, where she had higher marks with exactly the same skating and won. Not the same skating was, at least a couple of the aforementioned gross mistakes were missing.

Now about the artistry. Many people think that Irino skating is heavy, unfeminine. She has no graceful ease in movement. Preparing for a half-skating jump, rough swings, all movements are some kind of powerful, sharp. I know that many disagree with me on this.
And the crooked hands and the "passionate" look, when there is no acting professionalism and depth behind them, IMHO, look at the skaters pretentiously. Some couples have sinned and are still doing this, but for Ira it looks just fake, it’s not even like a provincial theater, but like a parody of a provincial theater. All the same, Tosca obliges, sets a certain level. In this sense, Sarah's program is much less pretentious, which means that it does not carry unjustified expectations.

However, judge for yourself.
Irina Slutskaya

Sarah Hughes

I consider Slutskaya a great athlete who deserves Olympic gold... She has unique qualities of character that can and should be learned, and not only for athletes. But despite this, when asked if Sarah won rightly in 2002, I personally would answer "yes". Five out of nine judges thought the same. The other four felt that Irina was better.

Olympic medals are awarded in different ways. It happens that there is an undoubted leader from whom everyone expects victory. He really is a cut above everyone else, and no one doubts his victory. And he lives up to expectations. It happens that there are two main contenders, and the competition turns into a duel between them. It happens that there are several favorites with approximately equal chances, and the one who skates cleanly and accurately wins. And it happens that recognized leaders make unforgivable mistakes, and the strong middle peasant wins, who managed to take advantage of the chance they were given (perhaps, this category includes, for example, the victory of Urmanov and Navka with Kostomarov). But is that why his medal is less valuable?

P.S. I hope that one of our girls will be able to do in 4 years what Irina did not succeed in 2002.

site continues to recall the history of the performance of the Russian national team at the Winter Olympics. The third part of our story is the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Until the last, the Americans, who had pretended to the 1998 Olympics, took their toll four years later, when the capital of Utah won the right to host the 2002 Winter Games.

Surrounded by nearly a dozen ski resorts, Salt Lay City was simply set up to host a worldwide winter sports festival.

Considering that the city is located at an altitude of about 1,300 meters above sea level, most of the Olympic venues were built high in the mountains.

Cross-country skiing took place at the maximum altitude permitted by the International Ski Federation, and the Olympic ice rink has become one of the highest located ice arenas in the world.

The mascots of the nineteenth Winter Olympic Games were three animals - a hare, a coyote and a bear (does it look like anything?), Which symbolized the Olympic motto "Faster, higher, stronger."

2002 Olympics mascots: hare, coyote and bear

Participants of the Games and fans will remember the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City for the great entertainment, the brightness of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, an abundance of fireworks and special effects.

At the same time, just five months before the start of the Olympic Games, suicide bombers attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Therefore, security measures in Salt Lake City have been seriously strengthened, which affected the atmosphere of the holiday.

The main idea of ​​the 2002 Olympics was the rallying of the entire civilized world, and the organizers included in the opening ceremony of the Games the introduction of the American flag found on the ruins of a shopping center in New York, as a reminder of the need to unite nations in the face of the threat of international terrorism.

Notable features of the Olympics

Another distinctive feature of the Salt Lake City Games was a huge number of scandals, and they began long before the start of the Olympics.

Several years before OI-2002, information was released about corruption among IOC members, thanks to which the American bid won such a landslide victory.

The result was that a dozen members of the organizing committee of the Salt Lake City Olympics were dismissed, and the IOC adopted new rules for working with candidate cities.

The first Olympics in the 21st century was also marked by a huge number of disqualifications due to doping, which was a consequence of tightening control by the anti-doping committee, after Jauan Antonio Samaranch replaced Jacques Rogge as president of the IOC.

So, after a positive doping test, the Spanish skier of German descent Johan Mülleg was taken away from three gold medals at once, two of which went to the Norwegian national team, allowing her to win the medal standings.

Apolo Ono mined his gold with a scandal

There were also enough complaints about the organization of competitions and the work of judges. Everyone remembered the episode in the short track competition when the main rival of the American athlete of Japanese origin Apolo Ono, the Korean Kim Dong Soon, was unexpectedly disqualified for having crossed the trajectory of Ono.

In figure skating, an instant video replay of the competition became an innovation, but this did not save the judges from the incident that went down in history as a "Scandal on Ice" and which in the future became the reason for revising the entire rating system.

It should also be noted the appearance of the first black champions of the Winter Olympics, which were the American bobsledder Vonetta Flowers, who won gold medals, and canadian hockey player Jerome Iginla.

First winter gold China Wu Yang Yang A

The first gold medals at the Winter Olympic Games were won by athletes from Australia and China. Australian Stephen Bradbury's 1000m short track victory was somewhat ridiculous - he finished after the fall of ALL of his competitors.

His compatriot Alice Camplin won gold in freestyle and acrobatics. Yang Yang (A) won two gold medals among Chinese women in short track

Medal credit

Athletes from 77 countries of the world took part in the 2002 Olympics and 78 sets of medals were played in 15 sports: biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and biathlon, freestyle, tobogganing, speed skating and alpine skiing, short track, skeleton , ski jumping, figure skating and ice hockey.

A new look Olympic program became a skeleton - descent along an ice chute on a two-run sled on a reinforced frame. The favorite of the women's team, Ekaterina Mironova, took only 7th place in Salt Lake City, and the first Olympic medal had to wait until 2010.

The unofficial team event was won by the Norwegian national team, which won 25 medals, of which 13 were gold and 5 were silver.

The German team won only 12 gold medals, but set the Winter Games record for the total number of awards won - 36 medals.

The Americans, who closed the top three, were not far behind the Germans in the total number of medals - 34, of which 10 were gold.

The Russian team became only fifth, having won 13 medals (5 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze).

The collapse of Russian skiers

Such an unsuccessful performance was primarily due to failures in sports that brought most of the gold medals at past Olympics - cross-country skiing and figure skating. Scandals with doping and refereeing did not pass the Russian national team.

First, Larisa Lazutina was removed from the ski relay due to an increased level of hemoglobin, and this was done on the eve of the start, so that the Russian team did not have time to make a replacement and missed the race.

In the 30 km race, Lazutina won her sixth Olympic gold medal, but later darbepoetin will be found in her analyzes, she will be deprived of her medal and disqualified. The same fate befell another Russian champion - Olga Danilova.

The last Olympics of Larisa Lazutina

As a result, only Yulia Chepalova replenished the piggy bank of the Russian national team, collecting a full set of awards: gold in the sprint, silver in the classic 10 km race and bronze in the mass start.

Having lost two gold medals due to doping, the Russian national team, because of him, acquired one award of the highest standard. Russian skier Mikhail Ivanov took second place, but after Johan Mulleg was disqualified and stripped of his medals, Ivanov became Olympic champion.

"Scandal on Ice"

In figure skating, it was no longer a tragedy, but a farce. The competition of sports pairs was won by the Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, but a scandal erupted in the press, judge Mary Rein Le Gun from France was accused of bias, and the results of the competition were corrected.

As a result, a couple of days later the re-awarding ceremony took place, at which the second set of gold medals was received by Canadians Zhami Sale and David Pelletier. Chinese bronze medalists Xu Chen and Hongbo Zhao refused to participate in the second ceremony.

Jami Sale and David Pelletier

The scandal continued in women's single skating, where 16-year-old American Sarah Hughes won a rather controversial victory over Irina Slutskaya thanks to just one judge's vote.

However, there was no revision of the results. Returning to Russia, Slutskaya was awarded a medal "For an Honest Victory", cast from a kilogram of gold.

In the competition of dance pairs, the Russians were also left without gold - Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh lost to the duet Marina Anisina-Gwendal Peizerat representing France.

Alexey Yagudin won Olympic gold, and Plushenko became the silver medalist.

In the men's singles tournament, there was also a fierce struggle, albeit between Russian figure skaters. As a result, 21-year-old Alexei Yagudin scored a difficult victory over 19-year-old Evgeni Plushenko in it.

Fourfold Bjoerndalen

Biathlon brought the Russians just one gold medal, which was won in the pursuit by Olga Medvedtseva-Pyleva, for whom it was the first victory in the competition.

She took away from Salt Lake City and the relay bronze, which Galina Kukleva, Svetlana Ishmuratova and Albina Akhatova shared with Pyleva.

German luger Georg Hackl became the first athlete to win medals at five Olympics in a row (from 1988 to 2002). In Salt Lake City, Hackle was a silver medalist, and in total he has three gold and two silver medals.

Hockey revenge for Nagano

The Russians also failed to turn their 1998 hockey silver into gold 2002. despite the fact that Vyacheslav Fetisov attracted almost all Enkhalov stars to the team.

But Igor Larionov was already 42, and Pavel Bure was no longer the same as four years ago, when he scored five goals in the semifinals in Finland.

In the group stage, this Russian team drew with the Americans and lost to the Finns. In the quarterfinals, the Russians took revenge for Nagano from the Czechs, beating them with the same score 1: 0, and in the semifinals they could not cope with the US team.

Pavel Bure in the match for bronze with Belarus

As a result, the Russians were content with the third place, beating Belarus in the match for bronze, whose performance became a sensation of the tournament. And for the first time since 1952, Canadians became Olympic champions, led by Mario Lemieux.

The Salt Lake City Olympics dealt a serious blow to Russia's pride and was very painful - even the theory of "conspiracy against Russian sports" was seriously discussed, which, like most conspiracy theories, was completely untenable.

The next part of our Olympic series is the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.

What is really worth being proud of for your country is the level of our athletes, and especially the strength of the women's figure skating team. For the first time in history, two Russian figure skaters broke the world record at the Olympic Games with an interval of 20 minutes. Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova skated their short programs so brilliantly that there was almost no doubt: tomorrow they will rise to the podium for medals.

Earlier, until 2002, we did not have a single Olympic medalist, until Irina Slutskaya won silver in Turin. In Sochi, the situation has improved: 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova became the champion.

The new season has already impressed the world community: Zhenya and Alina are in the piggy bank in the team tournament, and now they are also breaking records, not paying attention to either the complicated refereeing system, in which not a single mistake can be made.

As our athletes in Pyeongchang prepare for the final day of competition, we recall 10 of the most memorable figure skating performances at the Olympic Games of yesteryear. A lot has changed over the years - the scoring system, the level of jumps and the value of the tricks - but figure skating still impresses the audience.

1. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, 2006 Olympics in Turin

Maxim Marinin and Tatiana Totmianina received their gold in Turin to the music from the famous film by Franco Zeffirelli "Romeo and Juliet". The skaters showed the highest class, even despite the fact that shortly before the performance, Tatyana received a serious head injury. At the moment, this rental is considered a reference number in pair figure skating.

2. Tessa Virtu and Scott Moir, 2010 Vancouver Olympics

This Canadian couple won the first of several gold medals in their homeland in 2010. In this enchanting dance, they not only perform the most complex technical elements at high speed, but also amazingly convey the mood of the melody with their movements. It is worth noting that at their third Olympics in Pyeongchang, they showed such passionate numbers in short and free programs that fans began to joke about how they wanted to smoke after. The result is another set of gold medals.

3.Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

During the warm-up before the free program, the rivals of this pair from Canada tried to ram and knock the opponents down. Allegedly by accident. Anton was able to push his partner away and take a hit on himself, only injuring his hand, but this was already a wake-up call.

The judges gave the victory to Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, but the Canadians demanded to reconsider the results of the tournament. The four-day scandal ended with a re-awarding ceremony, where two couples, ours and the Canadian, received gold at once.

4. Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov, 1998 Olympics in Nagano

This couple became the owner of an impressive record, hitting the pages of the Guinness Book of Records. Only they managed to win the Olympics twice in the entire history of ice dancing.

The preparation was incredibly difficult. The couple constantly quarreled, Oksana dreamed of gold, and considered other options unacceptable, Zhenya panicked so much that he was almost ready to shoot himself. Nevertheless, they received the second well-deserved gold for their number "Memorial".

5.Alexey Yagudin, 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

Another performance to be really proud of. Never before have men in singles received all sixes for artistry. The brilliantly performed short program "Winter" is still considered the benchmark in terms of choreography and the creation of an artistic image on ice.

Alexey became the first Olympic champion to complete two quadruple jumps in the program.

6. Nancy Kerrigan, 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer

In Lillehammer, Nancy won the gold medal after a serious knee injury caused by her main rival. The film about this confrontation has already received many excellent reviews, because it perfectly demonstrates the intensity of passion and excitement that accompanies the skaters.

7.Yuna Kim, 2010 Vancouver Olympics

The South Korean figure skater won the women's tournament in Vancouver, breaking her own record by 16 points, which Yevgenia Medvedeva held for 8 years. In Sochi, Yuna received silver, which her fans absolutely disagreed with, creating hundreds of petitions to review the points. The IOC did not find any violations, but the "goddess Yuna" in the eyes of compatriots is considered the winner of the 2014 Olympics. By the way, in Pyeongchang it was she who lit the fire during the grand opening of the competition.

8. Adelina Sotnikova, 2014 Olympics in Sochi

According to the media, the brilliant performance of this skater made it possible to forget about all the failures in other disciplines. The light and airy performance made the hall freeze, and the complexity of the elements performed helped her bypass the figure skater Yuna Kim and get the coveted gold.

9.Margarita Drobyazko and Povilas Vanagas, 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

Unfortunately, this performance did not bring the pair a single medal, which subsequently erupted into a serious scandal. Margarita and Povilas appealed to the Olympic Committee, but the protest was rejected. Drobyazko and Vanagas said that after this story they had no choice but to immediately leave the big sport.

10. Yuzuru Hanyu, Sochi 2014 Olympics

The Japanese talent regularly appears in the news as a figure skater who has once again broken a record. His coach approached the preparation with all seriousness and taught the ward to ride in any conditions, up to extreme: sparring, darkness, complex jump combinations. The more press around, the better! Stress should become a familiar part of the environment. Judging by how dazzlingly Yuzuru skates, all this is not in vain.