38 sets of awards were played in six sports.
By decision of the 82nd session of the International Olympic Committee it was determined that the host city of X III winter The 1980 Olympic Games will be Lake Placid. Candidates included: Banff ( Canada), Oslo ( Norway), Chamonix ( France) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen ( Germany). This historic decision was made at a meeting of IOC delegates, representatives of national Olympic committees and international sports federations. The session took place in the conference hall of one of the best hotels in the city. More than 100 people attended this meeting. Representatives of the US delegation were jubilant. After all, Lake Placid, after a long break, again became the capital of the Games. The first Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid in 1932. This quiet resort town certainly rightfully deserves to become the organizer XIII winter 1980 Olympic Games.
1. Mascot of the 1980 Olympics.
2. Official poster Olympic Games 1980.
3. A set of postage stamps issued by the US Postal Service for the 1980 Olympics.
Champions and medalists of the 1980 Olympics
Men's single skating
Gold - Robert John "Robin" Cousins, born 1957), UK.
Silver- Jan Hoffmann, born 1955, GDR.
Bronze- Charles Tickner (Charles Frederick "Charlie" Tickner, born 1953), USA.
Women's singles skating
Gold- Annett Pötzsch, born 1960, GDR.
Silver- Linda Sue Fratianne, born 1960, USA.
Bronze- Dagmar Lurz, born 1959, Germany.
Sports couples
Gold- Irina Rodnina (born 1949) - Alexander Zaitsev (born 1952), USSR.
Silver- Marina Cherkasova (born 1964) - Sergey Shakhrai (born 1958), USSR.
Bronze- Manuela Mager (born 1962) – Uwe Bewersdorff (born 1958), GDR.
Dancing couples
Gold- Natalya Linichuk (born 1956) – Gennady Karponosov (born 1950), USSR.
Silver- Krisztina Regőczy, born 1955 - András Sallay, born 1953, Hungary.
Bronze- Irina Moiseeva (born 1955) – Andrey Minenkov (born 1954), USSR.
Lake Placid is located in the northern United States in a picturesque location among national reserves ( 38 percent of the state), and its outskirts are foothills and lakes, covered with snow from November to April. February is the snowiest month. Thus, the climate is very favorable. All this as a whole determined this choice. In addition, the presence of a developed infrastructure of highways and airports and a railway network was also taken into account. Within two hours by highway you can reach Montreal, located slightly north of Lake Placid, and within five hours - New York. 17 miles from the town is the large Adirondack Airport and a five-minute drive from an airfield for private jets.
An important factor was that the town’s residents were devoted fans of winter sports. It was not for nothing that already in 1904 they were created there sports clubs. And one more remarkable fact - the first Olympic champion in winter sports to win gold medal V speed skating at the 1st Winter Olympic Games 1924 in Chamonix ( France), was a resident of Lake Placid. The fact that Lake Placid was the organizer of the 3rd Winter Olympic Games in 1932 also played a role.
The Olympic competition sites were easily accessible and close to downtown Lake Placid, with the exception of the luge and bobsleigh tracks, as well as the skiing and biathlon tracks, which were six miles from the Olympic Village. Ski slopes were built 8 miles from the town.
The population of the town is 5,000 people. During the Games they received 10,000 visitors, who were accommodated in 150 hotels and motels. Among these guests were representatives of the IOC, NOCs of the countries participating in the Games and international sports federations and the media and, of course, athletes. In addition, 50,000 people were stationed within a 50-mile radius.
The US government did not provide adequate assistance to Lake Placid in preparation for the Winter Games. Reconstruction sports facilities was not completed, and the new prison building was used for housing in the Olympic Village. There were difficulties with transport and problems with the transmission of correspondence. At the same time, the administration of President Jimmy Carter spent a lot of money on the campaign to boycott the Moscow Olympics in Lake Placid. At the 82nd session of the International Olympic Committee, US Secretary of State Vance with the assistance of the American Olympic Committee, he insisted on depriving Moscow of the right to host the Games.
All these unpleasant moments did not have much impact on the sports side of the white Olympics. The competition was extremely intense.
Opening ceremony of the 1980 Olympics.
Total construction costs were $16.2 million. The main object was Olympic Center - this is an international skating rink, a stadium ice arena, with areas of 60 x 30 meters and 200 x 85 feet respectively, as well as a reconstructed ice arena Olympic Stadium 1932, which adjoined the oval 400-meter ice track. The total capacity of the stands of the International Ice Rink was 8,500 seats, with 5,000 seats on the lower tier and 3,500 seats on the upper level of the arena, and ice arena stadium - 2500 seats. For the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, artificial snow was used.
In May 1979, two meetings took place between the government and sports delegations of Greece and the United States. Representatives of the Greek National Olympic Committee presented a plan for organizing the torch relay on the territory of their country, and from the American side a diagram of the movement of the torch relay across the United States was presented. The organizers of the torch relay across the United States designed its route in such a way that it passed through all states of the country, reflecting the development of the state throughout its 200-year history. The organization of the torch relay aroused great interest among athletes. More than 10,000 people took part in the official competition for the selection of participants in the torch relay, and only 52 athletes became direct participants, of whom 26 were women and 26 men, and the official escort consisted of 500 volunteers - representatives of various sports societies. The selection results were announced in April 1979.
1. 1980 Olympic champions in the category of sports pairs Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev.
2. Silver medalists of the 1980 Olympics in the category of sports pairs Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai.
The gold medals of the Olympic debutant athlete from the USSR became a real sensation in the skiing competition. Nikolai Zimyatov. The World Cup competitions that preceded the Games convincingly demonstrated that the winners of the competition in ski racing athletes from Sweden and Norway were to become. However, Lake Placid's first gold medal was won by Zimyatov, who won the 30 km race. A few days later he won a second gold medal - at a 50-kilometer distance. Zimyatov received his third gold medal for winning as part of the team that won the 4 x 10 km relay. The fight developed dramatically in the 15 km race, in which the Swede Thomas Wassberg just a hundredth of a second ahead of the Finn Yoho Mieto.
Alexander Tikhonov (biathlon) competed at the Winter Olympics for the fourth time and won his fourth gold medal.
Legendary Soviet skier Galina Kulakova won her eighth and last Olympic medal- silver in the relay.
The victory of the US hockey players over the seemingly invincible USSR team, which had won Olympic gold five times in a row, was unexpected. Composed of best players universities and colleges, a well-prepared team held the tournament very confidently and was deservedly awarded gold medals.
In figure skating, athletes from the USSR took almost half of the podium - two golds, silver and bronze.
Received the third gold medal Irina Rodnina for winning in pair skating- With Alexander Zaitsev. This medal became the most expensive for her. After the birth of the child, Rodnina managed to restore sports uniform. Rodnina’s tears of joy on the podium during the performance of our anthem became for everything Soviet Union symbol of the Lake Placid Olympics.
Among the dancing couples, wonderful Soviet athletes were the first Natalya Linichuk And Gennady Karponosov.
Natalya Vladimirovna Linichuk(born - 1956, Moscow) performed together with Gennady Mikhailovich Karponosov(born - 1950, Moscow) - Soviet figure skaters, two-time world champions (1978-1979), two-time European champions (1979-1980), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1978), now figure skating coaches.
Linichuk and Karponosov trained with Elena Tchaikovskaya and played for the Dynamo Moscow club. They received their first medal at the senior level in 1974. At the 1976 Olympics, when ice dancing was introduced into the program of the Winter Olympic Games, it became the fourth. Their success continued and they became world champions in 1978 and 1979.
They won the 1980 Olympics, but lost to the Hungarian pair at the World Championships that same year Cristina Regosi - Andras Shallai. In 1981, Linichuk and Karponosov ended their sports careers.
Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov became successful ice dancing coaches. They work in the city of Aston (USA). In their coaching duo, Gennady is responsible for compulsory dances, and Natalya is responsible for original dance and free program. Their students at different times were the following Russian couples: Oksana Grischuk - Evgeny Platov, Angelica Krylova - Oleg Ovsyannikov, AND Rina Lobacheva - Ilya Averbukh, Tatiana Navka – Nikolai Morozov, Anna Semenovich – Roman Kostomarov, Galit Khait – Sergei Sakhnovsky(Israel), Albena Denkova – Maxim Stavinsky(Bulgaria), Tanith Belbin – Benjamin Agosto(USA). In June 2008, the leaders of the Russian national team announced their decision to train with Linichuk and Karponosov Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
Among men's singles, the winner of the Games was the representative of Great Britain Robin Cousins. At the 1976 Games he was only 10th, at the 1978 World Championships he was third, and in 1979 he was second. Cousins continued the tradition of brilliant victories by great British skaters.
They say that talented people are talented in everything. This can fully be attributed to Robin Cousins. He belongs to that rare type of figure skater who equally combines the ability to perform the most complex elements and convey to the viewer the impulses of his soul. Cousins' name entered the gold fund figure skating along with the names of his compatriots: Diana Towler-Bernard Ford, John Curry, Jayne Torvill - Christopher Dean.
At the end of a successful amateur career, the Olympic champion did not get lost, but discovered himself in new guises. In 1989, Cousins headed the coaching staff of the new training center Ice Castle International in San Bernardino (USA). He - great athlete, choreographer, artist, designer, singer - and continues to amaze us to this day.
1. 1980 Olympic champions in ice dancing Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov.
2. Bronze medalists of the 1980 Olympics in ice dancing Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov.
Another sensation was the two gold and two silver medals won by Liechtenstein athletes. Winner of gold medals in skiing became Hanni Wenzel (slalom and giant slalom).
The remarkable skill of an American speed skater Eric Hayden, who won all 5 gold medals, allowed the US team to take overall third place in the unofficial standings. Hayden’s achievement is striking not so much because the athlete won a record number of medals for one Games, but, above all, by his victories in both sprint and stayer distances. Hayden achieved high results in cycling: He became the US Professional Champion in 1985 and competed in the 1986 Tour de France. The athlete refused tempting offers in commercial activities and chose a career as a doctor.
For the first time, sprint was included in the biathlon program of the Winter Olympics. The first champion in the new discipline was Frank Ulrich from the GDR.
Gold in women's single skating belongs Annette Poetsch- outstanding East German figure skater. Pötsch – two-time champion world champion (1978, 1980), four-time European champion (1977 - 1980), five-time champion of the GDR (1976 - 1980). She trained with famous trainer from the GDR Jutta Müller in the famous sports club SC Karl-Marx-Stadt.
A distinctive feature of Annette’s skating style is a huge advantage in compulsory figures, athletic sports programs. She mastered two triple jumps - a sheepskin coat and a Salchow. Pötsch currently works as a coach in Chemnitz and is an ISU judge.
Figure skaters from the USSR won silver in competitions among sports pairs Marina Cherkasova(who was only 15 years old) and Andrey Shakhrai.
The appearance of the Cherkasova-Shahrai pair on the ice aroused genuine interest among all figure skating fans. 13 year old girl and adult partner. Sergei Shakhrai was six years older than Marina Cherkasova and 35 cm taller (at that time Marina’s height was 138 cm). At their first European Championships in Helsinki in 1977, the unusual pair immediately won bronze. When Zhuk was asked why he made such an unusual pairing, he reasonably remarked: “I’m not training basketball players. This figure skating" A year later, Marina grew by 20 cm, and Zhuk answered the same question differently: “I’m not training midgets.”
When, after the holidays, the tall Marina went out on the ice with Sergei, nothing was possible: the technique had changed, the jumps were not working. Cherkasova and Shakhrai still won a gold medal at the World Championships and a silver medal at the European Championships in 1980. But at the Olympics they failed to take gold. After that sports career Marina and Sergei's life began to decline. Already in Moscow, the coach made a decision: the Cherkasova-Shahrai pair no longer exists. Now Sergei lives in Australia and trains sports couples, Marina works as a trainer in Moscow, in ice palace“Umka” raises future ice stars from five-year-old children. And she proudly says that she always dreamed of doing this. Even though I never had time to fully realize myself in sports.
Overall, the 1980 Winter Olympics were a success for the USSR. Soviet athletes became overall winners medal standings- won 10 gold medals, 4 of which were in cross-country skiing.
1. 1980 Olympic champion in men's singles Robert Cousins.
2. Silver medalist 1980 Olympics in men's singles Jan Hoffmann.
3. 1980 Olympic champion in women's singles Annette Petch.
Sports represented
Biathlon
Bobsled
Gorno skiing
Skating
Nordic combined
Ski racing
Ski jumping
Luge
Figure skating
Hockey
Unfortunately, the US government did not provide adequate assistance to Lake Placid in preparation for the 1980 Winter Olympics. The reconstruction of the sports facilities was not completed, and the new prison building was used for housing in the Olympic Village. There were difficulties with transport and problems with the transmission of correspondence. At the same time, President Carter's administration spent a lot of money on the Lake Placid campaign to boycott the Olympic Games in Moscow. At the 82nd IOC session, US Secretary of State Vance, with the assistance of the American Olympic Committee, insisted on depriving Moscow of the right to host the 1980 Olympics. All these unpleasant moments did not have much impact on the sports side of the Winter Olympics.
The competition, in which 1,283 athletes from 49 countries took part, was held in extremely intense competition. The Olympic program included 38 competitions: biathlon - 10 and 20 km races, 4 x 7.5 km relay; bobsleigh, men - two and four; skiing, men - 15, 30 and 50 km races, 4 x 10 km relay, 70 and 90 m ski jumping; Nordic combined; women - 5 and 10 km races, 4 x 5 km relay; alpine skiing, men and women - downhill, slalom and giant slalom; luge, men and women on 1-seater sleighs and men on 2-seater sleighs; speed skating, men - 500, 1000, 1500 and 10000 m, women - 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000 m; figure skating, men and women, singles and pairs skating, ice dancing; ice hockey.
The gold medals of Olympic debutant athlete from the USSR Nikolai Zimyatov became a real sensation in the skiing competition. The World Cup competitions that preceded the Olympics convincingly indicated that the winners of the cross-country skiing competitions were to be the athletes of Sweden and Norway. However, Lake Placid's first gold medal was won by Zimyatov, who won the 30 km race. A few days later, he won a second gold medal - at a 50-kilometer distance. Nikolai Zimyatov received his third gold medal for winning as part of the team that won the 4 x 10 km relay. The fight developed dramatically in the 15 km race, in which Swede Thomas Wassberg was only a hundredth of a second ahead of Finn Joho Mieto.
The victory of the US hockey players was unexpected. Composed of the best players from universities and colleges, the well-prepared team played the tournament very confidently and was deservedly awarded gold medals.
Another sensation was the two gold and two silver medals won by Liechtenstein athletes. Hannie Wenzel won gold medals in alpine skiing in slalom and giant slalom.
Soviet biathlete Alexander Tikhonov competed at the Winter Olympics for the fourth time and won his fourth gold medal.
Irina Rodnina received the third gold medal for winning the pair skating event.
The remarkable skill of American speed skater Eric Hayden, who won all 5 gold medals, allowed the US team to take overall third place in the unofficial standings. Hayden’s achievement is striking not so much in that the athlete won a record number of medals for one Olympic Games, but primarily in victories at seemingly completely incompatible distances - from “pure” sprints to typical stayers. Hayden also achieved high results in cycling - in 1985 he became the US champion among professionals, and in 1986 he participated in the Tour de France race. The athlete refused tempting offers in commercial activities and chose a career as a doctor.
GDR athletes did not limit themselves to successful performances in sports in which they had already become recognized leaders. In Lake Placid, they managed to win gold medals in the women's 10 km cross-country skiing race - Barbara Petzold, in women's single skating - Anette Poetsch, in speed running in speed skating among women at a distance of 500 m - Karin Enke.
53-year-old athlete from Sweden Karl-Erik Erikson managed to take only 19th place in the double bob competition and 21st in the quadruple bob competition. However, he became the first athlete to compete in six Winter Olympics.
In the unofficial team competition, the GDR team took first place, winning 154.5 points and 24 medals - 10 gold, 7 silver, 7 bronze. Second place went to the USSR athletes with 147.5 points and 22 medals - 10 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze. The US team took third place, winning 99 points and 12 medals - 6 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze.
Soviet writer, author of the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered.” Both Ostrovsky’s main novel, which depicts the formation of a revolutionary, and the personality of the author (who wrote despite serious illness, paralysis and blindness) in the Soviet Union were surrounded not only by an official cult, but also by sincere popularity and veneration of many readers. N.A. Ostrovsky was born in the village of Viliya, Ostrozh district, Volyn province (now Ostrozhsky district, Rivne region, Ukraine) in the family of a distillery worker, Alexei Ivanovich Ostrovsky, and a cook. He was admitted to the parochial school ahead of schedule “due to his extraordinary abilities”; He graduated from school at the age of 9 (1913) with a certificate of merit. Soon after this, the family moved to Shepetivka. There, Ostrovsky worked for hire since 1916: in the kitchen of the station restaurant, as a cup maker, as a worker in material warehouses, and as an assistant fireman at a power plant. At the same time he studied at a two-year school, then at a higher elementary school (1917-1919). He became close to the local Bolsheviks, during the German occupation he participated in underground activities, and was a liaison for the Revolutionary Committee. On July 20, 1919 he joined the Komsomol, and on August 9 he volunteered for the front. He fought in the cavalry brigade of G.I. Kotovsky and in the 1st Cavalry Army. In August 1920, he was seriously wounded in the back near Lvov (shrapnel) and demobilized. Participated in the fight against the insurgency in special forces units (CHON). In 1921 he worked as an assistant electrician in the Kyiv main workshops, studied at the electrical technical school, and at the same time was secretary of the Komsomol organization. In 1922 he was building a railway line to transport firewood to Kyiv, while he caught a bad cold and then fell ill with typhus. After recovery, he was the commissar of the All-Education battalion in Berezdovo (in the region bordering Poland), was the secretary of the district Komsomol committee in Berezdovo and Izyaslav, then the secretary of the district Komsomol committee in Shepetovka (1924). In the same year he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Ostrovsky's health was affected by his injury and difficult working conditions. His joints hurt. The final diagnosis of N. Ostrovsky is Progressive ankylosing polyarthritis, gradual ossification of the joints. In the fall of 1927, he began writing the autobiographical novel “The Tale of the Kotovtsy,” but six months later the manuscript was lost in transit. 
From the end of 1930, using a stencil he invented, he began to write the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered.” The manuscript sent to the Young Guard magazine received a devastating review: “the types derived are unrealistic.” However, Ostrovsky obtained a second review of the manuscript, regarding which the instructions of the party authorities were given. After this, the manuscript was actively edited by the deputy editor-in-chief of the Young Guard, Mark Kolosov, and the executive editor, Anna Karavaeva, a famous writer of that time (the writer Yuri Buida even attributes to her the real authorship of the novel). Ostrovsky acknowledged Karavaeva’s great participation in working with the text of the novel; he also noted the participation of Alexander Serafimovich, who “gave me whole days of his rest.” TsGALI has photocopies of the novel’s manuscript, which recorded the handwriting of 19 people. It is officially believed that Ostrovsky dictated the text of the book to “voluntary secretaries.” Professor V.V. Musatov claims that “the very process of creating the text of the novel was of a collective nature.” At the same time, he refers to the testimony of M.K. Kuprina-Iordanskaya, who conveyed the words of the literary critic Heinrich Lenoble (died 1964), who called himself one of the co-authors of the novel. According to her, Lenoble said “that the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” was made by seven people. The author’s version of the novel was completely unreadable.” Kuprin-Iordanskaya asked Lenoble: “Why did you commit this deception?”, to which he replied: “It doesn’t matter if it weren’t for me, someone else would have done it.” This is just a fantasy that does not correspond to reality. N. Ostrovsky in his letters talks in detail about his work on the novel; there are memoirs of contemporaries who witnessed the writer’s work on the book. Textual studies confirm the authorship of N. Ostrovsky. In April 1932, the Young Guard magazine began publishing Ostrovsky's novel; in November of the same year, the first part was published as a separate book, followed by the second part. The novel immediately gained great popularity. 
In 1935, Ostrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin, he was given a house in Sochi and an apartment in Moscow, and was given the rank of brigade commissar; For the last few months he has lived on the street named after him (formerly Dead Lane), receiving readers and writers at home. He took it upon himself to write a new novel, “Born of the Storm” (under the same name as the lost early novel, but with a different plot) in three parts and managed to write the first part, but the novel was recognized as weaker than the previous one, including by Ostrovsky himself . The novel's manuscript was typed and printed in record time, and copies of the book were given to loved ones at the writer's funeral. Died in Moscow on December 22, 1936. In 1940, the House-Museum of Nikolai Ostrovsky was opened in Sochi and the Memorial Museum in Moscow. A street in the Zheleznodorozhny district of Kursk is named after him. Ostrovsky's works have been translated into the languages of the peoples of the USSR and many foreign languages. In 1935, Ostrovsky was awarded the military rank of brigade commissar. Awarded the Order of Lenin. Winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1966). There are Ostrovsky memorial museums in Moscow (since 1940) and Sochi (since 1937), where Ostrovsky lived in 1928-1936 (with interruptions), as well as in the writer’s homeland. Essays: Essays. (Introductory article by V. Ozerov), volumes 1-3, Moscow, 1968; Works (Introductory article by S. Tregub), volumes 1-3, Moscow, 1969. Literature: Vengerov N., Nikolai Ostrovsky, 2nd edition, supplemented and corrected, Moscow, 1956; Timofeev L.I., O artistic features novel by N. Ostrovsky "How the Steel Was Tempered", 2nd edition, Moscow, 1956; Nikolai Ostrovsky, photographs, documents, illustrations, (text by S. Lesnevsky. Compiled by R. Ostrovskaya, E. Sokolova), Moscow, 1964; Tregub S., Living Korchagin, 2nd edition, Moscow, 1973; Anninsky A., “How the Steel Was Tempered” by Nikolai Ostrovsky, Moscow, 1971: Russian Soviet prose writers. Biobibliographic index, volume 3, Leningrad, 1964.
Lake Placid (USA)
The 1980 Games were unlucky. They were carried out during the most desperate period of the Cold War, when Soviet troops entered Afghanistan and the United States and its allies prepared to boycott summer olympics in Moscow. The opposing blocs poured streams of mud at each other, and our delegation’s trip to the “den of the enemy” was accompanied by powerful ideological pumping. The USSR team included 86 athletes representing all sports except bobsleigh. Most of them spent two weeks in Lake Placid awaiting provocations from the American intelligence services, and Soviet newspapers they wrote angrily about “their morals” and about the numerous mistakes of the Games organizers.
Venue: Lake Placid, USA
February 14 - 23, 1980
Number of participating countries - 37
Number of participating athletes - 1072 (232 women, 840 men)
Medal sets - 38
Winner in the team competition - USSR
Three main characters of the Games according to SE
Herb Brooks (USA),
hockey (coach)
Eric Hayden (USA),
skating
Nikolay Zimyatov (USSR),
cross-country skiing
IN THE ENEMY'S LAIR
There were indeed grounds for dissatisfaction with the organization of the Games. Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics for the second time, and again, as in 1932, made many miscalculations. The main one was the failure of the construction project Olympic Village. It was not possible to find an investor for it, and local authorities could not come up with anything better than to provide the athletes with a place to live in a newly built prison for juvenile offenders. The Olympians had to rest in concrete cells between starts - many complained about the oppressive atmosphere. During the 1980 Games there were also problems with transport, communications and ticket sales.
Another problem was the lack of snow ski slopes. But it was solved with the help of snow cannons. More than $5 million was spent on the production of artificial snow - this was the first such case in the history of the Games. For many athletes, artificial turf turned out to be unusual; they had to adapt to new conditions. It is believed that it was the snow from the cannons that helped to become a double Olympic champion Swede Ingemar Stenmark, who won the competition in ski slalom and giant slalom just five months after the severe injury.
But it is not Stenmark’s medals that are primarily remembered in connection with the 1980 Winter Olympics. The main event of the Games was the victory of the US hockey team over the great Soviet team, which interrupted the 16-year hegemony of the USSR in the Olympic hockey tournaments. Players from student teams sensationally defeated the “red car” and won gold medals. The USA - USSR match, which in the Western press has been labeled as a "Miracle on Ice", is recognized as the main event in the hundred-year history of hockey and in the history American sports in the 20th century.
MIRACLE ON ICE
There are many explanations for failure Soviet hockey players— a change of generations in our team, underestimation of opponents (on the eve of the Olympics, the USSR team defeated the USA team with a score of 10:3) and the mistakes of our coach Viktor Tikhonov, who was tactically outplayed by the American Herb Brooks. But the fact remains that unknown students beat the most star-studded team in the history of Soviet hockey with a score of 4:3. By the way, that historical fight was not decisive at all. After him, the US team also had to beat the Finns. After two periods, the hosts of the Olympics were losing 1:2, but managed to score three goals in a row and made history.
Almost the entire USSR national team at that Olympics consisted of legends of our hockey. Vladislav Tretyak, Boris Mikhailov, Valery Kharlamov, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov played for her. They won six matches against other opponents with a total score of 60:13. The "Miracle on Ice" overshadowed another important event in hockey tournament- Canadians return to the Games after an eight-year absence. True, the Maple Leaves in Lake Placid did not even manage to get out of the group, showing their worst result in history.
Overshadowed by hockey achievements was even the great performance of American speed skater Eric Hayden, who won all five olympic distances and became a five-time Lake Placid champion, setting a Winter Games record. The lack of planned hockey gold did not prevent the USSR national team from achieving victory in the team competition. Soviet Olympians won 10 highest awards, ahead of athletes from the GDR in this indicator. Although in terms of the total number of medals best result after all, the East Germans showed it.
CHAMPION'S TEARS
Among the Soviet heroes of the 1980 Games are biathlete Alexander Tikhonov, who won first place in the relay for the fourth time in a row, and figure skater Irina Rodnina, who became a three-time Olympic champion in Lake Placid. Rodnina's tears on the podium during the award ceremony are one of the most emotionally highlights in the history of domestic sports. After the 1980 Olympics, the most titled figure skater in history will end her career as an athlete, and in 1990 she will go to work as a coach in the USA for 12 years. In 2013, a book of her memoirs will be published under the title “Tear of a Champion.” As for Tikhonov, in the future he will become a sports functionary and entrepreneur. In 2007, the court found him guilty of preparing an assassination attempt on the governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, but released him from punishment under an amnesty.
Games at the height of the Cold War were generally quite successful for us, despite the political and moral costs. In Lake Placid, skier Nikolai Zimyatov distinguished himself, taking two individual and one relay gold. In the 50 km marathon, a little-known athlete before the Olympics beat the legendary Finn Juha Mieto by almost three minutes. Although, probably, this defeat was not as offensive as the Finn’s loss of the 15 km race. Only one hundredth of a second separated Mieto from the Olympic champion, Thomas Wassberg. This is the smallest gap between the winners in Olympic history ski racing.
Another of our heroines was the former seamstress from Riga Vera Zozulya, who sensationally celebrated her victory in the German patrimony of luge. After the collapse of the USSR, the only one in Russian history Olympic champion By luge will work first as a simple physical education teacher, then as a coach in Poland, Latvia and Kazakhstan, but will not be in demand in Russia.
DWARFS VS TITANS
One of the surprising features of the final medal table At the 1980 Olympics, the Liechtenstein team placed incredibly high - sixth - ahead of such winter sports leaders as the Norwegians, Finns and Swiss. The reason was the success of only two skiers - sister and brother Hanni and Andres Winzel, who together won 4 medals in Lake Placid, including two gold. In general, Liechtenstein, thanks to its skiers, from 1976 to 1988 consistently won medals at Winter Games. It is the most successful dwarf power in Olympic history.
During the opening ceremony in Lake Placid, Team Canada received a particularly warm welcome from the public. At the end of 1979, diplomats from this country, during the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran by radical students, rescued and brought home six Americans. True, another 52 embassy employees remained hostage, and for this reason, the option of the Iranian national team coming to the Games was not even considered. But at the 1980 Winter Olympics there was a return to Olympic family the Chinese team, which had not previously competed at the Games due to the IOC’s position on the Taiwan issue. In the late 1970s, priorities changed and Taiwan was asked to abandon its flag and operate under the name Chinese Taipei. The Taiwanese were offended and boycotted the 1980 Olympics.
However, against the backdrop of global political demarches at the Summer Games in the 1970s and 1980s, all these events will turn out to be just minor skirmishes. The main political upheavals, fortunately, affected Winter Olympics just tangentially.
1980 13th Winter Olympic Games, Lake Placid, USA. At these games, the cooling of international relations between the two camps - socialism and capitalism - was already clearly felt. After entering Soviet troops In Afghanistan in December of the previous year, 1979, the specter of a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow was already hovering, which will happen. The Winter Olympics were lucky in this sense. It took place in full format, with the participation of all favorite countries.
The same thing, by the way, will happen in Sarajevo in 1984. Amazing indeed. The Olympics of the 80s, as you know, became hostages of political passions - a mutual exchange of boycotts between the USSR and the USA and their satellites, but all this affected only summer games.
Although, as we have already said, politics intruded. IN Soviet press For example, this topic was discussed. The buildings and grounds of the Olympic Village, home to the Olympic family during the Games, were to become a federal prison after the Games. Indeed, how can it be? Although our wits were already being sarcastic back then, what a level of comfort there is in American prisons, that to begin with, it’s not a shame to offer them as a hotel or hotel.
But isn't it time to actually talk about sports? The winners in the team competition were once again athletes from the Soviet Union. In terms of the number of gold medals - 10, and in terms of points in the NKZ - 148. But the GDR athletes were breathing down their necks. Firstly, the Germans for the first time overtook us in the total number of medals - 23 versus 22. They were only three behind in points, and only one behind in the number of gold medals. And if we conditionally add to these indicators the points and medals won by German athletes, then there was the birth of a new superpower in winter sports- Germany. The hosts of the games, the US athletes, took a confident third place. But out of their six gold, five were the merit of only one person.
The real triumph of this Olympics was the American speed skater Eric Hayden. A unique achievement. Five gold medals. He won at all distances - from sprint to distance. This can only be repeated, and it is unknown when this will happen. In general, I repeat. an unprecedented and unique case in the history of sports, when one person single-handedly took third place in the team competition, right after the USSR and the GDR.
What else do you remember about these games? In the men's 15-kilometer cross-country skiing, a dramatic story unfolded. Timing of the games was carried out using the latest technology. The result was recorded with an accuracy of one hundredth of a second, this is essential for competitions where seconds count by definition - bobsleigh, sleigh, alpine skiing, the same skates. And here is a 15-kilometer race, it’s difficult to show the same time. But the favorite Finnish skier Juha Mieto completed the distance in 41 minutes 57 and 64 hundredths of a second. His opponent, who was walking later, the Swede Thomas Wassberg, knowing his opponent's time, accelerated and was only one hundredth of a second ahead of Mieto. If the counting had been accurate to the tenth, then both would have received a gold medal, which, by the way, would have been fair. And so, to the horror of Juha Mieto, he remained second and, looking ahead, will never become an Olympic champion.
Our athletes also had something to be proud of. Skier Nikolai Zimyatov won three gold medals. Biathlete Alexander Tikhonov set a unique record - he became the Olympic champion in the relay race for the fourth time in a row. Irina Rodina won her third gold medal. Everyone remembered the television picture - Rodnina’s tears during the singing of the anthem of the Soviet Union.
There was a sensation at the Olympics that was not very pleasant for us. The victory of the US student hockey team over our team, made up of recognized champions, crushers of the myth of the invincibility of Canadian professionals. IN semi-final match The US team beat the USSR team with a score of 4–3. And in the final they defeated the Finnish team.
There were also local successes at the Olympics that have not yet been repeated. The dwarf Alpine state of Liechtenstein, through the efforts of brother and sister Andreas and Hanni Wenzel, won the first two gold and two silver medals for their country, thanks to which Liechtenstein was ahead of such giants as Norway, Finland, and Switzerland in the medal standings.
