5,531 athletes from 112 countries arrived in the capital of Mexico, which was the first kind of record for the Games. For the first time, the Olympic Games were held in Latin America. For the first time, the Olympic Games were shown on television all over the world: more than half a billion people on all continents of the world could watch the Olympic competitions on television at the same time.
The Olympics were preceded by serious debate over whether the conditions of the highlands in which the capital of Mexico is located were harmful. Sports competition in all types of competitions, characteristic of the previous Olympics, in Mexico City has intensified even more. The number of high-class athletes in the teams of most countries has increased. The competitions of the XIX Olympiad were distinguished by a very high level of results: 76 Olympic records were set, of which 28 exceeded world records. Track and field athletes set 30 Olympic records in 36 events included in the Games program, and in 14 events they improved their previous world achievements. The results of the Games in athletics have surpassed the most daring forecasts. Who could have guessed that a jump of 8 meters 90 centimeters would be made in Mexico City, six triple jumpers would conquer the 17 meter mark, and the world record in 400 meter hurdles would be improved immediately by a second? The swimmers have set 23 Olympic records, of which 6 are world records. Weightlifters - 18, of which 3 exceed the world. Arrows - 5 Olympic and 2 World. Cyclists - 3 world records. The overall first place in the unofficial team event was taken by US athletes - 107 medals: 45 gold, 28 silver and 34 bronze. This was mainly due to the success in swimming and athletics competitions. Athletes of the USSR took the overall second place, having won 91 medals: 29 gold, 32 silver and 30 bronze.
Romanian athlete Lia Manoliu made her debut at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki when she was twenty years old and finished in sixth place. Four years later, in Olympic Melbourne, she took eighth place. At the Games in Rome, Manoliu received her first Olympic medal- bronze. Four more years passed, and at the Tokyo Olympics, the Romanian athlete again received a medal, and again a bronze.
Before the competition of her fifth Olympiad, Lia Manoliu injured her elbow, but she did not tell anyone except her husband, who was her coach, and went to the start. Putting all her strength into the first throw, she sent the disc to 58 meters 28 centimeters, and no one could surpass this result.
There were many phenomenal results at the Mexican Olympics, but the most fantastic record was the result shown by American Bob Beamon in the long jump - 8 meters 90 centimeters! He exceeded the world record by 55 centimeters at once! Bimon's record lasted 23 years and is considered one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of modern Olympics.
Muscovite Boris Lagutin won the title for the second time Olympic champion in boxing. Minsk resident Alexander Medved also received the second gold medal... The bear did not tolerate the highlands, but when he went into battle with the German Dietrich, he thought only about victory. In the midst of the fight, a crunch was heard on the carpet. Dietrich stopped. He looked in amazement at the Bear, who "calmly" set his finger on his hand. Alexander did not even think to apply to the services of doctors.
To the admiring exclamations of the audience, Alexander Medved rushed into the attack and spent the end of the fight in his usual manner, when he was looking for the most active and convincing solution.
The fencer from Minsk Elena Novikova (Belova) won two gold medals in individual and team competitions. In none of the ratings published on the eve of the Olympics, her name was not, but she was the only fencer to be awarded two gold medals.
A brilliant result - 17 meters 39 centimeters, a world record in a triple jump - was set by Viktor Saneev from Tbilisi.
This was his first of three Olympic victories... The second medal was received by the Kiev resident Leonid Zhabotinsky, who became the champion among heavy weight lifters.
The second gold medal in kayaking was won by the champion of the Tokyo Games Lyudmila Pinaeva. In Mexico City, she won the single kayak competition, then, together with Antonina Seredina, became the bronze medalist in double kayak rowing. V sailing navy officer from Kiev Valentin Mankin was head and shoulders above his rivals on ships of the Finn class.
American Richard Fosbury revolutionized the high jump, achieving victory in a way unknown until then: a back jump. Until then, everyone was jumping sideways or chest forward. Now, all the high jumpers are jumping in a style called the "Fosbury Flop".
ALL WINNERS OF THE TEAM OF THE USSR AT THE GAMES-1968
Gold medals (29)
Valery Sokolov (boxing, up to 54 kg)
Boris Lagutin (boxing, up to 71 kg)
Dan Poznyak (boxing, up to 81 kg)
Boris Gurevich (freestyle wrestling, up to 87 kg)
Alexander Medved (freestyle wrestling, over 97 kg)
Roman Rurua (Greco-Roman wrestling, up to 63 kg)
Vladimir Belyaev, Oleg Antropov, Ivan Bugaenkov, Vladimir Ivanov, Evgeny Lapinsky, Valery Kravchenko, Vasilius Matushevas, Viktor Mikhalchuk, Georgy Mondzolevsky, Yuri Poyarkov, Eduard Sibiryakov, Boris Tereshchuk (volleyball)
Tatyana Veinberg, Vera Galushka, Valentina Vinogradova, Lyudmila Buldakova, Galina Leontyeva, Vera Lantratova, Lyudmila Mikhailovskaya, Tatyana Ponyaeva, Roza Salikhova, Tatyana Sarycheva, Nina Smoleeva, Inna Ryskal (volleyball)
Mikhail Voronin ( gymnastics, vault)
Mikhail Voronin (artistic gymnastics, crossbar)
Zinamda Voronina, Lyubov Burda, Olga Karaseva, Natalia Kuchinskaya, Larisa Petrik, Lyudmila Turischeva (artistic gymnastics, team competitions)
Larisa Petrik (artistic gymnastics, floor exercise)
Natalia Kuchinskaya (artistic gymnastics, balance beam)
Anatoly Sass, Alexander Timoshinin (academic rowing, double pair)
Alexander Shaparenko, Vladimir Morozov (rowing and canoeing, double kayak, 1000 m)
Lyudmila Pinaeva (rowing and canoeing, single kayak, 500 m)
Ivan Kizimov (equestrian sport, dressage, individual championship)
Vladimir Golubnichy ( Athletics, walking 20 km)
Victor Saneev (athletics, triple jump)
Janis Lusis (athletics, javelin throw)
Vladimir Mankin (sailing, "Finn")
Grigory Kosykh (shooting, small-bore single-shot pistol)
Evgeny Petrov (shooting, round stand)
Viktor Kurentsov (weightlifting, up to 75 kg)
Boris Selitsky (weightlifting, up to 82.5 kg)
Leonid Zhabotinsky (weightlifting, over 90 kg)
Eduard Vinokurov, Umar Mavlikhanov, Vladimir Nazlymov, Victor Sidyak, Mark Rakita (fencing, saber, team competition)
Elena Novikova (fencing, foil, individual championship)
Galina Gorokhova, Alexandra Zabelina, Elena Novikova, Tatiana Samusenko, Svetlana Chirkova (fencing, foil, team competition)
Silver medals (32)
Alexey Kiselev (boxing, up to 75 kg)
Jonas Chepulis (boxing, over 81 kg)
Shota Lomidze (freestyle wrestling, up to 97 kg)
Vladimir Bakulin (Greco-Roman wrestling, up to 52 kg)
Valentin Oleinik (Greco-Roman wrestling, up to 87 kg)
Nikolay Yakovenko (Greco-Roman wrestling, up to 97 kg)
Anatoly Roshchin (Greco-Roman wrestling, over 97 kg)
Alexey Barkalov, Oleg Bovin, Alexander Dolgushin. Vadim Gulyaev, Yuri Grigorovsky, Boris Grishin, Leonid Osipov, Vladimir Semenov, Vyacheslav Skok, Givi Chikvaniya, Alexander Shidlovsky (water polo)
Mikhail Voronin (artistic gymnastics, all-around, individual championship)
Sergey Diomidov, Mikhail Voronin, Valery Karasev, Viktor Klimenko, Viktor Lisitskiy, Valery Allinykh (artistic gymnastics, team competitions)
Mikhail Voronin (artistic gymnastics, rings)
Mikhail Voronin (artistic gymnastics, parallel bars)
Zinaida Voronina (artistic gymnastics, all-around, individual championship)
Alexander Shaparenko (rowing and canoeing, single kayak, 1000 m)
Ivan Kalita, Ivan Kizimov, Elena Petushkova (equestrian sport, dressage, team championship)
Romuald Klim (athletics, hammer throw)
Antonina Okorokova (athletics, high jump)
Vladimir Kosinsky (swimming, 100 m, breaststroke)
Vladimir Kosinsky (swimming, 200 m, breaststroke)
Semyon Belits-Geyman, Leonid Ilyichev, Georgy Kulikov, Victor Mazanov (swimming, 4x100 m, freestyle)
Galina Prozumenshchikova (swimming, 100 m, breaststroke)
Tamara Pogozheva (diving, springboard)
Natalia Lobanova (diving, tower)
Pavel Lednev, Boris Onishchenko, Stasis Scheparnis (modern pentathlon, team championship)
Vladimir Korneev (shooting, free rifle, 3x40)
Dito Shanidze (weightlifting, up to 60 kg)
Vladimir Belyaev (weightlifting, up to 82.5 kg)
Jan Talts (weightlifting, up to 90 kg)
Victor Putyatin, German Sveshnikov. Yuri Sisikin, Vasily Stankovich, Yuri Sharov (fencing, foil, team competition)
Grigory Criss (fencing, epee, individual championship)
Joseph Vitebsky, Grigory Criss, Alexey Nikanchikov, Victor Modzalevsky, Yuri Smolyakov (fencing, epee, team competition)
Mark Rakita (fencing, saber, individual championship)
Bronze medals (30)
Sergey Belov, Vladimir Andreev, Gennady Volnov, Vadim Kapranov. Yaak Lipso, Sergey Kovalenko, Anatoly Krikun, Modestas Paulauskas, Anatoly Polivoda, Zurab Sakandelidze, Yuri Selikhov, Priit Thomson (basketball)
Vladimir Musalimov (boxing, up to 67 kg)
Ivan Kochergin (Greco-Roman wrestling, up to 57 kg)
Mikhail Voronin (artistic gymnastics, horse)
Sergey Diomidov (artistic gymnastics, vault)
Viktor Klimenko (artistic gymnastics, parallel bars)
Natalia Kuchinskaya (artistic gymnastics, all-around, individual championship)
Natalia Kuchinskaya (artistic gymnastics, floor exercise)
Zinaida Voronina (artistic gymnastics, vault)
Zinaida Voronina (artistic gymnastics, parallel bars)
Larisa Petrik (artistic gymnastics, balance beam)
Zigmas Jukna, Antanas Bogdanavičius, Vytautas Breidis, Yuri Lorenzson, Valentin Kravchuk, Alexander Martyshkin, Vladimir Sterlik, Viktor Suslin, Juozas Jagelavičius (rowing, figure eight)
Vitaly Galkov (rowing and canoeing, single canoe, 1000 m)
Naum Prokupets, Mikhail Zamotin (rowing and canoeing, double canoe, 1000 m)
Lyudmila Pinaeva, Antonina Seredina (rowing and canoeing, double kayak, 500 m)
Nikolay Smaga (athletics, walking 20 km)
Valentin Gavrilov (athletics, high jump)
Eduard Gushchin (athletics, shot put)
Natalia Burda (athletics, running 400 m)
Lyudmila Zharkova, Galina Bukharina, Vera Popkova, Lyudmila Samotesova (athletics, relay 4x100 m)
Valentina Trump (athletics, high jump)
Tatiana Talysheva (athletics, long jump)
Nadezhda Chizhova (athletics, shot put)
Nikolay Pankin (swimming, 100 m, breaststroke)
Vladimir Bure, Semyon Belits-Geyman, Leonid Ilyichev, Georgy Kulikov (swimming, 4x200 m, freestyle)
Yuri Gromak, Leonid Ilyichev, Vladimir Kosinsky, Vladimir Nemchilov (swimming, 4x100 m, combined relay)
Galina Prozumenshchikova (swimming, 200 m, breaststroke)
Pavel Lednev (modern pentathlon, individual championship)
Vitaly Parkhimovich (shooting, small-bore rifle, 3x40)
Renat Suleimanov (shooting, small-bore single-shot pistol)
Presented sports
Biathlon
Bobsled
Skiing
Skating
Ski nordic
Ski race
Ski jumping
Luge
Figure skating
Hockey
France has done a lot to ensure that the anniversary Winter Olympics 1968 were held at a high organizational and sports level. In Grenoble, 1,158 athletes joined the fight, including 202 women from 37 countries, who competed for 35 sets of medals in seven sports.
Athletes of the USSR performed at the Olympics in Grenoble extremely unsuccessfully, significantly losing their positions in skiing and speed skating. If in Innsbruck in these sports they had 8 gold medals on their account, then in Grenoble the USSR Olympians had to be content with 2 gold medals. And this despite the fact that an unexpected victory was won in jumping from a 90-meter springboard, Vladimir Belousov, who managed to outrun the winner of the competition on a 70-meter springboard, an athlete from Czechoslovakia Iri Rasku in a fierce struggle.
Overall success in cross-country skiing was, as expected, for the Norwegians. Thirty-year-old Toini Gustafson, who was not considered one of the favorites, nevertheless managed to win two gold medals in races at distances of 5 km and 10 km. The Norwegians won four more gold medals in the men's 15 km and 50 km skiers, as well as both relay races. The sensation of the skiers' competition was the victory of the Italian Franco Nones at a 30-kilometer distance, who managed to get ahead of the second Norwegian Odd Martinsen by almost a minute. This was the first victory of a representative of a southern country in cross-country skiing.
In speed skating, the poor performance of the USSR athletes did not reduce the rivalry. The fiercest struggle was between the skaters of Holland, Norway, Sweden, Finland. Dutch athletes managed to win three gold medals, the USA, Norway, Germany, Sweden and the USSR - one each.
The bobsled competition was dramatic. After 4 attempts, the fours from Germany and Italy had the same result. In the last, fifth attempt, the Italians turned out to be stronger, led by an outstanding athlete - the pilot of Bob Eugenio Monti. This athlete was twice a silver medalist in 1956, twice a bronze medal in 1964 and only in Grenoble managed to win a gold medal. In 1964, Monti was awarded the Coubertin Medal for excellence in sports.
In the steam room figure skating on skates for the second time in a row, Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov became the winners. Their main rivals at these Olympic Games were athletes from the USSR national team Tatyana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik.
The biathletes of the USSR also performed successfully, winning a gold medal in the relay 4 × 7.5 km and a silver medal in individual race by 20 km, which was won by the legendary Alexander Tikhonov.
Despite the defeat in the match with the Czechoslovak team - 4: 5, the USSR hockey players managed to achieve gold medals, confidently beating the rest of their rivals.
Erika Lechner from Italy was the first in the women's single sled competition. In this she was "helped" by 3 leading sleds from the GDR team, who were disqualified for illegal heating of runners.
The French Olympians and numerous fans of winter sports, of course, could not be satisfied with the result of the team struggle - the French team took 5th place in the unofficial standings. However, Jean-Claude Killy's striking victory in all three alpine skiing disciplines was a decoration of the Olympic Games. This success was achieved only once by Sailer. Before the Olympics, Killy was the main contender for the awards. In the 1966-1967 season, in the World Cup competitions, he won 23 starts out of 30, of which 5 were in downhill. After the Olympics, Killy left his sports career and took up commercial activities - advertising, hospitality, restaurants, television, cinema, where he also achieved impressive success. Killy was also successful as President of the Organizing Committee of the 16th Winter Olympic Games in Albertville.
In the unofficial team event, the Norwegians won: 103 points and 14 medals - 6 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze. The second were the athletes of the USSR, having won 92 points and 13 medals - 5 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze. The third were athletes from Austria, having won 79 points and 11 medals - 3 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze.
Mexico City was selected as the capital of the XIX Olympic Games on October 18, 1963 at the 60th session of the IOC in Baden - Baden (FRG)
BUENOS AIRES
ARGENTINA
The XIX Summer Olympics in Mexico City became the arena for both public protest of Mexican youth and international human rights activists, especially for the rights of non-white races in the 1960s. The self-boycott method has become widespread. Student organizations in Mexico were eager to draw the attention of the world community, primarily the Soviet system that sympathized with them, to what was happening in their country. Mexican students protested as against the inertia of the Mexican authorities, following the lead of the US authorities.
On October 2, ten days before the Olympic celebrations, they staged a procession through the city and, with the support of the country's trade unions, brought 15 thousand people to the Three Cultures Square in the Tlatelolco metropolitan area. The main slogan of the demonstrators was "We do not want the Olympics, we want a revolution!" ( isp.¡No queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolución!). The country's authorities, focused on the economic power of the United States, sent troops into the capital, made mass arrests and used excessive force to disperse the crowd. As a result, according to official data, four died, according to the students themselves - from 200-300 to several thousand people. However, no sanctions followed, since the IOC recognized all the events as an internal matter of Mexico.
CITY - ORGANIZER Mexico City, Mexico
COUNTRIES - PARTICIPANTS 112
NUMBER OF ATHLETES 5530 (4750 MEN, 780 WOMEN)
PLAYED IN MEDALS 172 SETS IN 20 SPORTS
OPENED GUSTAVO DIAS ORDAS
OLYMPIC FIRE OF ENRIKETTA BASILIO SOTELO
THE OLYMPIC OATH OF PABLO GORRIDO
OLYMPIC STADIUM IN MEXICO
Commemorative medal
Olympic medals
Official
In Olympia, Greece, the high priestess holds the Olympic flame, which will later be transported to Mexico City.
At the 1968 Games in Mexico City, Mexico, the torch followed the route of Christopher Columbus.
In 1968, the organizers of the Games in Mexico City came up with the Olympic torch in the form of a traditional bundle, and the relay itself was called "the relay race to the new world." A few moments after this photograph was taken, capturing the transfer of the relay, both athletes were injured - a container with gas inside the torch exploded right in their hands.
FOR THE FIRST HONOR
IGNITIONS
OLYMPIC
FIRE IN A BOWL
THE STADIUM WAS
SUPPLIED BY
The opening ceremony. Mexican athlete Enriqueta Basilio Sotelo carries the Olympic flame
Valentin Mankin (USSR, Ukraine) three-time Olympic champion in sailing (1968, 1972, 1980), silver medalist at the 1976 Games.
Alexander Shaparenko (USSR, Ukraine) Olympic champion in kayak rowing (1968 in a double, 1972 in a single)
Vladimir Golubnichy
(USSR, Ukraine) became the Olympic champion in 20 km race walking in Mexico City
Twice (1964, 1968)
heavyweight weightlifter Leonid Zhabotinsky (USSR, Ukraine) became the champion of the Olympic Games
ALEXANDER MEDVED
OLYMPIC CHAMPION
IN CLASSIC FIGHT
MEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM USSR - CHAMPIONS
XIX OLYMPIC GAMES
The most brilliant were the athletics competitions.
In 36 types included in Olympic program, it was found
30 Olympic and 14 world records.
100 m, TYUS Wyomia (USA, 1st place), FERRELL Barbara (USA, 2nd place), KIRSZENSTEIN-SZEWINSKA Irena (Poland, 3rd place)
In the long jump competition, almost unknown to anyone before the Olympics, the American athlete Bob Beamon made a jump of 8.90 meters, exceeding the previous achievement by 55 centimeters at once. Soon, journalists will call this leap into the 21st century. Bimon was unanimously recognized as the protagonist of the Olympic Games and at the same time became a legend. His record lasted 23 years and became one of the greatest events of all modern Olympics.
This record in 1991 at the World Championships in Tokyo was broken by another outstanding American jumper Mike Powell, jumping 8 m. 95 cm.
The climatic conditions, unusual for many athletes, in Mexico City, as a whole, did not negatively affect the performance of the Olympic Games, which were held with a fairly high sports performance: 76 Olympic records were set, 28 of which exceeded world records. Only the results of some types of competitions were significantly affected by the climatic conditions of the middle mountains. In competitions requiring endurance, the advantage was given to athletes who permanently live in the conditions of the middle mountains, close to the Mexican ones. At the same time, these very conditions "helped" the athletes to show high results in speed-power types of competitions. It should be noted that the holding of the Games in Mexico City stimulated scientific research on the preparation of athletes for competitions in the mid and high mountains. In the future, the training of athletes in the conditions of mid-altitude (high-altitude) became one of the most important factors ensuring the growth of achievements in a number of sports.
Politically, attention was drawn to the Games by a protest against racism in the United States, undertaken by black athletes of the national team of that country. It was not accidental, but was part of a program planned during the Negro convention in 1967.
The most striking manifestation of this protest, which caused a wide resonance in the world, was the action taken by American athletes: the winner
in the 200m run by Tommy Smith and the bronze medalist at the same distance by John Carlos. The athletes came to the awards ceremony without shoes, in black knee-high socks and one black glove.
When the US anthem was played and the national flag was hoisted, both athletes looked down with their gloved hands up. The NOC of the United States, after many hours of meeting, "strongly condemned the actions of the athletes and apologized to the IOC, the Organizing Committee and the people of Mexico
TOTAL NUMBER OF MEDALS
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
AUSTRALIA
UNITED KINGDOM
- VN PLATONOV "ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OLYMPIC SPORT": KIEV; OLYMPIC LITERATURE, 2002
- M. M. BULATOVA "ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OLIMPIYSKOGO SPORT IN
POWER SUPPLIES І VIDPOVIDYAH. OTHER VIDANNA "- KYIV:
OLIMPIYSKA LITERATURA, 2011 p.
- www. Sportsmedal.ru / Games on top! XIX Summer Olympics
1968. Mexico City /
- www. Vikipedia. org / Summer Olympics 1968 /
Grenoble (France)
The Winter Olympics in Grenoble was a personal project of French President Charles de Gaulle, who, with the help of these competitions, wanted to improve the image of the Fifth Republic in the international arena, as well as reduce social tensions in his country. However, its main mission winter Games-1968 failed. Due to the miscalculations of the organizers and the experiments of the IOC, the competitions in the largest city in the alpine region were covered with a scandalous raid. Just three months after the end of the Olympics in Paris, student unrest will break out, and the crisis they provoked will ultimately result in de Gaulle's resignation.
Venue - Grenoble, France
6 - 18 February 1968
Number of participating countries - 37
Number of athletes participating - 1158 (211 women, 947 men)
Medal Sets - 35
Team Winner - Norway
Three main characters of the Games according to "SE"
Jean-Claude Killy (France),
skiing
Vladimir Belousov (USSR),
ski jumping
Franco Nones (Italy),
ski race
GENDER MISCONFORMITY
ON ANOTHER FIELD
Killy won all three alpine skiing disciplines in Grenoble, repeating the 1956 record of Austrian Tony Sailer. True, the Frenchman's advantage over his rivals was not so overwhelming. Killy won the last of his titles under very controversial circumstances. His main competitor, Austrian Karl Schranz, was prevented in the second attempt by a mysterious man in black, who allegedly ran out on the track in front of him. The judges, puzzled by this turn, allowed Schranz to make another attempt, in which he showed the best time... The French filed a protest. The referees deliberated for a long time and eventually discovered that the Austrian missed the gate in his best race. After Schranz was disqualified, Killy was declared champion. After his Olympic triumph, Jean-Claude will become a successful businessman and sports functionary.
As for the USSR national team, its performance at the 1968 Games was not the most successful. For the first time, our athletes lost the team competition at the Winter Olympics. First of all, this is due to the failure of skiers and skaters, who, contrary to usual, managed to win only one gold out of 15 possible. According to one of the versions, the reason was the mistake of the coaches, who were wise with high-altitude training. Be that as it may, even the great ones were left without medals - the four-time Olympic champion in speed skating Yevgeny Grishin and the six-time champion Lydia Skoblikova. In fairness, I must say that Skoblikova did not end her career in front of Innsbruck only because there was no worthy change for her - the other leader of the women's team, Inga Artamonova-Voronina, was killed in 1966 during a domestic conflict by her husband.
Having lost in our crown forms, the USSR national team played a little on the “foreign field”. One of the heroes of the 1968 Olympics was Vladimir Belousov, who not only won gold in ski jumping (the first and only one in the Soviet and Russian history), but became the first jumper to fly over the 100-meter mark. For an athlete who took only 16th place in the 1967 championship of the Soviet Union, this was a phenomenal progress. But Belousov did not manage to get into the jumping elite for a long time. In just a few years, he will end his sports career at the age of 23, and then for a quarter of a century he will serve as a simple physical training officer in the units of the Soviet army.
HOT SLIDES
For the first place in hockey tournament we have to say thank you to the Swedes. After the USSR national team lost to the Czechoslovakians, in the last round it had to beat the Canadians and hope that Tre Kronur, unmotivated by the tournament situation, would resist in a duel with the Czechoslovak team. And the Scandinavians really rested, making a draw and taking away the “golden” point from our competitors. The Soviet hockey players took full advantage of this chance for first place, literally tearing the Canadians apart in the last round with a score of 5: 0. The pioneers of hockey were unable to win the fourth Olympics in a row and took this fact extremely painfully.
One of the features of Grenoble-1968 was the first separate appearance of the national teams of the FRG and the GDR, which had previously acted as a single team. The representatives of East Germany clouded their debut with a scandal - the sleds from this country, who took first, second and fourth places, were disqualified for using a forbidden technique: they heated the runners of their sleds. Luge in 1968 was not at all lucky - due to too warm weather, the starts were constantly postponed, and, in the end, the final fourth race was canceled. There were also great concerns about speed skating tracks, but thanks to the new pouring technology, the quality of the ice turned out to be good. Although Soviet athletes called him "sandpaper".
Warm weather largely explains the sensational victory in the men's 30 km cross-country skiing race of the Italian Franco Nones. Prior to that, in men's skiing in individual starts at the Olympics, only representatives of the northern countries - Norway, Sweden and Finland - won. The USSR national team only once managed to snatch gold in the relay. But the tradition was broken by the little-known Nones. However, at the 1968 Olympics, much happened for the first time. These were the first Winter Games to be shown in full on television in color. In addition, an experiment was carried out here for the first time with an unofficial olympic mascot... The little skier Schuss, invented by cartoonist Aline Lafarge, was such a success that the organizers of all subsequent Games considered it their duty to present their own mascot - in eight years it will receive official status.
Games XIX summer Olympics, which took place in high-mountainous Mexico City, brought the Soviet national team a team-wide second place, and a number of fantastic results for all mankind. The Olympics were preceded by serious debate over whether the conditions of the highlands in which the capital of Mexico is located were harmful. In total, Soviet athletes won 29 gold, 32 silver and 30 bronze medals, the US athletes had 45 gold, 28 silver and 34 bronze medals.
There were many phenomenal results at the Mexican Olympics, but the most fantastic record was the result shown by American Bob Beamon in the long jump - 8 meters 90 centimeters! He exceeded the world record by 55 centimeters at once! Bimon's record lasted 23 years and is considered one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of modern Olympics.
Muscovite Boris Lagutin won the title of Olympic boxing champion for the second time. Minsk resident Alexander Medved also received the second gold medal. The bear did not tolerate the highlands, but when he went into battle with the German Dietrich, he thought only about victory. In the midst of the fight, a crunch was heard on the carpet. Dietrich stopped. He looked in amazement at the Bear, who "calmly" set his finger on his hand. Alexander did not even think to apply to the services of doctors. Alexander Medved rushed to the attack and spent the end of the fight in a manner peculiar only to him.
The fencer from Minsk Elena Novikova (Belova) won two gold medals in individual and team competitions. In none of the ratings published on the eve of the Olympics, her name was not, but she was the only fencer to be awarded two gold medals.
A brilliant result - 17 meters 39 centimeters, a world record in a triple jump - was set by Viktor Saneev from Tbilisi. The second medal was received by Kiev resident Leonid Zhabotinsky, who became the champion among heavy weight lifters. The second gold medal in kayaking was won by the champion of the Tokyo Games Lyudmila Pinaeva. Boxers contributed their share to the total collection of medals of the Soviet team: three gold, two silver and one bronze medals. In addition to Boris Lagutin, the first places were taken by Valerian Sokolov from Cheboksary and Dan Poznyak from Vilnius. Soviet gymnasts performed well. The result of their performances: five gold, five silver and eight bronze medals. The best among them were Mikhail Voronin and Zinaida Voronina from Moscow, Larisa Petrik from Vitebsk and Natalia Kuchinskaya from Leningrad. The big Olympic dressage prize went to the Russian equestrian - Leningrader Ivan Kizimov.
American Richard Fosbury revolutionized the high jump, achieving victory in a way unknown until then: a back jump. Until then, everyone performed jumps sideways or chest forward. Now, all the high jumpers are jumping in a style called the "Fosbury Flop".
At the 1968 Olympics, for the first time in the history of the games, such a method of political protest as a deliberate violation of the provisions of the Olympic Charter was used: black American athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in athletics without boycotting the competition as a whole, at the awards ceremony during the performance of the US anthem, they defiantly lowered their heads and raised their clenched fists in black gloves.
Another incident at the 1968 Mexico City Games was the political protest of the absolute champion of the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, the famous Czechoslovak gymnast Vera Chaslavskaya. She repeatedly and publicly spoke out against the communist authorities of Czechoslovakia. In addition, in 1968 Soviet troops suppressed the "Prague Spring" in Czechoslovakia. Vera Chaslavska at the ceremony of awarding Soviet gymnasts during the performance of the national anthem of the Soviet Union lowered her head and turned away.
