Olympic GamesOlympics - Sochi 2014
Getty Images / AFP
The thirteenth episode of the novel the Olympic Winter sees shields the hosts with five gold medals in speed skating Eric Heiden and the team's "Miracle on Ice" in'' ice hockey.
Wednesday 29 January 2014 15 minutes reading time
The choice of venue for the Winter Games of 1980, the thirteenth in the history, it was the easiest of all because there were two candidates and one of them, Vancouver / Garibaldi, withdrew before the vote of the 75th IOC Session in Vienna of 13 October 1974 which had no choice but to assign the Games in Lake Placid, third location to host the Olympics for the second time after the white St. Moritz and Innsbruck. Games were characterized by poor organization, especially in the transport for spectators and experts, and the tense atmosphere at the international level: the "Cold War" was hotter than ever after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, following which the President of the United States Jimmy Carter a few weeks before the Games in Lake Placid threatened (and then maintained) to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow when the Soviet Union did not withdraw its troops by June. There was also a boycott in the city of the State of New York and was one of Taiwan to protest for admission, for the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, athletes from the Republic of China.
The only novelty in the racing program, which made her climb events at 38, was the men's biathlon sprint, held over a distance of 10 km, half of that will remain forever referred to as "individual," and was won by the East German Frank Ullrich. The Games were marked by great duel in the medal between the Soviet Union and East Germany, was the first to dominate with 10 golds against 9. The Soviets had their leader in Zimyatov Nikolay, who triumphed in the 30 and 50 km and with his teammates in the relay of the fund, and Anatoly Alyabiev, winner of the individual and the relay biathlon, among his comrades of the 4x7, 5 km was Aleksandr Tikhonov, to say the least controversial character from the end of his career forward, who won for the fourth consecutive time the cross-country relay and shot, only to have triumphed four times in a row at the Winter Games in the same event, albeit not individual.
Raisa Smetanina added to the title in the 10 km of Innsbruck in 1976 to 5 km in racing in pairs figure skating Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov triumphed in the dance and Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev is confirmed on the throne in the artistic Olympic, Rodnina reached so , globally the same honors collected by Sonja Henie with three Olympic gold medals and ten world championships in a row, strip the latter completed in 1978. The women's 1000m speed skating Natalya Petruseva if they won but it was the women's singles luge at the tip the scales in favor of the USSR in the medal: did not win, but in fact the East German Vera Zozuļa, Latvian athlete who is still the only non-German-speaking men including to have won an Olympic gold medal in luge.
Said that the West does not cousins ​​went up even once on the top step of the podium in Lake Placid, East Germany saw the confirmation of the double luge Hans Rinn and Norbert Hahn four years later in Innsbruck, but especially that of Ulrich Wehling triumphed for the third consecutive time in the Nordic combined. The cross-country skier Barbara Petzold won the 10 km and dragged her companions to success in the relay in front of the Soviet Anett Pötzsch prevailed in the artistic feminine winning the duel with the eternal U.S. rival Linda Fratianne, Karin Enke excelled in the 500 meters of skating, Meinhard Nehmer repeated the success of Innsbruck in Four-Man coming to three gold medals total in five circles, Harry finally Glass in the men's single luge took advantage of the turnovers in the third heat of his compatriot and defending champion Dettlef Günther in the fourth dell'altoatesino Ernst Haspinger to get on the top step of the podium.
As for the other nations, the tiny Liechtenstein took home his first-ever Olympic gold medals thanks to Hanni Wenzel, who won the giant slalom and women's alpine skiing downhill and was second behind Austria's Annemarie Moser-Pro ll acciuffò so that the only laurel that was missing, and in front of the Swiss Marie-Therese Nadig, who was favored to beat as she had done with the then Miss Pröll eight years earlier in Sapporo. Even in the men's giant slalom and had the same winner, the huge Swedish Ingemar Stenmark, while the defending champion of the Austrian Franz Klammer downhill was excluded from the quartet to Lake Placid and triumph was his compatriot Leonhard Stock, passed within a few hours from the reserve role to that of Olympic champion, winner never before nor for the next nine years of a World Cup race.
Finland won the race from the large hill ski jumping from the springboard while Törmänen with Jouko won Toni small Innauer, Austrian silver already in Innsbruck from the big one. The British Robin Cousins ​​in the artistic male went to lengthen the list of Olympic champions Milan coached by Carlo Fassi. Norway had to be content with a single joy Bjørg Eva Jensen winning the women's 3000 meters speed skating, as well as Holland with Annie Borckink in the 1500s, and Switzerland, with Erich Schärer that led to home race two of the bob along with brakeman Sepp Benz, while Sweden added to the two golds Stenmark by Thomas Wassberg in the 15 km for a single penny on the Finnish Juha Mieto, this margin so small causes international leaders to restore the detachment in tenth races on skis tight.
But these were mostly the Games of miracles on the ice of the hosts of the United States, in particular one is the "Miracle on Ice" by definition, namely that of the U.S. ice hockey team that in the penultimate game of the Tournament, February 22 against the USSR superfavorito squadron, remounted three times the temporary advantage of the opponents, then, exactly half of the third and final period, captain Mike Eruzione scored the 4-3 which turned out to decisive, as well as parades goalie Jim Craig in those last ten minutes saved the impossible sweeping an entire nation. A team that entered the myth and coached by Herb Brooks was not two days later that the "formality" of beat Finland 4-2 to get to the neck the most beautiful and unexpected gold medals.
And what about the miracles of the 21-year old Wisconsin Eric Heiden speed skating? No one had made a clean sweep of all the distances in the men's field, he was the first and still the only one, to be successful: he won races one after the other at 500, 1000, 1500, 5000 and 10000 meters, the fifth gold medal, the longest distance, with world record after setting four Olympic records in the other, put it around his neck February 23, the day after the challenge US-USSR of which he was a spectator . Following Heiden, as do many skaters and speed skaters, switched to cycling also participating in the Tour de France.
Finally, Italy. The shipping blue was miserable results: conquered two silvers in both sledding: Paul Hildgartner in the men's single, double winner in eight years ago in Sapporo with Walter Plaikner, replaced the top three his compatriot "suicide" Haspinger, in the double climbed the intermediate step of the podium Gschnitzer Peter and Karl Brunner. For the rest, the best results were fourth and fifth place in the women's slalom of Maria Rosa Quario and Claudia Giordani, with "Rock" that missed the bronze by just 3 cents, the sixth in descent Herbert Plank and the late Bruno Nöckler giant in the eighth and Susanna Driano in the artistic female, the same placing in the slalom with whom Gustavo Thoeni closed sadly made his career even at 29 years old.
Summary
13th edition of the Olympic Winter Games
Host city and date of the event: Lake Placid (USA), 12-24 February 1980
Athletes participating: 1072 (837 men, 235 women)
Participating countries: 37
Italian participants: 46 (34 men, 12 women)
Italian flag-bearer: Gustavo thoeni (Alpine skiing)
Securities allotted: 38 in 10 sports
Official Opening: Vice President Walter Mondale
Olympic athletes' oath: Eric Heiden (speed skating)
Olympic Oath of Judges: Terry McDermott
Last torchbearer: Charles Morgan Kerr
The medal
Soviet Union: 10 gold 6 silver 6 bronze
East Germany: 9 gold 7 silver 7 bronze
United States: 6 gold 4 silver 2 bronze
Austria: 3 gold 2 silver 2 bronze
Sweden: 3 gold 1 bronze
Liechtenstein: 2 gold 2 silver
Finland: 1 gold 5 silver 3 bronze
Norway: 1 gold 3 silver 6 bronze
Netherlands: 1 gold 2 silver 1 bronze
Switzerland: 1 gold 1 silver 3 bronze
Great Britain: 1 gold
West Germany: 2 silver 3 bronze
Italy: 2 silver
Canada: 1 silver 1 bronze
Japan: 1 silver
Hungary: 1 silver
Bulgaria: 1 bronze
Czechoslovakia: 1 bronze
France: 1 bronze
Social media engagement
Ultimi in Sport invernali
Ricco week-end in Cechia: Nicole Mastalli vince in super-g, Michael Bertagno in slalom dopo il dominio di Ales Knor
Sci d'erba: sulla pista di Obri Sud Javornik, triplo appuntamento FIS (e per la Junior Cup) partendo dalle gare veloci col timbro della lombarda, mentre in gigante comincia il dominio della nazionale di casa, con la chiusura odierna in slalom che parla azzurro in ambito maschile. Nel prossimo week-end le finali di Coppa del Mondo a Predaia, nel cuore del Trentino.
2