As the stage opened for bidding on hosting of the 1988 Winter Olympics, only three nations chose to make the venture. Canada’s frosty Calgary emerged victorious in the IOC voting over Italian and Swedish bids. It was Canada’s seventh attempt at hosting a winter games and Calgary’s fourth, yet it’s first time hosting a winter games. The summer olympics of the same year were held in Seoul, South Korea, as the summer and winter games were held in the same years up until 1992. 1988 was as interesting a time as ever, and in regards to the Cold War between the US and Soviet union, incumbent president Ronald Reagan had recently given his “Tear down this wall” speech, which called for the leader of the Soviet Union (Mikhail Gorbachev at the time) to …show more content…
For the first time, the winter games extended to sixteen days, including three weekends. Many of the 46 events present were lengthened, and some combined. 57 nations and their National Olympic Committees partook in the games (a record at the time) along with 1,423 athletes consisting of 301 women and 1,123 men (Olympic.org). The Soviets won the most medals with 29 total, while East Germany came in second with 25. Unfortunately, in a repeat of the Montreal summer Olympics of 1976, Canada again failed to win a gold medal in a competition as the host nation. As a citizen of a nation who wins numerous medals at most olympics, it’s understandable why this would be a notable story, and how Canadians might feel seeing their nation's athletes go winless at home. Nonetheless Canada displays little to no propaganda pushing their political or societal strength, and seems to not be bothered by their lack of victory in competition. Ostensibly this may have been a much, much larger story had this occurred to either the US or Soviet union during times of peak tension throughout the Cold …show more content…
One of the most impressive Olympic feats included-- Christa Rothenburger won gold in 1000 meter speed skating, then seven months later in Seoul proceeded to win silver in cycling, becoming the first even olympian to win a medal in both summer and winter games. One of the most interesting, Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards. Eddie was Britain’s first and only ski jumper. A former plasterer who wore coke bottle glasses and sported a flabby physique, Eddie became a media sensation. He finished dead last in his event, but received more attention than any other athlete at the games in the form of cheers, fans, interview requests, and more. His fans claimed he embodied what they thought was the true Olympic spirit, while his critics accused him of mocking the games with his poor performance (CBC Archives). Eddie caused the IOC to institute a new rule requiring Olympic hopefuls to finish in the upper half of an international competition before competing, effectively eliminating people like edwards from future games. He fared well after the games, with much extra attention and even a “nonvictory” parade held for him back in his hometown of Cheltenham. Among other notables, speed skating was moved indoors for the first time to put the athletes and spectators side by side for a more intimate experience. short-track speed skating, curling, and freestyle skiing all appeared on the programme as
In the book “The Boys of Winter” by Wayne Coffey, shows the struggle of picking the twenty men to go to Lake Placid to play in the 1980 Olympics and compete for the gold medal. Throughout this book Wayne Coffey talks about three many points. The draft and training, the importance of the semi-final game, and the celebration of the gold medal by the support the team got when they got home.
If you ask any Canadian what they were doing on september 28 1972, there it a good chance they will say watching the Canadians and soviets battling it out for the title of the summit series. It was one of the largest rivalry games in Canadian history. Kids in school watched the games during class, People across the nation sat on the edge of their seats for the month of september and were thrilled when Canada pulled off the victory. All of the hype leading up to the event made people wonder if the summit series was the biggest event in Canadian sports history or even Canadian history in general.There is no doubt that the summit series was a huge milestone for Canada and brought the nation together for an exciting ride, even to this day we still see the effects of this great event, it sculpted the game of hockey that we know and love today.
In an article titled, "This "Miracle on Ice" is considered to be the single most incredible moment in all of U.S. sports history. When coach Herb Brooks was made the team's coach, he spent a lot of time reviewing and searching for the right people for the team. Seeing as Brooks was the last man cut from the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, He wanted to do everything he could to win gold for his country. Once try outs started Brooks knew who he wanted on his team after one day. All of the players trying out were in college. The United States and Herb Brooks had picked their Olympic team after the first day of a week of try outs. After picking the team Herb had trained and prepared the team for the Olympics for over a year and a half. He had to prepare them for to face the Soviets. Brooks knew there was no matching them in speed, so he emphasized working on speed, conditioning, and discipline. Doing this my not make them as fast of the
Before the 1980 Winter Olympics began, the US Olympic hockey team was not expected to do as well as they did. They had many powerhouse teams to beat and the team was just a bunch of college kids who wanted to play hockey. In the end, they had performed one of the greatest upsets in the history of hockey by defeating the USSR, the whom many thought of as the greatest hockey team in the world.
The US was already planning on boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and tensions were already at an all time high. This is what made the game between the Soviets and the Americans. It not only seemed like an underdog victory for American hockey, but also "a victory in an ideological struggle", as someone who wasn't even alive during the Cold War this is a difficult thing to understand. The competition with the USSR in everything doesn't happen with other nations in the same way it did when the Iron Curtain was still draped between Eastern and Western
In 1990 women’s hockey had its first World Championship. Team Canada was made to wear pink jerseys as described in Hockey: A People’s History which showed a clear difference in the opinions of men playing versus women, as the women did not get to wear the red and white that the men wore to represent their country. However, this was still an important step. Men’s hockey was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1920. Women’s hockey was not included until 1998. It took 78 years for female hockey players to get to the same level on an international scale that men had been welcomed to. Olympic competition is arguably the best of the best; as countries send their most successful athletes to compete against the best from countries that they may not have the opportunity to play against in regular competition. While it may have taken many years, the introduction of women’s hockey into the Olympics was a clear display of the legitimization of the game. Thanks to the addition, many girls in Canada and around the world have had more exposure to women playing hockey. Especially for Canadian’s, seeing Team Canada dominate so frequently on the world stage has helped the growth of the game for women and has helped with the acceptance of female
At the time of 1980, a rule was in place that no professional hockey players could play in the Olympics; however, the Soviets were able to dodge this rule by claiming that their government-trained players were recruited from the amateur Central Army hockey club (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). The American team consisted of a bunch of rag-tag college kids and amateurs while most of the players on the Soviet team had been practicing together for a decade and were coached in the finest training facilities in the world (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). Many people are unaware of just how great the Soviet team was at this time in history (Russell). They had won eight of the past nine Olympic gold medals and five of the last seven world championships (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). They defeated the NHL’s All-Stars, an American hockey team packed of the professional league’s star players, just the following year by a huge margin (Russell). The Soviets were even nicknamed the “Big Red Machine”, because th...
The defining moment of the importance of hockey in Canada was “The Goal of the Century” in 1972. It was the evening of September 28th; the site was Moscow – U.S.S.R. In the midst of the Cold War, a game-winning goal by Canadian hockey player Paul Henderson at the end of the third period with only 34 seconds left on the clock vaulted Canada to a victory at the Summit Series and put them on top of the hockey world. The heart and character of Canadian hockey internationally began. “The exact moment of that spectacular goal has become a reference point in our national collective consciousness.”- R. Eagleson (Foreword). It was the climatic goal watched by almost every Canadian, and their pride swelled to amazing heights. Hockey is more than just a game in Canada, it is a celebrated history. Hockey is Canada’s identity. “Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inho...
...o break the world record in the Games, and Teófilo Stevenson of Cuba was able to win the same division three times. Additionally, Aleksandr Dityatin of Russia won a medal in all of the men’s gymnastics events, earning him the title of being the first athlete to win eight Olympic medals in one game. There was also a notable confrontation between British middle-runners, Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.
United States Olympic Committee. Testimony of Jim Scherr. 27 February 2008. 26 September 2013. .
Print. The. Jane Laing, ed., pp. 113-117. Chronicle of the Olympics, 1896-1996. New York: DK Pub., 1996.
Day two, the 100 meter dash. As heard on the day, "at the start, the athletes are toeing the line. Now the start. Ready. Set. Go! The Dutch runner is leading, now Jesse Owens is closing in, Metcalfe is trailing, Borchmeyer is fighting desperately. Owens is closing in on the finishing line with a large lead. First Owens. Second Metcalfe." After, Owens says, "I'm very glad to have won the 100 meters at the Olympic games here in Berlin. A very beautiful place, and a very beautiful setting. The competition was grand and we’re very glad to come out on top. Thank you very kindly." Owens has tied the world record and can check one goal off his list. Based off tradition, the leader of the host country would congratulate the gold medal winner, but Hitler did none of the sort. Louis Stokes, a Cleveland resident at the time said, "As an African American, all of us shared the snubbery by Hitler of Jesse Owens. Jesse was ours. He was us. He was me. And when Hitler snubbed him -- he snubbed every one of us." As Owens began to win, African Americans began to join and support him. Day three, the long jump. Owens came out sloppy in the preliminaries, but jumped far enough to qualify for the finals. During the event, "the leader changed constantly. When one athlete reached a certain distance the other countered. And for a long time, it was impossible to tell how the contest
The United States typically does quite well in these competitions, amassing 14 medals from both men’s and women's half-pipe. When talking about the half-pipe events, there is one name that usually comes to Americans’ minds, Shaun White. White was born on September 3, 1968, in San Diego, California. However, he had to have two cardiac surgeries due to a heart defect before he was even five years old.... ... middle of paper ...
WOW!, did you see that amazing dive?, this years Olympics was amazing. But it's a total let down because it only happens every four months. But Did you know that it was always like that?. The Olympic games started many centuries ago but with fewer kinds of sports (found in = source 1 , paragraph 1). Some events were; running, long jump, short put, javelin, discus, wrestling, boxing , pankration ( a grueling mix of boxing and wrestling ) and last but not least equestrian competitions (found in = source 1, paragraph 1).
A man named Astylos from the city-state of Croton won six olive wreaths for the running events. Milon, also from the city-state of Croton, won eleven wrestling events, seven Pythian events, nine Nemean events, ten Isthmian events and won innumerable times in small competitions. “He became a legend, known for his exceptional balance and strength,” (Stock). Olympic winner Leonidas of Rhodes won 12 victory wreaths for his skills in running. Melankomas of Caria became a well known athlete for his technique in winning many boxing events.