The XV Winter Olympic Games were held in the south of Canada, in the “cowboy capital” - Calgary. The city, founded during the oil boom at the turn of the 20th century, earned this honorary title thanks to the world's largest rodeo, which attracts up to a million spectators annually. Moreover, Canadians achieved the right to accept olympic games on the fourth try.
In our memory Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988 remained as the most successful for athletes Soviet Union, who won record number medals - 29, of which 11 are gold, 9 silver and 9 bronze. The second was the GDR team. For both teams, the performance in Calgary became a “swan song”, since by the next Olympics both states had disappeared from the political map of the world.
And then the figure skating tournament started. The men were the first to take to the ice. In those years, two skaters - B. Boitano (USA) and B. Orser (Canada) held everything masculine in their hands figure skating planets. Their rivalry was no less exciting than the constant duels between Yagudin and Plushenko a dozen years later. The battle of the two Bryans at the 1988 Olympics was truly a magnificent spectacle. As a result, Boitano became the owner of a gold medal. Olympic medal, and Orser is silver. Boitano's free program to Carmeno Coppola's music for the film "Napoleon", creating the image of a romantic hero going to war and returning victorious, is still considered one of the brightest in the history of figure skating.
Brian Orser.
Third place, unexpectedly for everyone, was taken by 18-year-old Odessa resident Viktor Petrenko. From V. Petrenko’s interview with the R-Sport agency: “I planned to enter the top six. The main responsibility was assigned to Sasha Fadeev and Vova Kotin. And I was a debutant, I just needed to learn how to perform and get through the Olympics. But it so happened that a certain gap appeared, Sasha made a mistake, Vova also did not skate the short program very cleanly, and I “shot” and got close to the leaders. The same thing happened in free program.»
Free program by V. Petrenko “Don Quixote”.
The women were next to compete for medals. Soviet figure skaters Kira Ivanova and Anna Kondrashova took 7th and 8th places, respectively.
Kira Ivanova
.
Anna Kondrashova.
And the winner in Calgary 1988, as well as in Sarajevo 1984, was the brilliant Katharina Witt (GDR), who became a two-time Olympic champion. “I am sure that many years will pass before any of the figure skaters will be able to repeat my Olympic success,” she said in Calgary, on the day of her second Olympic victory, Katharina Witt. “After all, I managed to achieve such a result only 52 years after the famous Sonya Henie.”
The main duel of the Olympic figure skating tournament was to take place between Witt and Debi Thomas (USA), two Carmen (their compositions were on the same theme and similar in music: Bizet - Shchedrin - for the GDR champion, Bizet - for the US champion). But Thomas’s nerves gave way - she made a number of mistakes and was ultimately content with the bronze award.
Debi Thomas.
In addition, one of the hostesses of the Olympics, Canadian figure skater Elizabeth Manley, intervened in the dispute, winning in free skating and receiving silver as a reward. And the 22-year-old two-time Olympic champion completed the distance extremely smoothly Olympic competitions. She was third in the “school”, first in the short program and second in the free program, once again proving that in the all-around the winner is the one who is strong enough in all its components. “I still turned out to be stronger,” Katarina said, not without defiance. “To accurately perform all the jumps, you need to have extraordinary self-control. I was unable to avoid a mistake, and Debi turned out to be completely out of shape. No, she is an ordinary person, not a miracle at all.” By the way, in 1990, Witt, Boitano and Orser each received an Emmy Award for their roles in the ice play Carmen, which is considered the best ice performance.
In competitions sports couples The brightest stars were Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov, who took the gold from Sarajevo triumphers Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev. This victory in the pairs figure skating competition was the seventh in a row, starting with the 1964 Olympics. At one time, Katya and Sergei were paired up due to the fact that both of their jumps were not strong enough for single skating. They were trained by Stanislav Leonovich, and then by Stanislav Zhuk. In November 1987, Katya was injured during training - a concussion. The couple missed the USSR Championship. Despite this, they won the European Championship and went to the Olympic Games in Canada. Both programs were brought to perfection, and the free program (to the music of Mendelssohn, Chopin and Mozart) became a masterpiece in the history of figure skating.
The amazed judges gave 14 scores of 5.9 and four - 5.8 (the only one who gave the lowest, both 5.8, was the British judge S. Stapleford, known for her biased judging against athletes from socialist countries). I would like to quote Sergei Cheskidov from the newspaper " Soviet sport": "...After an elegant, seemingly weightless program to the music of Chopin and Mendelssohn, performed by Muscovites Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, the audience stood up applauding - the athletes did not allow themselves a single blot, every element, every connection was performed with inspiration, gracefully. ...3-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina, who was sitting next to me, jokingly exclaimed: “It’s just a “disgrace” to skate so confidently and freely at an Olympic tournament!” An amazing fact for those times: Katenka Gordeeva immediately became the most popular athlete at the 1988 Olympics, not the most friendly towards Soviet athletes North America. For me personally, the statement is absolutely true: you can endlessly watch fire, water and the skating of the beautiful, brilliant Gordeeva and Grinkov.
Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev also worked hard to prepare for the defense of their title as Olympic champions-84. But the carefully thought-out and developed plan could not be implemented - Elena’s severe leg injury prevented her from doing so. Instead of training on ice - long-term treatment. A month before the start of the Olympics, Valova and Vasiliev began training, and here we must say a huge thank you to our excellent coach - T. N. Moskvina. Thanks to her high professionalism and ability to lead athletes to big starts, the couple was included in the 88 Olympians. Valova/Vasiliev completed the most difficult program in full, without missing a single element, and deservedly won silver medals.
Our third pair, Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov, performed less successfully in Calgary. Errors during the execution of the short and then free program did not allow these athletes to rise above 4th place. Americans Gil Watson and Peter Oppergar won bronze medals.
In ice dancing, Natalya Bestemyanova and Andrey Bukin took first place, Marina Klimova and Sergey Ponomarenko took second place. Canadians Tracy Wilson and Robert McCall rose to third place.
I want to write about a duet for which gold medal XV Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, became the pinnacle of their 11-year collaboration sports career- Bestemyanova-Bukin. A couple that amazed me in those (young for me) years with their expression and became my favorite for a long time. Before the start of the Olympics, at the general meeting of the team, Andrei was entrusted with a great honor - he was elected standard bearer of the Soviet team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. He became the first of our skaters to receive this right. And then the Olympic routine began - the obligatory dances: paso doble, Kilian and Viennese waltz, the original tango dance, after which Bestemyanova and Bukin were in the lead.
Before the start of the season, many experts believed that Tarasova took a big risk by staging “Polovtsian Dances,” since the topic was specific and would not be understandable to all Western viewers. And then the day “X” came - February 23, 1988. From an article in Soviet Sport: “Pale Tarasova at the side Olympic skating rink“Saddledome” traditionally nods its head, bidding farewell to Natasha and Andrey. They nod approvingly at her in response. A little. With a slight, imperceptible tilt, saying that everything will be fine, they drive out to the middle of the skating rink as powerfully, as spaciously as only they can in the world...
Natasha: - When we went out on the ice, main start in my life, I was in such good condition, I felt so good that it seemed to me that I was ready to tear down mountains. And Tatyana Anatolyevna stood nearby and said: “You don’t need to do anything, you need to skate averagely, these are the Olympic Games, there’s no need to get out of yourself here”... at the beginning of the program there was a glitch that immediately brought me to my senses. The glitch was small, but for us he is a blunder. ...So, when we skated, I started crying again. And Andryushka stopped talking to me right away, the competition was not over yet.
There is no point in describing the composition performed by Natasha and Andrey; it was best said by the long-time rival of our skaters, the famous Christopher Dean, who here in Calgary commented on the figure skating competition for Australian television. “I was so captivated by this spectacle,” he said, “that I couldn’t immediately wake up and get to work, I was simply shocked!” The ovation given by the spectators sitting in the stands of the Saddledome became the best confirmation that Natasha and Andrey were able to convey to the hearts of everyone the meaning of their last, and therefore such piercing dance.”
A lot can be written about our second couple - Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, but their best olympic performance still to come. In the meantime, let's remember their original dance, which is simply a pleasure to watch!
Also, the Olympics in Calgary are the first for the very famous brother-sister duo Duchesne. Bright, extremely popular not only in the West, but also here (they received a standing ovation at the European Championships in Leningrad), who seriously changed dance in the early nineties. At the Olympics in Calgary, Duchesne created a sensation with Dean's "Dance of the Savages" (Savage Rites).
Watch the video from the 2nd minute.
They only came eighth at that Olympics, but they were noticed, and that’s the main thing. In the next Olympic cycle, they entered the circle of the main contenders for all titles, and the public waited for each of them new job: Dean's choreography was very different from the dominant "Russian" style.
This is how the Olympic Games turned out in Canada, where our skaters won 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medals. Perhaps none of us would refuse such a result at the upcoming Sochi Games. And in conclusion, I would like to quote N. Bestemyanova’s statement after the victory in Calgary: “Don’t repeat yourself” is our motto, our credo over the past 10 seasons. They say that we have our own style, that we know how to move away from templates. But, probably, this is the peculiarity of those masters who win on ice.” (“Soviet sport” 1988).
The Winter Olympics in Calgary will forever go down in history as one of the significant events in world sports. For the first time, the Winter Olympics lasted for sixteen days, during which the whole world watched the celebration of the triumph of the spirit and will to win.
The 1988 Olympic capital showed a true example of determination long before the start of the competition. Despite the fact that Canada has always been a leading country in winter species sports, the right to take olympic flame it wasn't easy for her. Calgary has been competing for the title of Olympic capital since 1959, and only in 1981 was it chosen to host the XV Winter Olympics in 1988.
Canada not only passed the test with dignity, but also in many ways exceeded the expectations of the world community. Construction of the Canadian Olympic Park lasted 7 years. Innovative sports facilities and the existing ones were modernized.
The new bobsled run was equipped with refrigeration units to prevent the ice from melting at above-zero temperatures. New trails for skiers and downhill skiers were equipped, and a grandiose indoor stadium for ice sports, the Olympic Oval, was built. For the first time, speed skating competitions were held indoors, protected from the vicissitudes of the weather.
An important event was the international broadcast of the games, which was conducted from the specially built International Broadcasting Center. The games were covered by 4,900 media personnel from different countries peace.
On Olympic Square A monument to the first champion athlete in the history of the Olympic Games was unveiled in the city center Ancient Greece Korebu. The bronze monument in Calgary is modeled after an actual ancient Greek statue. Every day on this square, in front of thousands of spectators, athletes - the heroes of the day - were honored and Olympic awards were presented. The opening ceremony of the games took place on February 13, 1988. The Olympic torch was carried by athletes of different ages, including four-year-old Bruno Levesque and Joe Chase, who celebrated his 101st birthday on the opening day of the games.
Athletes from 57 countries took part in the games. For athletes from Jamaica, Guam, Fiji, Guatemala and the Antilles, this was the first Winter Olympics in history. Athletes competed for 46 sets of awards in 10 Olympic sports sports, including the first included alpine skiing disciplines: alpine combined and super-giant slalom.
The changeable climate of the Rocky Mountains presented many difficulties for the organizers and participants of the competition. The warm Pacific wind rendered it unusable in a matter of hours. ski slopes. Due to melting snow, ski competitions were postponed several times. At the finish line the water was ankle-deep.
The winner in the overall standings was the USSR team, which won 29 medals. The GDR team took an honorable second place, receiving 25 medals. The triumphant performances of these teams were the last in the twilight of the history of these countries. By the next Olympic Games, both states ceased to exist.
The Olympics in Calgary became a powerful impetus for the development of sports and tourism in the region. The facilities built for the competition became a training ground for athletes all over the world. The park is constantly developing and modernizing. In the 21st century, new ones were added to the facilities built for the Olympics. Today Canadian olympic park open to the general public at any time of the year. It is perfectly equipped for sports in the summer. The park has bicycle paths and trails for mountain bike, cable car. Festivals are held here outdoors, there are summer camps.
Bids to host the 1988 Winter Olympics came from the cities of Falun (Sweden), Calgary (Canada) and d'Ampezzo (Italy). On September 30, 1981, at the 84th session of the IOC, Calgary's victory in the vote was announced.
Up to this point, the city had already applied twice to host the Olympic Games, but lost in 1964 to Innsbruck (Austria), and in 1968 to Grenoble (France).
Hosting the 1988 Calgary Olympics
A record number of teams from 57 countries took part in the competition.
The opening ceremony of the 1988 Calgary Olympics took place at McMahon Stadium. The flame of the games was carried by Canadian athlete Robin Perry, and athlete Pierre Harvey took the Olympian oath. The 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary were declared open by the Governor General of Canada, Jeanne Sauvé.
The 1988 Olympics were the first not marred by political confrontation. The time of boycotts was becoming a thing of the past. National teams of the GDR and Germany in last time They performed separately at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, and a year and a half later the Berlin Wall fell. 
For the USSR national team, the White Olympics in Calgary 1988 was also the last; the country would break up into separate states.
Changes to the 1988 Calgary Olympics
The Spanish Marquis Juan Antonio Samaranch, having become the President of the IOC, decided to refresh the stagnant program of the Winter Olympics; freestyle, curling and short track speed skating were presented as demonstration sports.
IOC President Samaranch managed to make the world sporting event a highly profitable event. He put forward a proposal to extend the competition over 16 days, including three weekends.
It became known that the organizers earned over $100 million from the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Then they said that this was a gross exaggeration. The American company ABC paid $309 million for the rights to broadcast the 1988 Calgary Olympics, but wanted to reschedule the event until the end of February. However, at this time, a warm chinouk wind blows from the Rocky Mountains and some competitions were almost canceled.
Results of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary
The USSR national team won the medal count: the triumph of the hockey team allowed the Soviet team to get ahead of the Canadians, the founders of hockey, in the number of Olympic titles.
Soviet red car
In total, the USSR team received 29 medals: 11 gold, 9 silver and 9 bronze. The GDR team was in second place.
The 1988 Winter Olympics became not only a sporting event, but also entertainment event, which turned them into the most fun Olympics of our time.
The Jamaican bobsleigh crew showed amazing determination, and the spectators cheered for the representatives of the tropical island. But in conclusion, the bob of the Jamaican crew turned over and was unable to finish. The story of the brave crew formed the basis of the feature film “Tight Turns.”
British ski jumper Eddie "Eagle" Edwards also distinguished himself. He became the worst skier in history, who did not succeed, but the fans were very worried about the clumsy fat man and rejoiced at his every success.
After the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the IOC adopted a special "Eddie Rule" in order to tighten the qualification standards for participants in the Olympic Games.
But there were some tragedies during the Games: Austrian team doctor Jörg Oberhammer died - he was hit by a truck on a slope. American speed skater Dan Jensen learned before the start of the race that his sister had died from leukemia and fell at a distance of 500 meters, and then in the 1000 meter race.
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Books
- White games are classified as secret. USSR and the Winter Olympics 1956-1988. , N. Tomilina, Mikhail Prozumenshchikov, I. Kazarina, N. Pereudina, S. Borak. Sport in the twentieth century was an integral part of world politics, which exerted an increasing influence on it and actively intervened in the conduct of competitions. During the Cold War...
- White Games classified as secret USSR and the Winter Olympic Games 1956-1988, Aroyan E. (ed.). Sport in the twentieth century was an integral part of world politics, which exerted an increasing influence on it and actively intervened in the conduct of competitions. During the Cold War...
BEFORE OPENING
OLYMPICS 2010 -
20 DAYS
The portal "SE" invites you to remember the main events of the XV White Olympics.
In 1988, the Winter Olympics were held in Canada for the first time. After two unsuccessful attempts to host the Games (in 1964 and 1968), Calgary finally received the right to host the White Olympics, beating Swedish Falun and Italian Cortina d'Ampezzo in the number of votes.
The organizing committee, with the assistance of local residents, who tried to involve them as much as possible in the process of preparing and holding the Olympics, did everything to ensure that the Games went off with a bang. Calgary received government support at all levels. IN Olympic capital Stadiums were reconstructed, new ski, alpine skiing and bobsleigh tracks were built, and the International Broadcasting Center was opened.
For the first time, the competition was held over 16 days, which included three weekends. True, the schedule of the Olympic tournament was seriously disrupted by the weather. In general, the province of Alberta in February is characterized by above-zero air temperatures and strong winds. 1988 was no exception. For example, competitions in alpine skiing, ski jumping, bobsleigh and skeleton were constantly postponed due to gusty winds. As a result, the jumping and skiing parts of the double event were held on the same day - for the first time in Olympic history. In addition, due to rising air temperatures, the bobsleigh track was seriously damaged, and many athletes complained about the quality of the ice at the end of the competition.
Almost one and a half thousand athletes competed in the XV Winter Olympics - 1,423 people (1,122 men and 301 women) from 57 countries. Above lighting Olympic competitions 6,838 journalists worked. The mascot of the Calgary Games was a pair of polar bears - brother and sister Howdy and Heidi.
The competition program has been significantly expanded. It included team competitions in ski jumping and Nordic combined, super-G and combination alpine skiing, as well as a distance of 5000 m for women in speed skates. Curling, freestyle, short track and cross-country skiing among Paralympic athletes were presented as demonstration events.
Speed skating competitions were held at an indoor skating rink for the first time. Records on the ice of the Calgary Olympic Oval were broken one after another (in total, 7 top world and 3 Olympic achievements). The main star of the competition was Swede Thomas Gustafsson, who won the 5000 meters with Olympic record and at a distance twice as long - with the world one. The only gold for the Soviet Union was won in the 1000 meters by Nikolai Gulyaev. Igor Zhelezovsky became a bronze medalist in the same discipline.
This Olympics was tragic for American speed skater Dan Jensen. Five hours before the start of the 500-meter race, he learned that his sister Jane had died of leukemia. Jensen made a false start, and then, after running only a hundred meters, he fell. He was unable to avoid falling in the “thousand”, most of which he completed ahead of schedule for the world record.
In women's skating, the three-time champion was the Dutchwoman Yvonne van Gennip, who won three gold medals - at distances of 1500, 3000 and 5000 meters. And the German Christa Rothenburger-Luding, who took gold in the “1000” and silver in the “500”, went down in history as the only athlete who became the winner of medals in both the winter and the summer games. A few months after Calgary, in Seoul, she won silver in cycling.
Once again they forced me to talk about myself Soviet skiers. Nikolai Zimyatov and Alexander Zavyalov were replaced by Mikhail Devyatyarov, Alexey Prokurorov and Vladimir Smirnov. The first won the 15-kilometer race, the second won the distance twice as long, and the third won bronze and silver in these disciplines, respectively. The 50-kilometer marathon was conquered by the legendary Swede Gunda Svan.
Another gold, my fourth at two Olympics, “father” skating Together with his teammates he won the relay race. Our skiers (Smirnov, Vladimir Sakhnov, Devyatyarov and Prokurorov) took second place in this race.
IN women's competitions Soviet skiers dominated, winning 8 out of 12 medals. In particular, our athletes took the entire podium at the end of the 20-kilometer freestyle race. Tamara Tikhonova won gold, Anfisa Reztsova won silver, and Raisa Smetanina won bronze. Tikhonova also added silver to her personal account at five kilometers, where only 1.3 seconds separated her from victory, and Smetanina became second at the 10-kilometer distance. Vida Ventsene won gold in the ten kilometer race and bronze in the five kilometer race. Needless to say, in the relay race Soviet team had an overwhelming advantage. Svetlana Nageikina, Nina Gavrylyuk, Tamara Tikhonova and Anfisa Reztsova were almost two minutes ahead of the Norwegians who came in second.
Frank Peter Rech from the GDR entered the Olympic history, as the first biathlete who managed to win both the 10-kilometer sprint and the 20-kilometer individual race at one Olympics. In both cases, he was ahead of our Valery Medvedtsev.
“I remember how I was shooting at the last line of the 20 km race and missed on the fourth shot - the plate seemed to go and go and... came back. If not for this, I would have been a champion,” Medvedtsev in an interview with SE.
Well, the relay race - for the sixth time in a row! – the Soviet team won, which, in addition to Medvedtsev, included Dmitry Vasiliev, Sergei Chepikov and Alexander Popov.
The Calgary Games marked the debut for the charismatic Italian alpine skier Alberto Tomba. His father, a textile magnate, promised to buy his son a Ferrari if he won gold. “La Bomba” won both the slalom and giant slalom.
The giant slalom competition was overshadowed by the death of the doctor American team George Oberhammer: colliding with one of the skiers, he was hit by a machine for making artificial snow. Swiss Martin Hangl and Pirmin Zürbriggen watched the incident from the ski lift. The first was so impressed by what he saw that he could not speak. And the second one found the strength not only to go on the track, but also to win bronze medal. This was his second medal at the Calgary Olympics: he had previously won the downhill. First Olympic champion Frenchman Franck Piccard became a super-G. Austrian Hubert Strolz won the combination, returning to the Games program for the first time since 1948. Swiss woman Vreni Schneider repeated Tomba's achievement and won two gold medals in the same disciplines.
Finn Matti Nikanen did something that no other flying skier had ever managed before: he won both individual events with a huge advantage (and the victory on the big hill was his second in a row). In addition, inclusion in Olympic program team competitions allowed Nikanen to become a three-time champion in Calgary. True, despite his outstanding achievements, the Finn was never able to completely win the hearts of the fans. The public's favorite was the representative of Great Britain, Michael "Eddie the Eagle" Edward.
A plasterer by trade, he wanted to compete at the Olympics in alpine skiing, but he could not afford to pay for ski lifts, and then, in 1986, at the age of 22, he took up ski jumping. He had neither a coach nor financial support, and had to train abroad. He broke all his bones, but the idea of performing at Winter Games ah didn't refuse. The British Ski Federation told Edward he had to jump 70 meters to qualify for the Olympics. Just three months before the opening of the Games, he showed a result of 68.5 meters, and he was still awarded a ticket to Calgary. The Canadian public fell in love with this athlete immediately, and his name was chanted loudly every time he completed his attempt. He finished last in both events, but nevertheless became one of the most colorful characters in Olympic history.
Only the bobsleigh four from Jamaica could compare with Edward in popularity. An American businessman once saw cart racing there and noticed its resemblance to bobsleigh. He gathered men from the Jamaican army and made them bobsledders. The Jamaicans met the qualification standard in December 1987 in Igls, Austria, but the team's performance at the Olympics was in jeopardy. As soon as they arrived in Calgary, one of the team members was injured. Then Chris Stokes, a sprinter from the University of Washington and the brother of one of the members of the Jamaican crew, came to the rescue. He only had three days to prepare before the performance, but at first everything went well. However, before the final attempt, one of the runners of the Jamaican bob broke, and, rushing along the course, he began to tilt in one direction. Both Dudley and Chris Stokes suffered broken collarbones and their team finished in last place. Nevertheless, the audience fell in love with the Jamaicans for their uniqueness and iron will much more than, say, the winner of the fours competition, the Swiss Ekkehard Fasser. He narrowly defeated two-time Sarajevo champion Wolfgang Hoppe from the GDR.
In doubles, Hoppe and Bogdan Muziol also failed to achieve success, losing to the Soviet duo Janis Kipurs/Vladimir Kozlov. Kipurs, by the way, dyed his bob in the colors of the Latvian flag as a sign of protest against the Soviet occupation in his country.
IN luge Yuri Kharchenko took bronze, losing to East Germans Jens Müller and Georg Hackl.
Singles figure skating competitions were marked by the “battle of the Bryans” - Orser and Boitano.
Orser was the only Canadian world champion in any Olympic disciplines, and he was entrusted with the most high hopes. It is clear that he was entrusted with the flag at the opening ceremony. After the obligatory figures and short program The results were very tight, and anyone could, having performed better in the free program, win gold. Boitano was first on the ice and skated cleanly. And Orser performed a double axel instead of a triple, and then landed not entirely successfully after a triple flip. That was enough. The judges' votes were divided 5-4 in favor of the American. Soviet figure skater Viktor Petrenko unexpectedly won bronze.
Another battle is the “Battle of Carmen” – between the current Olympic champion and three-time world champion Katharina Witt and the winner of the ’86 world championship Debi Thomas. It ended in favor of the German woman, who became a two-time Olympic champion. At the same time, Elizabeth Manley sensationally intervened in the fight and won silver.
In doubles figure skating The victory was achieved by the duo Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, who at that time were 16 and 21 years old. Second place was taken by their compatriots - champions of Sarajevo Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev.
The competition of dance couples ended with the triumph of Natalia Bestemyanova and Andrey Bukin, who had not lost a single start during the Olympic cycle. Marina Klimova and Sergey Ponomarenko took second place.
A few weeks before the start of the Olympic hockey tournament The news spread around the world that the USSR was bringing a weaker team to Canada than in previous years. The hopes of competitors, however, were not destined to come true. Viktor Tikhonov's team won all the matches and won their seventh gold in nine Olympic cycles. And Vladimir Krutov with 15 points became top scorer competitions. Finland took silver and Sweden took bronze. The Canadians took fourth place.
In the overall standings, the battle for championship was fought by the USSR and the GDR - countries that had ceased to exist by the next White Olympics. Thanks to the efforts of alpine skiers and bobsledders, the Swiss took third place. But Canada became the first country to host the Winter Games that did not take on native land not a single award of the highest dignity.
Maria NIKULASHKINA
