Olympic GamesOlympics - Sochi 2014
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'' The eleventh chapter of the novel the Olympic winter Games of the Rising Sun for the'' Italian'' were those of gold in giant slalom and silver'' s Gustavo Thoeni.
Wednesday 22 January 2014 15 minutes reading time
On April 26, 1966 at the 64th session of the IOC in Rome have four candidate cities to host the eleventh Winter Games, those of 1972: the Canadian Banff, not far from Calgary who has lost the last round against Grenoble edition of 1968 then the Finnish Lahti, the U.S. Salt Lake City and the Japanese Sapporo. It seems the Banff and instead favored to triumph in the first round with an absolute majority of 32 votes, 16 against and 7 Banff each of the other two, it is the city of the Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido, the first non-European and non-North American to host an edition of the Games whites. His triumph is helped by the fact that the members of the IOC was impressed the great success of the 1964 Summer Olympics in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, but above all by the fact that the IOC president Avery Brundage's owner is the owner of the best-selling beer in the country of the Rising Sun. Nothing new in the program compared to Grenoble, as well as the titles are 35 participating nations.
These are the games of the great variations in weather, as often happens when the races are held in the mountains not far from the sea, and war (two-sided) of the IOC against the pro. Ice hockey, for example, teams such as the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, in fact, all composed by professionals because in communist countries there is no distinction between amateurism and professionalism, are admitted without a shot being fired, so much true that Canada does not participate in protest, and will do so also in 1976, and won the title of the course in front of the squadron of the USSR to the United States, impronosticabili the intermediate step of the podium, and Czechoslovakia. Instead alpine skiing the above-named president of the International Olympic Committee, the 84-year old Brundage, 40 skiers accused of taking money from manufacturers of materials.
The only one who has the audacity to oppose this attack already out of time to professionalism (in tennis for example, the distinction between professional and "amateur professional" has already been exceeded in 1968) is one who is , in pole position among the accused, Karl Schranz, just four years before that he had been disqualified amid controversy in the slalom for the benefit of the golden trio of Jean-Claude Killy. In response, the IOC decided not to admit the Games Schranz, idol of a whole country,'' Austria and the great favorite of the descent, for the record, it goes to the Swiss Bernhard Russi while "Karli", the largest of those who have never won an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing with Marc Girardelli, he retired from and return to Austria is brought to Vienna, where he is greeted by a huge crowd that cheered him and who openly criticizes Brundage, the which fortunately will leave the presidency of the IOC after the tragic Monaco Olympics next summer.
The king and queen of the Games in Sapporo, with three gold medals each, are the Dutch and the Soviet Ard Schenk Galina Kulakova. Schenk is the third Olympics and silver in 1500 after having been in Grenoble for two years now dominates the world of speed skating in Japan triumphs in the 1500, 5000 and 10000 meters failing the hat-trick for a fall in the 500 meters (won by the West German Erhard Keller) that relegates him to the thirty-fourth place. Kulakova also won a silver in the 5km, in the previous games, which for her were the first, this time is Filotto triumphing in the three women's events of the fund, 5 km, 10 km and relay. On narrow skis reserved to men 15 km if the successful Swedish Sven-Åke Lundbäck, the 50 km Norway's Pål Tyldum and 30 km the Soviet Vyacheslav Vedenin, which helps to overcome the USSR even the men's relay. The Communist colossus takes home the title of the relay biathlon while the 20 km is the prerogative of the Norwegian Magnar Solberg, the first to successfully defend an individual title in five circles in the sport of skiing and shooting.
The Japanese, who have never won an Olympic gold winter, they even hat-trick in ski jumping from the springboard small Yukio Kasaya gold, silver Akitsugu Konno and Seiji AoChi. From the large trampoline instead of the Polish Wojciech Fortuna thanks to an extremely favorable wind lands to the incredible distance of 111 meters in the first series of jumps, then the second comes only 87.5 meters but good luck (and never surname was most significant !) makes him defend the top spot by just one tenth of a point on the Swiss Walter Steiner! In Nordic Combined, the 19 year old East German triumphs Ulrich Wehling, East Germany literally dominates the races of the single luge, among women with triple gold to Anna-Maria Müller, one of the disqualified four years earlier, among men even four in the first four with gold Wolfgang Scheidel. In the doubles there is a pair of South Tyrol who sneaks between East Germans and that is formed by Paul and Walter Hildgartner Plaikner, which won ex-aequo with Hörnlein and Reinhard Horst Bredow. E 'instead of West Germany to win the two-man bobsleigh with Wolfgang Zimmerer while in the four only the Swiss Jean Wicki beats our Nevio De Zordo that keeps with the silver on the Olympic podium after the Italbob of Eugenio Monti.
In the artistic figure skating men's Ondrej Nepela, Czechoslovakian at age 21 is already in its third Olympics, and 38 will die from AIDS, among women triumphs Austrian Beatrix Schuba despite the judges in the free the Piazzino only in seventh place in the pairs competition steeped in gossip triumph of the Soviets Irina Rodnina and Aleksei Ulanov compatriots Lyudmila Smirnova and Andrei Ulanov Surakin but in those games begins a romance with Smirnova, Rodnina is destroyed but with His partner also apprehends the most beautiful metal and then switches to skate with Alexander Zaitsev, who became his partner in life and with whom will rewrite the history of the discipline. In the women's speed targati Use two hits, Anne Henning and Dianne Holum 500 on the 1500, the 1000 go to the West German Monika Pflug and 3000 Dutch Stien Baas-Kaiser. American victory with Barbara Cochran but also in the women's slalom downhill and giant (in a single run) there is a glaring double surprise: the Swiss Marie-Therese Nadig, 17 year old semidisowned the canton of St. Gallen, in which World Cup was once second in downhill and a third time in a giant hoax twice the strafavorita Austrian Annemarie Pröll, the strongest skier in the world at that time in both specialties.
We have left for last the men's alpine skiing because that is where they get most of these games great satisfaction for Italy. Said the disaster fund, with none in the top twenty of the men's races (Franco Nones is even fortieth in the 15 km and not even defend the title at 30) and not a mediocre place in the relay, said the seventh place in Rita Trapanese ' artistic female and fourth Gianfranco Gaspari in the two-man bobsleigh, we arrive at Gustav thoeni, or if you prefer Gustavo Thoeni. The South Tyrolean Trafoi and the holder of the World Cup and triumphs in the giant climbing up from third after the first run. The encore does not succeed in the slalom because he ran into one of the surprises of the Games, the Spaniard Francisco Fernández-Ochoa, never better than seventh place in the Cup until then, invents a "first heat of life" and a "second round of bis life," only an error in the middle of the second grant is 32 cents per Thoeni but the gap accumulated in the first, 1 "33 is more than enough to mettergli neck that is still the only winter Olympic gold Spanish. Thoeni, too controlled in the first fraction in which it was eighth, and dates back to the silver on the bottom step of the podium there salt his cousin Roland, Roland, or if you prefer. Italy closes as a medal more than in Grenoble, five to four, but with half of the original two.
Summary
11th edition of the Olympic Winter Games
Host city and date of the event: Sapporo (Japan), 3-13 February 1972
Athletes participating: 1008 (802 men, 206 women)
Participating countries: 35
Italian participants: 44 (41 men, 3 women)
Standard Bearer Italian: Luciano De Paolis (bob)
Securities allotted: 35 in 10 sports
Official opening: Emperor Hirohito
Olympic athletes' oath: Keiichi Suzuki (speed skating)
Olympic Oath of Judges: Fumio Asaki
Last torchbearer: Hideki Takada
The medal
Soviet Union: 8 gold 5 silver 3 bronze
East Germany: 4 gold 3 silver 7 bronze
Switzerland: 4 gold 3 silver 3 bronze
Holland: 4 gold 3 silver 2 bronze
United States: 3 gold 2 silver 3 bronze
West Germany: 3 gold 1 silver 1 bronze
Norway: 2 gold 5 silver 5 bronze medals
Italy: 2 gold 2 silver 1 bronze
Austria: 1 gold 2 silver 2 bronze
Sweden: 1 gold 1 silver 2 bronze
Japan: 1 gold 1 silver 1 bronze
Czechoslovakia: 1 gold 2 bronze
Poland: 1 gold
Spain: 1 gold
Finland: 4 silver 1 bronze
France: 1 silver 2 bronze
Canada: 1 silver
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