The Olympic Games (11)
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The Olympic Games (11) The 1976 Olympic Games of Montreal, Canada The Olympic Games of Montreal were poorly planned and suffered facility construction corruption which left a huge financial debt to be paid by the citizens of Montreal and Canada. The Games themselves were well-organized and competitions were conducted effectively. A partial boycott by 22 African nations occurred because New Zealand, a country scheduled to compete in the Olympics, had toured South Africa with their rugby team. Rugby is not an Olympic venue sport. However, South Africa had been banned from the Games due to its apartheid policies and now New Zealand was being chastised for going to South Africa. Additionally, Taiwan was refused entry to Canada and the Olympic Games by the Canadian government. Fourteen year old Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored the first ever perfect ten in gymnastics competition. In fact she did it seven times while Nellie Kim of the USSR had one perfect score. In men’s gymnastics Shun Fujimoto had broken his leg in the floor exercise competition, competed on the rings and dislocated his knee on his dismount but refused to fall down. The Japanese went on to defeat the USSR by the smallest of margins in the men’s team competition. The Japanese women’s volleyball team won all their matches in straight sets. The USSR dominated men’s wrestling winning twelve gold medals. East Germany won eleven gold swimming medals but with help from steroids and other enhancing drugs. Cuban Alberto Juantorena won the 400 and 800 meters in track. Lasse Viren repeated his double gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Klaus Dibiasi of Italy won his third straight platform diving title. For the US, the men swimmers won eleven gold medals including John Naber’s four and in T&F Bruce Jenner won the decathlon. The Olympic movement would continue to live along with Canada’s financial debt! The 1980 Olympic Games of Moscow, Russia The US boycotted the Moscow Games in large part because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. President Jimmy Carter threatened to revoke the passport of any US athlete who attempted to travel to the USSR. Sixty –five other nations also decided to not attend. World record performances, however, exceeded Montreal in the number broken by athletes of the eighty attending nations. Nikolai Andrianov completed his record fifteen medal total in men’s gymnastics. Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba became the first boxer to win his weight division three times. Waldemar Cierpinski of Poland matched Abebe Bikila’s record of winning two consecutive marathon races. Britain’s Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe traded titles respectively in the 800 meters and 1500 meters reversing their anticipated specialties. Women’s Field Hockey, an inaugural sport, found itself without enough entrants due to the boycott. At the last minute Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, entered an all white team and they won the gold medal. In America over five hundred “forgotten Olympians” had their Olympic dream crushed by the Carter boycott! The 1984 Olympic Games of Los Angeles, California There were no other bids to host of the twenty-third Olympic Games. Perhaps the student riots of Mexico City, the terrorist attack in Munich and the financial disaster of Montreal were to blame. The Los Angeles Games were conducted without financial support by the government. Existing facilities and corporate sponsorships were the key to making a final profit of over two hundred million dollars. The USSR and fourteen other nations decided to boycott the Games. Still, a record number one hundred forty nations entered the Games. New sport venues included synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, a cycling road race and the women’s marathon race won by American Joan Benoit. Carl Lewis of the US matched Jesse Owens with four gold medals in T&F. Mary Lou Retton won the women’s gymnastics all-around title and the US men gymnasts won team gold. Edwin Moses won his second four hundred meter hurdling title after missing Moscow. Britain’s Sebastian Coe won the 1500 meters for the second time while Naroli Fairhall of New Zealand competed in archery in a wheelchair. Ulrike Meyfarth of West Germany, at 6’2” and 154lbs, won the high jump with an Olympic record of 6’ 71/2”. She became the youngest and then the oldest high jump repeat winner after a twelve year period. During the Opening Ceremony the athletes had broken ranks and danced in the infield. It was no different in the Closing Ceremony. The Aussie’s unfurled their flag and began to throw athletes in a trampoline fashion and invoking “a big LA party!” The 1988 Olympic Games of Seoul Korea The Seoul Games opened with an emotional uplift when Sohn Kee-chung, the 76-year-old 1936 Olympic marathon champion ran into the stadium with the Olympic torch. In 1936 Korea was occupied by Japan and Sohn had been forced to take a Japanese name (Kitel Son) and compete for Japan. Sohn had vowed to never run again! North Korea, Cuba, Ethiopia and Nicaragua boycotted Seoul while 159 nations participated. Security was strong because of a 120,000 police force armed with machine guns. In competition, Christa Luding-Rothenberger of East Germany won a silver medal in the cycling sprint event to go along with her gold and silver in speed skating at the Winter Games in Calgary. She is the first Olympian to medal in the Summer and Winter Games within the same cycle. Kerstin Palm of Sweden participated in her seventh straight Olympics in fencing. East Germany dominated in women’s swimming and was second in the overall medal count only to have their athletic accomplishments tarnished and scorned by the continued use of banned substances by many of their Olympians. Ben Johnson was disqualified for drug use after his win in the 100 meters. Table tennis was introduced as a new venue and tennis was reinstated after a sixty-two years absence. For the US, Greg Louganis won his second double-double in diving in spite of hitting his head on the spring board in the preliminaries. “Flojo” won three gold medals and one silver medal in track & field while Jackie Joyner-Kersee, her asthmatic sister-in-law, won the heptathlon and long jump. In swimming, the US won all the men’s relays and Matt Biondi won five gold medals while Janet Evans won three. The men’s volleyball team won gold as well. In spite of earlier student riots and threats of cancellation, the Seoul Olympics featured one of the most complete fields of the world’s top athletes and a very secure Olympic Games! By: Bruce Davis-- Professor Emeritus Miami Dade College and Director of Flip Flops & Fitness gymnastics school of Apollo Beach—telephone: (813) 641-3375—e-mail: [email protected]: www.letstalkgymnastics.com .