The 1976 Olympics (winter) is an event that had a very important sporting and political significance during the confrontation between the countries of the West and the Soviet Union. The capitalist and socialist systems tried to prove which variant of development is more correct. No matter how strange it may seem, but Winter Olympics in Innsbruck 1976 was no exception. It was there that a serious struggle for the first places unfolded.
USSR - the best of the best
Initially, the 1976 Olympics (winter) was supposed to be in America, in Denver. But the residents of this city in the referendum held their votes against the games. Therefore, the Olympic Committee found itself in a difficult situation. And then Innsbruck agreed to host such an important event as the 1976 Olympics. The winter relay, it is worth noting, was already held in this city in 1964. This event was attended by 1123 people who came from 37 countries. And the competitions were held in ten sports disciplines. The list included skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, luge, speed skating, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, figure skating and, of course, hockey. The unconditional victory in this Olympiad was won by the athletes of the Soviet Union. It should be recalled that they managed to win 13 6 silver and 8 bronze ones. In second place was the GDR with the number of awards far behind the USSR. These are 7 gold medals, 5 silver and 7 bronze medals. And the representatives of the United States won the third place.
Figure skating
1976 Olympics (winter) distinguished itself by performances in figure skating... Soviet athletes showed themselves excellently in this competition. In pair skating, the gold went to Irina Rodnina. The victory in ice dancing was won and Vladimir Korolev took silver in the men's singles skating. He was second only to the well-proven John Curry from Britain. And the gold in the same category, only for women, went to the American Dorothy Hamill.
Skiers
It should be noted that the Soviet masters of skiing showed themselves as well as in figure skating. In the race, which was held for 30 kilometers, the victory went to In a similar competition, but for 15 kilometers, the first place was shared by Evgeny Belyaev and Nikolay Bazhukov. Bronze was won in the team race, losing the victory to Finland. Raisa Smetanina won gold in the women's 10 km ski race. The first place went to Soviet girls in the relay. It should be noted that Soviet athletes also won gold in biathlon.
Hockey
At all times it was a very entertaining sport. Six teams from Division A and four of the strongest teams from Division B were admitted to the tournament, which was held within the framework of the notorious Olympics. One team from Division C was also added. According to the results of the 1975 World Championship, a preliminary tournament was immediately held. After him, the losers played matches according to the system called “each against each” - for the 7th-12th places. The winners then competed for 1-6 places among themselves. I remember the 1976 Olympics for a long time. Hockey (the final in this category was amazing) allowed the Soviet team to excel once again. It is worth noting that the Canadian team did not want to play in Innsbruck. That is why the national teams of Czechoslovakia and the USSR competed for the first place and the title of the strongest hockey team in the world. In the first half, the Russians were losing - the rivals had already scored two goals. But in the second, our athletes were able to recoup and for the fourth time to prove that they are champions. The 1976 Olympics went down in world history for a long time, since then Soviet athletes managed to win the largest number of awards that was possible.
Was supposed to take place in the USA, in Denver. However, residents of the city voted against the Games in a referendum, so the Olympic Committee found itself in a difficult situation. As a result, Innsbruck, which had already hosted them in 1964, agreed to host the Olympic Games.
1123 people from 37 countries took part in the Winter Olympics. Competitions were held in ten sports disciplines: alpine skiing, bobsleigh, speed skating, jumping, luge, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, figure, hockey. According to the results of the Olympiad, athletes from the Soviet Union won an unconditional victory, having won 13 gold, 6 silver and 8 bronze awards. The second place was taken by the GDR with 7 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze medals. The representatives of the USA got the third place - 3 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals.
Hockey is always one of the most spectacular competitions in the Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, the Canadian team, which boycotted the games, did not compete in Innsbruck, so the eternal rivals - the teams of the USSR and Czechoslovakia - fought in the final for the right to be called the strongest team in the world. The beginning of the meeting was not in favor of the hockey players from the USSR, already in the first half they were losing with a score of 0: 2. In the second half, they managed to win back, but in the third, eight minutes before the end, the Czechs took the lead again. Nevertheless, their expectations were not destined to come true - the goals of Alexander Yakushev and Valery Kharlamov allowed the team from the USSR to become champions for the fourth time in a row. The Czechs got the second place, the third was taken by the athletes from Germany.
Soviet athletes also performed well in figure skating. Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev won gold in pair skating, while Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov won ice dancing. In men's single skating, silver went to Vladimir Korolev, who was second only to the excellent British John Curry. Among women gold medal the American Dorothy Hamill deservedly won.
The games were also successful for Soviet skiers. In the 30 km race, Sergey Savelyev won the victory, in the 15 km race, Nikolai Bazhukov and Evgeny Belyaev took the first two places. In the team race, the team of the Soviet Union managed to win bronze, the gold was won by athletes from Finland.
Raisa Smetanina was the first in women's cross-country skiing for 10 kilometers, Soviet girls won gold in the relay.
The gold medal was taken to the USSR and biathletes - to individual race Nikolai Kruglov became the first for 20 kilometers, there was no equal to Soviet athletes in the relay.
The 1976 Winter Olympics became one of the most successful for athletes from the USSR and forever entered the history of Soviet and Russian sports.
The championship in 25 sports was played by 6189 athletes from 88 countries. For the first time in the program Olympic Games women's basketball and handball tournaments were included. And it's nice that the list Olympic champions were opened by sportswomen of the Soviet Union.
Soviet athletes performed successfully in most sports and won an indisputable victory in all respects. Our delegation had 792.5 points and 125 medals - 49 gold, 41 silver, 35 bronze. The Soviet Olympians won in Montreal, despite many unfavorable factors - a significant difference in time, unusual climatic conditions, and a difficult political situation.
Athletes from the GDR also performed well in athletics, rowing, bullet and clay shooting, and football. As a result, the delegation of the GDR took the overall 2nd place with 638 points and 90 medals (40 gold, 25 silver and 25 bronze). 3rd place - for US athletes - 603.75 points, 94 medals (34 gold).
A total of 198 gold medals were awarded. Sportsmen from socialist countries won 121.
A notable contribution to the victory of Soviet sports was made by 48 Leningraders who were part of the USSR sports delegation. They won 34 medals: in individual competitions - 2 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze; in the team - 7 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze. In the team event, they received 98.9 points, 12.48 percent of the total number of points for the entire delegation of the USSR.
41 Leningraders entered the top six and brought the team points. Our fellow countrymen did not have such a high performance at the previous Games.
Athletes performed the most successfully: they received 9 medals and 43 points.
Tatiana Kazankina from Leningrad became one of the main heroines of the track and field competitions. When the national team was formed for a trip to Montreal, Tatiana was prepared to compete at a distance of 1500 meters. It was on her that, about a month before the Games, she set a phenomenal world record - 3 minutes 56 seconds, becoming the first woman in the world to run a half-kilometer distance in less than 4 minutes. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. And suddenly - a surprise! Two weeks before the Olympic starts at the control competitions in Paris, Tatyana ran 800 meters with the second result in the history of the world athletics- 1 minute 56.6 seconds! It was then that the question arose: to run in Montreal only 1500 meters or 800 meters too? Championship in 800 meters races was played in the first days, and "lorry" - at the end of the competition. So Kazankina would first have to run 800 meters for three days in a row, then, after one day of rest, again for three days in a row, go out to the 1.5-kilometer distance. Will she have enough strength?
There were many doubts. The last word remained with the athlete and her coach Nikolai Egorovich Malyshev. And they took a chance!
The entire Soviet delegation watched every start of the Leningrad competition with anxiety and hope. In races and semi-finals, she had to run in such a way as to secure a place to advance to the next stage of the tournament and at the same time keep her strength for the final.
Participants of the 800-meter race start. Tatiana wins her race with the overall fourth result. In the semi-finals, the speed is much higher. The first semifinal brought success to the athlete from the GDR A. Weiss-Barkuski - 1 minute 56.53 seconds. Tatiana is the second, losing about a second to the winner. And here are the eight best athletes in the final. Initially, the run was led by the Soviet runner S. Styrkina. Then the Bulgarian N. Shtereva spurred. Athletes from the GDR E. Zinn and A. Weiss were the first to run into the finish line. And just at that time Kazankina began to increase her speed. She overtook her rivals and crossed the finish line first. Stopwatches recorded a new world record - 1 minute 54.94 seconds.
Rest day and run again. Now at her "crown" distance of 1500 meters. Tatyana believed: here she would not yield to anyone. Preliminary race. She showed a relatively short time, but quite sufficient to reach the semifinals. Having tactically constructed the run correctly, Kazankina wins the second semifinal as well.
The athlete's run in the finals can serve as a truly exemplary example of tactical wisdom and skill. Having lost the lead over a large part of the distance to her rivals, Tatyana kept a sharp eye on the lead group. And when there were less than 100 meters left to the finish line, she began a stormy finish, of which she was the only one capable. So she won the second gold award.
Two Leningraders represented our team in shot put - Alexander Baryshnikov and Evgeny Mironov. For Baryshnikov, this was the second Olympics. Four years ago, Alexander's performance was unsuccessful. The athlete, under the guidance of the honored trainer of the USSR V. I. Alekseev, mastered the original and unusual method of circular swing in shot put. But the overly smooth surface of the pushing circle did not give the athlete the necessary support during rotation, which prevented him from showing a good, by Olympic standards, result. In Montreal, Baryshnikov arrived as one of the main favorites: two weeks before the Olympics at competitions in Paris, he sent a cannonball to 22 meters, setting a world record. Yevgeny Mironov was included in the team just before the departure.
The qualification standard - 19 meters 40 centimeters - was completed by 11 athletes. Baryshnikov, from the first attempt, sent the core to 21 meters 32 centimeters, improving the Olympic record. And now the final competition. After the first attempt, Baryshnikov was in the lead - 20 meters 53 centimeters. On the second - the American E. Feuerbach took the lead, exceeding the result of the Leningrader by 2 centimeters. In the third attempt Baryshnikov took the lead again with a jerk of exactly 21 meters. The fifth attempt brought U. Bayer, an athlete from the GDR, to 1st place, who pushed the projectile 21 meters 5 centimeters. Following him, Mironov also crossed this grandmaster's line - 21 meters 3 centimeters. The last attempt did not change the location of the leaders' seats. Yevgeny Mironov won the silver medal, Alexander Baryshnikov won the bronze.
Our compatriot Tatyana Anisimova left the Olympic stadium with an ambivalent feeling: on the one hand, the great joy of the silver medalist of the Olympic Games; on the other - offense: she lost only 0.01 (!) seconds ... Tatiana confidently won the preliminary 100 meters hurdles, showing a good result - 12.98 seconds. Then, 1st place in the semifinals. In the final race, everything was decided by hundredths of a second. The winner was the athlete from the GDR I. Schaller - 12.77 seconds, Anisimova - 12.78 seconds, and the third place Muscovite N. Lebedeva - 12.80 seconds.
Soviet athletes achieved triumphant success in hammer throwing: they occupied the entire podium! After the first throw in the final, the leadership was captured by three representatives of the USSR national team. The champion was the Ukrainian athlete Yuri Sedykh, who set an Olympic record - 77 meters 52 centimeters, the silver medalist - Aleksey Spiridonov from Leningrad. He also surpassed the previous Olympic record by sending a projectile 76 meters 8 centimeters. The champion of the previous Games and the coach of the champion-76 from Kiev Anatoly Bondarchuk rose to the third step of the podium.
The shot putter Nadezhda Chizhova came to Montreal for her third Olympics. Having healed another injury, she, together with her coach V.I. Alekseev, was as collected and careful as possible in training and competitions. And yet, at the most acute and crucial moment of the struggle for Olympic medals, she did not protect herself from injury. The first attempt is 20 meters 84 centimeters. The second push turned out to be even better: the nucleus sank 12 centimeters further than the first result. Her closest rival, the Bulgarian I. Hristova, lost 8 centimeters to her. But after the third severe injury, our disc thrower Faina Melnik carried Nadia out of the circle in her arms. And the competition continued. And in the fifth attempt, Hristova showed the result 20 centimeters better than that of Chizhova. A new Olympic record was registered - 21 meters 16 centimeters. Hristova became the champion of the Games. And Chizhova added a silver one from Montreal to the previously won gold award in Munich and bronze in Mexico City.
Twenty men's teams contested the championship in the 4X100 meters relay race. Our team took 3rd place in the race and semi-finals. Eight strongest teams met in the final. The fate of the medals was decided in the last meters. The runners of the USA won - 38.33 seconds, the athletes of the GDR finished second - 38.66 seconds, the USSR team lost 0.12 seconds. Leningraders Alexander Aksinin and Nikolai Kolesnikov received bronze medals.
The Olympic debut of basketball players took place. Six of the strongest teams in the world were allowed to compete for medals. Our basketball players played five matches at the XXI Games and achieved success in all of them. In the meeting with the national team of Czechoslovakia, the advantage of the Soviet athletes was determined by 13 points. In all other meetings, the gap was from 20 to 60 points.
The main point guard, the captain of the team from Leningrad, Nadezhda Zakharova, made a solid contribution to this brilliant victory. A talented athlete to her numerous high titles - world, European, USSR champions - she also added the honorary title of Olympic champion.
But the Soviet fans expected more from the men's basketball team. After the preliminary tournament, where the basketball players won all five matches, everyone hoped that they would qualify for the "gold". However, in the semifinal game, our basketball players lost to the Yugoslavian team - 84: 89 - and could only claim bronze medals. In the final match, they defeated the Canadian athletes by a margin of 28 points-100: 72 - and took 3rd place.
The USSR national team included three Leningraders: V. Arzamaskov and A. Makeev. And the gold medals were received by the US basketball players who won in decisive match the Yugoslavian team - 95:74.
Another debut of Soviet athletes took place in Montreal. For the first time in Olympic program rowing competitions included races of women. The GDR team achieved the greatest success. Our team took the overall 2nd place. Among those who received Olympic medals were 2 Leningrad women who were part of the four of a pair with a helmsman: Galina Ermolaeva, the owner of many high sports titles, and the very young Anna Kondrashina, who had been swimming for more than 10 years before. Supervised her rowing training twice Olympic champion Yuri Tyukalov. These four, confidently winning the preliminary race, reached the final, where they lost only to the GDR team, receiving silver medals.
In the competition among men from the Soviet crews, the four with the helmsman, the backbone of which were Leningraders, performed better than others. In the preliminary race, the four participated in the following composition: Vladimir Eshinov, Nikolai Ivanov, Alexander Klepikov and Alexander Sema with the steering Muscovite Alexander Lukyanov. The crew took the 2nd place necessary for reaching the semifinals. But already in the semifinals, having overcome a two-kilometer distance in excellent style, they showed the best time day.
Six strongest crews met in the final. Unfortunately, due to the illness of Alexander Sema, his place was taken by the Muscovite Mikhail Kuznetsov. It was more difficult, of course, for the athletes, but, leading from start to finish, our boat won a beautiful victory. By the decision of the leaders of the Olympic regatta, gold medals were awarded to all five rowers taking part in the competition.
came to Montreal for his fifth Olympics. This, by unanimous opinion, was the most experienced and skillful of all the helmsmen. In Montreal, he "led" his two with the helmsman to silver medals. This "medal was the last award of an athlete who has completed more than twenty years of performances in international rowing regattas.
In the other four - without a helmsman - there were two more Leningrad rowers: Valery Dolinin and Anushavan Hasan-Jalalov, whose partners were the Estonian Raul Arnemann and the Muscovite Nikolai Kuznetsov. In the final race, our four lost to boats from the GDR and Norway and won bronze medals.
From the very first performance of Soviet athletes at the Olympic Games, Leningrad kayakers achieved success as part of our team. In Montreal, this pleasant tradition was adequately supported by Galina Kreft, who, together with the Novgorod athlete Nina Gopova, performed in a two-piece kayak. In the final race, the main competitors of our athletes were the crew from the GDR, the winner of three recent championships the world. Kreft and the Head took the lead from the start and held it to the finish line.
In the swimmers' competition, the USA team took the lead. The athletes of the GDR scored the second sum of points. Soviet swimmers performed better than in Munich. Soviet swimmers especially distinguished themselves in breaststroke swimming. At the 100-meter distance, they took 2nd and 3rd places, and in the 200-meter swim, the entire podium remained with the representatives of the USSR. 5 Leningraders made a significant contribution to the victory. Andrey Krylov competed at four distances. In freestyle swimming in 100 meters, he got to the final, but he could not rise above the 8th place, he took the honorable 4th place in the two hundred meters.
Our other rabbit, Vladimir Salnikov, performed at distances of 400 and 1500 meters. On the first of them, he did not have enough 2 seconds to reach the final, on the second, the athlete managed to improve his personal best by 20 seconds in the preliminary heat and become one of the finalists. Here the young Leningrader raised the ceiling of his record for another 10 seconds, bringing it to 15 minutes 29.45 seconds. This result brought him 5th place and was registered as a European record.
Excellent fighting qualities were demonstrated by Andrei Smirnov, who performed in the 400-meter complex swimming. In the final he managed to win thirteen hundredths of a second against the world and European champion and record holder A. Hargitai, but ... two American swimmers finished ahead of him. As a result - 3rd place and bronze medal(4 minutes 26.90 seconds - new record country).
In the combined relay race 4x100 meters, where Andrei Krylov played in our team at the last stage, Soviet swimmers took 5th place. The performance of our athletes in the 4X200 meters freestyle relay was much more successful. In the second preliminary heat, the quartet set a new Olympic record - 7 minutes 33.21 seconds. True, this record did not last long - it was beaten by US swimmers. And in the final, both of these teams noticeably improved their results: the US swimmers finished in 7 minutes 23.22 seconds - a new world record; our guys set a European record - 7 minutes 27.97 seconds. Leningraders Andrey Krylov, Andrey Bogdanov, swimmer from Zaporozhye V. Raskatov, Minsk citizen Sergey Koplyakov became the winners of silver medals ...
Silver medal in freestyle wrestling competitions (first average weight) received from Leningrader Viktor Novozhilov. After four confident victories, he had to face a very strong American wrestler D. Peterson, who managed to achieve a clear victory. To win the Olympic medal, Viktor had to win the last fight against the world and European champion A. Zeger. (Germany). And our fellow countryman perfectly coped with this difficult task ...
Soviet fencers performed with great success in Montreal. Having won 3 gold medals and 47 points, they emerged as winners in the team championship.
Eduard Vinokurov from Leningrad played as part of the saber team. The first rivals of the Soviet team were athletes from France and Bulgaria. Our Musketeers confidently won in both matches. In the quarterfinals, they defeated the US fencers - 9: 1. The most persistent was the fight in the semifinals with the Romanians. When all sixteen fights ended, the scoreboard was equal - 8: 8. Our athletes struck one more blow and reached the final, where they had to meet with the Italian team. Soviet fencers performed it with great enthusiasm and won with a score of 9: 4. Vinokurov added his second highest award to the previously won gold and silver medals.
Leningrader Vladimir Osokin joined the Soviet team of cyclists. In the 4 km track pursuit, he finished 4th and won the silver medal in the team pursuit.
Volleyball players also performed well. The men's national volleyball team included 3 Leningraders - Vyacheslav Zaitsev, Alexander Ermilov and Vladimir Dorokhov. In the final, volleyball players from the Soviet Union and Poland won the right to fight for the Olympic "gold". The fight lasted 2 hours 26 minutes. The first game remained with the Soviet volleyball players - 15:11, the second was won by the Poles - 15:13. The third brought our team forward again - 15: 12. In the fourth game, which could have become the last, the Soviet athletes were leading with the score 14: 13, then - 15:14, but in the end they still lost to the opponent - 17:19. In the fifth, decisive game, our team wavered. As a result, the defeat - 7: 15. The USSR volleyball players received only silver medals.
The huge Forum hall was placed at the disposal of the gymnasts. The performances of Soviet athletes aroused particular interest. The spectators enthusiastically greeted the filigree skill of Nikolai Andrianov, who became the absolute champion. A young Leningrad gymnast Alexander Dityatin, an 18-year-old absolute champion of the VI Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, also played in the national team. In Montreal, he worked exactly on all shells. Only in the all-around he was unlucky: 4th place. Until the 3rd, he lacked only 0.05 (!) Points. In team competitions, the Leningrader won a silver medal. And Dityatin got the right to compete in two finals, where the championship was played in certain types of exercises. And although he took only 6th place on the horse, he achieved success in exercises on the rings - he won his second silver medal, losing the gold medal to Andrianov.
A stricker in the spiritless West is a person who (not necessarily naked) sweeps in public places in protest against something, or just for fun. And the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world lives in Canada (there are more Ukrainians in Russia, but the Soviet tendency of rapid assimilation still reigns there).
And so, at the 1976 Games of the XXI Olympiad, which took place 40 years ago in Montreal, two Canadian streakers of Ukrainian origin appeared - one with a Ukrainian flag, the other with a bare bottom. And if the first streaker is well known, the second is undeservedly forgotten.
Two 1976 Olympic streakers
The first was the correct, conscientious streaker - 20-year-old Danilo Migal, who, during the semifinal match of the USSR-GDR Olympic Games on July 27, 1976, ran onto the football field wearing an embroidered shirt and jeans (a suitable dress code), where with the Ukrainian national flag in his hands danced the hopak.
The second was a wrong, irresponsible streaker - 23-year-old Mikhailo Ledyuk, who at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games on August 1, 1976, ran into the arena wearing a beard and everything (inappropriate dress code), where he danced in an obscene manner with the girls to the music of La Dance Sauvage ...
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The USSR national team was then led by Kiev coaches Valery Lobanovsky and Oleg Bazilevich, and the Soviet national team then consisted of Kievites a little less than completely - of 11 players starting line-up, 9 were Dynamo Kiev players.
In Canada, they do not like European football, but due to the Ukrainian diaspora, a record number of tickets was sold for the semifinal match of the 1976 Olympic Games between the USSR and the GDR - 57,182. In the second half, the USSR national team lost 0-2, the Germans shot down Kolotov in their penalty area, but a penalty was not assigned to their gate. And then a 20-year-old descendant of emigrants from Ukraine Danilo Migal ran out onto the field to support his fellow countrymen with the Ukrainian flag and hopak.
Then, to the sound of applause, he was taken away from the stands by the police, and subsequently released without any charges being presented. In the USSR, the match was broadcast in a recording in which this episode was cut out, but it remained in history.
But the second episode was shown to Soviet viewers, though without explaining who there were crowds of policemen chasing at the closing ceremony of the Olympics.
At the closing of the Olympic Games in Montreal on August 1, 1976, 72 thousand spectators were present at the stadium, and 800 million viewers watched the ceremony live. And when 500 dancing girls in white raincoats ran out onto the field, and they wove five living rings while dancing, they were joined by 23-year-old Mikhail Ledyuk, who was wearing nothing but a beard.
The girls pretended not to notice their uninvited partner, and continued to dance with him for three minutes, which the security service needed to stop this manifestation of non-conformism.
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There are persistent rumors that after the removal of Leduc from the field, he was severely beaten, and the anger of the security can be understood - after the sad events of the Munich Olympics, and in an effort to forestall any incidents, the organizers of the Montreal Games took unprecedented security measures. And then someone impudently waved his bare backside and front in front of these measures.
Maybe because he was beaten, no official charges were brought against Mikhail Ledyuk and, after spending several days in the dungeons of the Canadian mounted police, he was released. But the video remained.
Olympics-76, August 1, 1976. The Franment of the closing ceremony of the Games (the streaker dances in the lower right Olympic ring)
It is a pity that Leduc did not take the flag of the USSR with him then. The next Olympics-80 after Montreal was in Moscow, and it would be truly cool and very symbolic - the Soviet Olympic Games were held with the bare bottom of a country that collapsed 11 years later.
