1980 Winter Olympics

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XIII Olympic Winter Games
1980 Winter  Olympics

The emblem is a line that forms the Adirondacks,
which turns into a column on the left,
paying tribute the ancient Olympic games.
On the top of the column it serrates
to hold the Olympic rings. This represents
a double cauldron, acknowledging that
the Olympics were held in Lake Placid in 1932.
Host city Lake Placid, New York, USA
Nations participating 37
Athletes participating 1072
(840 men, 232 women)
Events 38 in 6 sports
Opening ceremony February 14
Closing ceremony February 23
Officially opened by Walter Mondale
Athlete's Oath Eric Heiden
Judge's Oath Terry McDermott
Olympic Torch Charles Kerr
Stadium Lake Placid Equestrian Stadium
The Olympic Cauldron
The Olympic Cauldron

The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. Another candidate city was Vancouver-Garibaldi, British Columbia, Canada; they withdrew before the final vote.

The "Miracle on Ice" Arena.
The "Miracle on Ice" Arena.

Contents

[edit] Highlights

  • An upstart United States ice hockey team, made up primarily of collegiate players, won the gold medal, defeating the heavily favored Soviet team and then Finland in the medal round. Their defeat of the Soviet team in the medal round became known as the "Miracle on Ice" in the US press. A film about the event, called Miracle, was released in 2004.
  • This was the second time the Games were held in Lake Placid.
  • First use of artificial snow in Olympic competition.
  • Although they did not get any medals, the People's Republic of China returned to the Olympics Games after the IOC agreed to designate the ROC "Chinese Taipei".
  • Ingemar Stenmark won both the giant slalom and the slalom.
  • Hanni Wenzel won the women's giant slalom and slalom, making Liechtenstein the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion.
  • Ulrich Wehling of East Germany and Irina Rodnina of the USSR won their respective events for the third time.
  • Aleksandr Tikhonov of the USSR earned his fourth straight gold medal.
  • Nikolay Zimyatov of the USSR earned three gold medals in cross-country skiing.
  • Eric Heiden won all 5 speedskating events (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m) he also set 4 olympic records and 1 world record (10,000m).
  • Robin Cousins won gold for Great Britain in the men's ice skating
  • The winner of the games was the USSR who won 10 golds, 6 silvers and 6 bronze.
The Olympic Ski Jumps.
The Olympic Ski Jumps.

[edit] Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

[edit] Medal count

(Host nation highlighted)

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Soviet Union Soviet Union 10 6 6 22
2 East Germany East Germany (GDR) 9 7 7 23
3 United States United States 6 4 2 12
4 Austria Austria 3 2 2 7
5 Sweden Sweden 3 0 1 4
6 Liechtenstein Liechtenstein 2 2 0 4
7 Finland Finland 1 5 3 9
8 Norway Norway 1 3 6 10
9 Netherlands Netherlands 1 2 1 4
10 Switzerland Switzerland 1 1 3 5
Further information: 1980 Winter Olympics medal count

[edit] Participating nations

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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