Olympic Games 76. Scandalous Olympics

XXI Summer Olympic Games were held in the city of Montreal (Canada) from July 17 to August 1, 1976.

City selection

In addition to Montreal, Moscow and Los Angeles competed for the 1976 Games.

Where exactly the games will take place was decided by the International Olympic Committee, whose meeting was held on May 12, 1970 in Amsterdam. Moscow and Los Angeles were considered favorites. Even the Mayor of Montreal Jean Drapeau acknowledged that Montreal had little chance against Moscow. Indeed, in the first round, Moscow was in the lead with 28 votes to 25 for Montreal and 17 for Los Angeles, but this did not give the required majority. The USSR was so confident of victory that it prematurely released a TASS statement two hours before the announcement of the final decision. However, it was soon withdrawn. Los Angeles did not participate in the second round, and almost all members of the Olympic Committee who voted for it cast their votes for Montreal, which received 41 votes against the same 28 from Moscow, one vote was not taken into account.

After the announcement of the results, a statement by the Soviet side, circulated through TASS, stated that the choice of Montreal was contrary to logic and common sense that this is a blow to the Olympic movement and its ideas and that the members of the committee were guided by personal political likes and dislikes, and not by the principles of expansion and strengthening Olympic movement. The mayor of Los Angeles said that they were victims of the Cold War, that the committee obviously did not want to take one side or another between the US and the USSR and chose the simplest way to solve the problem.

Thus, the choice of the Canadian city was made for fear of backlash as a result of divisions between the superpowers. These fears were confirmed during the subsequent Olympics - and were boycotted, respectively, by the Western countries and the states of the socialist camp.

Preparing for the Games

Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau initially declared that it would be "a modest Games, at which simplicity and dignity will reign in the tradition of the greatness of man." This was said taking into account the experience (and losses) of the past. However, dignity, traditions and grandeur soon had to be forgotten. The fever started. Expenses for "simple" constructions exceeded estimates many times over: they planned 310 million dollars, spent in the end almost two billion. Construction proceeded in difficult conditions. There were severe frosts, fraud flourished, contractors blackmailed the organizing committee. The mistakes of the builders led to the tragic death of thirteen workers, to many accidents. Every now and then there were strikes.

As a result, the Montreal Olympics up to the 2008 was the most expensive in history - it cost $ 5 billion (equivalent to $ 20 billion in 2006). The city paid off its Olympic debts until 2006.

Symbolism

The Organizing Committee of the Games has released two main series of posters. The first series illustrated eight themes, including "Montreal and Antiquity", "Olympia and the Torchbearer", "Kingston - 1976", etc.

The emblem of the International Olympic Committee was recognized as the main poster, which depicts five rings in the form of successive waves, symbolizing the invitation to participate in the Games of athletes from all continents. The second series of posters is devoted to sports topics.

Mascot

Mascot of XXI Summer Olympic Games Beaver Amik became. Canadian beaver - national symbol Canada. He played an important role in the history of the country. For a long time, beaver fur was one of the most important trades in North America. Canadian lumberjacks are also called beavers. In addition, the beaver is considered a symbol of hard work. He has the qualities that distinguish a real athlete: patience, willpower, perseverance. The name Amik also means "beaver" in the language of the indigenous people of Canada.

As the main attribute, the talisman had a bright red belt with the image of the Olympic emblem, similar to the ribbon on which the medal is awarded.

It is known that Amik was the name of the leader of the beavers in the epic poem Henry Longfellow"Song of Hiawatha".

The opening ceremony

The Olympics were opened as the head of Canada, while all The Royal Family attended the opening ceremony.

Queen Elizabeth II at the Montreal Olympics

The opening of the Games was accompanied by a demonstration of the technical innovations of the time. The ceremony of lighting the Olympic flame turned out to be especially unusual and spectacular. A fire lit at a stadium in Montreal was transformed into radio waves and transported by space satellite to Ottawa, Canada, where another device turned the waves back into fire. From the capital of Canada, the fire was solemnly carried to Montreal and Kingston, where sailing competitions were held.

Canadian athletes Stephen Prefontaine and Sandra Henderson light the flame of the XXI Summer Olympic Games

The wrestler became the standard-bearer of the USSR national team during the traditional parade of the participating countries Nikolai Baloboshin. Before the Olympics in Montreal, the then sports head USSR Sergei Pavlov nominated Balboshin and insisted on his point of view to the end. And here was the thing. On the eve of the 1976 Games, the World Cup in Greco-Roman wrestling. Balboshin and Bulgarian met in the final battle Kamen Lozanov. During the fight, our athlete's thigh muscle came off. Despite the hellish pain, he continued the fight literally on one leg. Not surprisingly, the opponent eventually won. However, Pavlov noted the character, willpower and courage of the athlete. That is why he was entrusted with the red flag. In Canada, Balboshin set a record that can be repeated, but cannot be improved. He always put all his opponents on the shoulder blades, but he himself did not miss a single trick.

Delegation of the USSR national team at the opening of the XXI Summer Olympic Games

USSR at the Olympics in Montreal

The national team of the Soviet Union won a landslide victory. In Montreal, Soviet athletes won the most medals of each value: 49 gold, 41 silver and 35 bronze. Gymnasts, wrestlers and weightlifters brought the most medals to the USSR national team.

The heroes of the Games were Soviet gymnasts and Nelly Kim.

A student from Vladimir Andrianov in Montreal collected a whole collection of awards: 4 gold, 2 silver and bronze. The Canadian newspaper Toronto Star wrote about Andrianov: “This modest and serious guy from Russia was able to break the hegemony Japanese gymnasts who did not give absolute superiority to anyone at the last Olympics. Andrianov demonstrated amazing strength and unique technique. It is no coincidence that he was ahead of Sawao Kato, who followed him, by a whole point.

Vladimir Andrianov in an exercise on the rings

And Nelly Kim at the XXI Summer Olympic Games won 3 gold (vault - the highest score of 10.0, floor exercises and team championship) and 1 silver (all-around) medal.

Scandals of the XXI Summer Olympic Games

Modern pentathlon

The USSR national team was considered the favorite in team competitions. Its leader was Boris Onishchenko who already had three Olympic medals- gold in the team event and silver in the individual championship of Munich-72, as well as a silver award in the team event of Mexico City-68. However, in Montreal, Onishchenko was convicted of fraud during a fencing competition: the judges discovered a secret technical device that allowed Onishchenko, by pressing a hidden button on the sword handle, to light a lamp on the device that fixes the injections, although in reality the sword did not touch the opponent. Onishchenko accidentally pressed the button at the moment when he was a few meters from the opponent. The athlete was disqualified, and the USSR national team lost its chances of winning the team championship. The first three places were taken by teams from Great Britain, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

Resourceful sportsman-inventor Boris Onishchenko

Political scandal

A few weeks before the opening of the Games-76, participation in the Olympics of athletes from New Zealand was under threat. 22 African countries demanded a ban on their arrival in Canada, outraged that shortly before the start of the Games, New Zealand athletes played a rugby match with the South African team (South Africa was expelled from the IOC in 1970 due to the apartheid regime in the country). The IOC refused to support the protest and remove New Zealanders from the Games, as rugby is not olympic view sports. In response, 30 countries, most of them African, boycotted the Olympics.

The games in Montreal were also the first to ignore the existence of the Republic of China (Taiwan) team: due to Canada's non-recognition of the island's authorities, it was decided to ban its team from being officially called the "China team". Canada, as a compromise, suggested that Taiwanese athletes limit themselves to the private use of state symbols, but the Taiwanese authorities chose to refuse and boycott the Olympics. It is curious that the People's Republic of China also announced a boycott, not satisfied with the half-hearted decisions of the IOC. The question that the PRC team is the only legitimate representative of China was decided by the IOC only in November 1976, after the Montreal Games.

The XXXI Summer Olympic Games will open in Rio de Janeiro in August. With the help of photographs, we will remember how the last Olympics were held. The first in line was Montreal-76.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the XXI Summer Olympic Games in Montreal. In 1976, Canada, the capital of the province of Quebec, the city of Montreal, hosted the Olympics for the first time. In general, it was not the most festive Olympics - the reason for this was the boycott of the Games by African countries, unprecedented security measures and a flurry of criticism due to the excessive high cost of the Montreal Games. But in terms of sports, the Olympics took place on the highest level, a number of high results and world records, and stars and heroes would be enough for several Games.

The Montreal Olympic Games were held from July 17 to August 1, 1976. They were attended 6073 athlete (including 1260 women) from 90 countries.

African boycott. African countries demanded to be removed from the Games New Zealand. The reason for this was that shortly before the Olympics, New Zealand rugby players held friendly matches with rugby players in South Africa (South Africa at that time was in international isolation due to their policy of apartheid). The IOC refused to remove the New Zealanders and, in response, 30 African countries unanimously boycotted the Olympics. And they did it already while in Montreal, and some even managed to take part in the first day of the competition. This was the first large-scale boycott of the Olympic Games. It will be repeated at the next two Olympics.

debts. The huge cash costs of hosting (about $5 billion, making the Games the most expensive until Beijing 2008) left the city and province heavily indebted for 30 years, and many of the planned facilities were not completed on time or overpriced. several times.

Emblem of the Montreal Olympics

Beaver became the mascot of the Games Amik

Amik surrounded by female volunteers

At these Games, Soviet athletes performed enchantingly, confidently winning the unofficial team standings. They won 49 gold, 41 silver and 35 bronze medals. The second unexpectedly became the athletes of the GDR, for the first time ahead of the Americans, who became third. The top ten included seven countries representing the socialist bloc. The hosts of the Games, Canadians, did not win a single gold medal. This happened for the first time in history Summer Olympics(after 12 years on winter games in Calgary, Canadians will also be left without gold).

Built in downtown Montreal Olympic Park - a complex of structures that included the main arena of the Games - Olympic Stadium for 70,000 spectators, velodrome, swimming pool and the Maurice Richard Arena.

This is how the park looked during construction:

And this is how it became during the Games:

A tower crane is visible in the background of the stadium. The fact is that by the beginning of the Games they did not have time to build a tower, which was completed after the end of the Olympics.

This is what the Olympic Park looks like today. And the completed tower of the Olympic Stadium became the tallest inclined structure in the world.

Just a few tens of meters from Olympic Park The Olympic Village was built

On July 17, 1976, at the Olympic Stadium, in the presence of 73,000 spectators, the solemn Opening Ceremony of the XXI Summer Olympic Games took place. Canadians granted the right to open the Games to the Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II, which is the head of Canada. Her daughter, princess anna, performed at these Games for the UK equestrian team.

Elizabeth II appears at the stadium accompanied by the prince's husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and IOC President Lord Killanin

General view of the stadium during the opening ceremony:

Americans at the opening ceremony. The flag is carried by a swimmer Gary Hall Sr.. (After 20 years his son Gary Hall Jr. will also take part in the Olympic Games and become a five-time Olympic champion)

And this is the delegation of the Island of Freedom, led by the champion of Munich-72 boxer Teofilo Stevenson, on the way to the Olympic Stadium

On after the stadium comes the national team of the Soviet Union. The flag is carried by the great weightlifter Vasily Alekseev for whom these Games will be triumphant.

Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II declares the Olympic Games open.

The Olympic flame was lit by 15-year-old schoolchildren Stephane Prefontaine And Sandra Henderson, which symbolized the linguistic unity of Canada. For the first time in history, the Fire of the Games was lit by two people:

The opening ceremony of the Montreal Olympics was the last to focus on the official and protocol part. Starting from next Games in Moscow, the discoveries became theatrical, more built on historical and artistic performance.

In 1976, this photograph flew around the world. 14 year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comanechi became the main star of the Montreal Olympics, making a splash on the gymnastic platform. She won 3 gold medals (in the individual all-around, beam and crossbar) and became the first gymnast in history to receive the highest mark - 10 points (she will receive seven such marks in Montreal). Later, the Montreal Games will be called the "Olympics of Nadia Comanechi"

Nadia Comanechi against the background of its historical assessment. The electronic scoreboard was not adapted for such a case, so it displayed 1.00

A Soviet gymnast shone among the men Nikolay Andrianov. He won the most awards at these Games - seven. Four gold, two silver and one bronze

Soviet gymnast won three gold medals Nelly Kim, who became another heroine of those Games

This is the Olympic Stadium and the "Queen of Sports". 100m final. An unexpected victory Haysley Crawford from Trinidad and Tobago (far right). Valery Borzov became the third

Winners in the hundred-meter race on the podium. Haisley Crawford- gold, Don Quarry(Jamaica) - silver, Valery Borzov- bronze. They say that in the morning on the day of the final Borzov an unknown person called and said that he would be destroyed by a sniper if he entered the track. Nevertheless, Borzov came out and won the bronze medal.

High jump gold19 year old winsPole Jacek Wszola

Unidentified 20 year old American Edwin Moses wins the 400m hurdles with a world record. Moses would later become great, from 1976 to 1987 he would not lose a single race, winning 107 in a row.

So the athletes trained in the Olympic Village

Triple jumpin Montrealwins Viktor Saneev. Outstanding Athlete won for the third time in a row Olympic gold(after Mexico City-68 and Munich-72).

Basketball match between the women's teams of the United States and Czechoslovakia. In Montreal-76, women's basketball debuted at the Games for the first time

Another hero of the Montreal OlympicsCuban Alberto Juantorena receives gold medal running 800 meters. He also won the 400m. No one has previously managed to win the 400 and 800 meters at the same Olympics. Nobody has succeeded so far.

Alberto Juantorena wins the 800m world record

This is an East German swimmer Cornelia Ender. Games Star. In Montreal, she won 4 golds (100m and 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 4x100 medley relay), all with world records and one silver. Swimmers from the GDR completely dominated the water lanes, winning 10 gold medals out of 12. After 15 years, everyone found out that they did it with the help of doping. In the 70s, a large-scale state doping program began to operate in the GDR, which had no equal in sports history.

Pedestal for 100 meters crawl. From left to right: Petra Example(GDR) - silver, Cornelia Ender(GDR) - gold, Enith Brigid(Holland) - bronze

Again Athletics. 1500 meters gold wins Ian Walker from New Zealand

Balance beam exercise performs Olga Korbut(the Montreal Olympics was not successful for Olga - one gold in the team all-around became weakfor herconsolation. Montreal has a new queen.

Fencers of Germany with gold medals of the Games-76 for victory in the team foil. In the center sits the future President of the IOC Thomas Bach

American world record holder jumps high Dwight Stones. He was the top favorite but ended up third

Soviet weightlifter Alexander Voronin became the Olympic champion in the lightest weight class. Left - György Köszegi from Hungary (silver), on the right - Iranian Mohammad Nassiri(bronze)

British cyclists in the 4000m team pursuit. They will win bronze medals.

US swimmers John Naber, John Henken, Matt Vogel And Jim Montgomery- Champions in the 4x100m medley relay. American male swimmers enchanted in the Montreal basin, winning 12 out of 13 distances

To be continued

He had everything - crazy speed, brilliant technique, amazing composure and remarkable intelligence. He could go down in the history of world sports as a great champion, which, in fact, he was. But he was remembered for completely different reasons - as the author of an unprecedented fraud in the history of the Olympic Games. Today Boris Onishchenko turns 78 years old.

Lost gold

The Soviet pentathlete Boris Onishchenko came to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal with the goal of winning two gold medals at once. He already had a team victory - he became the best four years ago in Munich, along with Pavel Lednev And Vladimir Shmelev. But Onishchenko did not have a personal triumph, although there was nothing left before him. Leading after four events, he unsuccessfully ran the cross and lost gold to the Hungarian Andras Balzo. “Since it happened, you need to secure such an advantage before running that you can’t miss even with a weak result in cross-country,” Onishchenko said before the Games. Readers are waiting for a continuation like “And to achieve an advantage, he trained for days without knowing the rest”? No matter how! Vice-champion of Munich decided to seek his fortune in the work of an electrical engineer.

It all started in the spring

In the spring of 1976, the last conference was held in London. Olympic tournament. Sometimes the strongest athletes miss such competitions, but then almost all the top athletes from Europe gathered in the capital of England. The competition was unconditionally won by the Soviet pentathletes, which was not a surprise. But the leader of the British Jeremy Fox I decided to make out a video of fencing fights - it was in this form that ours received a decisive advantage. And on one of the fragments, Fox saw something incomprehensible - the blade of Boris Onishchenko clearly passed by, and the light that announced the injection was still on!

Several times Fox squandered this episode and could not see where the Soviet athlete got to. Did not find an answer and his coach Mike Proudfoot. The invited experts made it clear that, most likely, there were problems with the equipment - the electrical circuit spontaneously closed and gave incorrect information. The British decided not to raise any extra noise before the Olympics.

"Your sword, monsieur"

On a hot July day, the Olympic tournament in modern pentathlon started. After the first type, show jumping, the USSR national team was in fourth place. This view has never been successful for our athletes. But in fencing, the Soviet pentathletes turned around full program. The victory in this form in one fell swoop allowed them to climb to second place with a minimum gap behind the UK team. In the battle with the British, everything was revealed. Danny Natingale And Adrian Parker quickly fell victim to Onishchenko's pressure and technique. Remained the best in the camp of opponents Jeremy Fox. The British athlete realized that he got too close to his opponent, being at the injection distance. Thanks to his great coordination, he managed to take a step back before Onishchenko made a lunge. The blade of the pentathlete from Poltava cut through the air... and at that moment the lantern lit up! There is an injection in favor of the USSR! The hall is buzzing, Fox is dumbfounded.

Proudfoot jumps onto the platform and demands an investigation. First, the scoreboard was analyzed - no problems. Contacts and wires are OK. “Your sword, monsieur,” the referee says almost like in a movie. Onishchenko is not particularly eager to give it away, but nothing can be done. The result stunned everyone - a secret button was built into the handle of Onishchenko's sword, by pressing which he could close the circuit at any moment, which fixes the injection on the scoreboard. The organizers were completely at a loss. The arbitrator stood with a sword in his hands and did not know what to do with it. In the end, the weapon was replaced, and with the right sword, Onishchenko won the fight against Fox, and after - eight more.

Lifetime disqualification

At the end of the second day of the tournament, Onishchenko was announced to be disqualified, and with him the entire USSR national team. Only Lednev and Boris Mosolov who fought only for personal awards. Chairman of the then Goskomsport Sergey Pavlov(by the way, our best sports boss of all time, which we should definitely talk about separately) subjected Onishchenko to public condemnation. The athlete was immediately ejected from Olympic Village, deprived of the title of ZMS, membership in the CPSU and disqualified for life.

It seemed that the end was put in the history of grandiose fraud. There is only one answer to one question: why? After all, Onishchenko, even without any secret buttons, was the best fencer in the world pentathlon. Apparently, the answer lies on the surface - in Montreal, the Soviet athlete was already 38 years old, these Games would certainly be his last. And taking personal gold at any cost became an obsession for Onishchenko.

Fraudster and victim

The Western press sometimes recalls this incident and each time talks about new consequences for the athlete. From the most delusional “drank and died” and “mines in Siberia” to “an honored guest as a victim of a criminal regime that forced athletes to cheat.” The truth, as usual, lies in the middle. At least, it is known that Boris Onishchenko still lives in Kyiv, but he is not eager to communicate with journalists. He really is not only a sports cheat, but also a victim. Only not of the regime, but of his blinding ambition, which forced him to resort to forgery in order to win at any cost.

The 1976 Olympics (winter) is an event that had a very important sporting and political significance during the confrontation between the countries of the West and the Soviet Union. The capitalist and socialist systems tried to prove which development option was more correct. As strange as it may seem, but Winter Olympics in Innsbruck in 1976 was no exception. It was there that a serious struggle for the first places unfolded.

USSR - the best of the best

Initially, the 1976 Olympics (winter) was supposed to be held in America, in Denver. But the inhabitants of this city in the referendum held voted against the games. Because the Olympic Committee was in a difficult situation. And then Innsbruck agreed to host such an important event as the 1976 Olympics. Winter relay, it is worth noting, was already held in this city in 1964. This event was attended by 1123 people who came from 37 countries. And the competition was held at ten sports disciplines. The list included skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, luge, skating, ski jumping, cross country skiing, figure skating and, of course, hockey. Athletes of the Soviet Union won an unconditional victory in this Olympiad. It should be recalled that they managed to win 13 6 silver and 8 bronze. In second place was the GDR with a number of awards far behind the USSR. These are 7 gold medals, 5 silver and 7 bronze. And the representatives of the United States won the third place.

Figure skating

1976 Olympics (winter) distinguished themselves by performances in figure skating. Soviet athletes showed themselves excellently in this competition. Irina Rodnina also won gold in pair skating. The victory in ice dancing was won and Vladimir Korolev took silver in the men's singles skating. He lost only to the excellent John Curry from Britain. And gold in a similar category, only for women, went to American Dorothy Hamill.

Skiers

It should be noted that the Soviet masters skiing showed themselves as well as in figure skating. In the 30 km race, the victory was won. In a similar competition, but at 15 km, the first place was shared by Evgeny Belyaev and Nikolai Bazhukov. It was possible to win bronze in the team race, losing the victory to Finland. Raisa Smetanina in ski race 10 kilometers among women won gold. The first place went to the Soviet girls in the relay. It should be noted that Soviet athletes also won gold in biathlon.

Hockey

At all times it was very spectacular view sports. The tournament, which was held as part of the notorious Olympics, was allowed six teams from Division A and four strong teams from Division B. One team from Division C was also added. Based on the results of the 1975 World Championship, a preliminary tournament was immediately held. After him, the losers played matches according to the system called “each with each” - for 7-12th places. The winners then competed for 1st-6th places among themselves. I remember the 1976 Olympics for a long time. Hockey (the final in this category was amazing) allowed the Soviet team to excel once again. It is worth noting that the Canadian team did not want to play in Innsbruck. That is why for the first place and the title of the strongest hockey team the world competed teams of Czechoslovakia and the USSR. In the first half, the Russians were losing - the opponents had already scored two goals. But in the second, our athletes were able to bounce back and prove for the fourth time that they are champions. The 1976 Olympics went down in world history for a long time, because then Soviet athletes managed to win the largest number of awards that was possible.