President Carter Announces United States To Boycot Moscow Olympics

On March 21, 1980, the President of the United States of America, Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia.

 

Led by the United States, 65 countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag.

This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics that were held in Los Angeles, Calif.

Some of the later events of the games were also nearly marred by the death and unauthorized mass funeral of the immensely popular and beloved singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky.

Although approximately half of the 24 countries that boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics (in protest of apartheid in South Africa) participated in these games, the 1980 Summer Olympics were disrupted by another, even larger, boycott led by the United States in protest of the 1979 Soviet war in Afghanistan. Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the Liberty Bell Classic (also known as the "Olympic Boycott Games") in Philadelphia.

Eighty nations participated – the smallest number since 1956. However, the nations that did compete had won 71% of the medals, including 71% of the gold medals, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Of the 80 nations represented at the Moscow Games, six nations made their first Olympic appearance in 1980: Angola, Botswana, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique, and Seychelles. Cyprus made its debut at the Summer Olympics, but had appeared earlier at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Sri Lanka competed for the first time under its new name (previously as Ceylon), Benin had competed previously as Dahomey and Zimbabwe competed for the first time under that name (previously as Rhodesia).

As a form of protest against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, 15 countries marched in the Opening Ceremony with the Olympic Flag instead of with their national flags, and the Olympic Flag and Olympic Hymn were used at Medal Ceremonies when athletes from these countries won medals. Competitors from three countries New Zealand, Portugal and Spain; competed under the flag of their respective National Olympic Committees. Some of the teams who marched under other than their national flags were depleted by boycotts by individual athletes, and others did not march.

The Soviet Union took home the most medals with 195 total medals, including the most Gold medals of any country with 80. They also won 69 Silver medals and 46 Bronze medals.

The East Germans took home the second most medals with 126, including 47 Gold medals, 37 Silver medals and 42 Bronze medals.

The Bulgarians took home the third most medals with 41, including eight Gold medals, 16 Silver medals and 17 Bronze medals.

Winter Olympics Close At Squaw Valley

On Feb. 28, 1960, the eighth winter Olympic games close at Squaw Valley in Tahoe, Calif.

The Olympic Rings are still proudly on display at Squaw Valley ski resort in Tahoe, Calif.

Over 660 athletes from 30 nations participated at the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, in 27 events in four sports.

The Soviet Union took home the most medals with 21, and the most Gold medals with seven. They also earned five Silver medals and nine Bronze medals.

The United States finished second in total medal count with 10, with three Gold medals, three Silver medals and four Bronze medals.

The Germans finished tied for the third most medaling country with Finland, but had the second most Gold medals behind the Soviet Union as the Germans took home four Gold medals. The Germans would also earn three Silver medals and one Bronze medal.

Finland also earned eight medals, including two Gold medals, three Silver medals and three Bronze medals.

The 1960 Winter Olympics were special because for the first time women were allowed to compete in speed skating. The Soviet Union had requested the inclusion of women's speed skating events in the program for the 1956 Games, but the IOC rejected the request.

The issue was revisited for the 1960 Games, and since women had been competing internationally since 1936 and there was a World Championship for women's speed skating, the IOC agreed to four events; 500, 1,000, 1,500, and 3,000 meters.

The events were held on the Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink, which was an outdoor skating oval, and featured artificial ice, a first for the Olympic speed skating competition. Given the altitude and the artificial ice, the rink was the fastest in the world, as evidenced by Norwegian Knut Johannesen’s world record in the 10,000-meter event. At 15:46.6 he was the first skater ever to break the 16-minute barrier, and eclipsed the previous world record by 46 seconds.

Despite Johannesen's victory, the Soviets dominated the speed skating events, winning all but two of the races. Yevgeny Grishin won both the 500 and 1,500-meter races, though he shared the 1,500 meter gold medal with Norwegian Roald Aas.

Lidiya Skoblikova from the Soviet Union was the other double gold medalist, when she won the 1,500 and 3,000-meter events. Polish skaters Helena Pilejczyk and Elwira Seroczyńska placed second and third in the 1,500-meter event, earning Poland's only medals of the Games and becoming just the second and third Poles ever to win Winter Olympic medals.

The ice hockey tournament took place at Blyth Arena and the Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink. Controversy over the amateur status of some of the players overshadowed the event. Canadian Olympic officials began to protest the use of "professional amateurs" by Eastern Bloc countries, and especially the Soviet Union.

They alleged that the Soviets were giving their elite hockey players phantom jobs in the military that allowed them to play hockey full-time, which gave Soviet teams an advantage that they used to dominate Olympic hockey tournaments for nearly 30 years.

This issue started coming to light during the 1960 Games and would culminate in a Canadian boycott of Olympic hockey tournament at the 1972 Winter Olympics. The team from the United States won an improbable gold medal, defeating the favored Canadian and Soviet teams, who took silver and bronze respectively.

This was the first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey for the United States and it would mark the last time a Soviet team would not win the Olympic tournament until the United States victory at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Team Canada Wins Gold

On Feb. 24, 2002, that the Canadian men’s ice hockey team won a gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Team Canada beat Team USA by a score of 5-2 in the finals to capture their first Olympic gold medal in men’s ice hockey in 50 years.

Team Canada, poses with their flag and Gold Medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Assistant captain Joe Sakic was named the tournament MVP, finishing third in scoring with 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists).  Sakic did his best work in the finals, burying two goals and setting up another two for a total of four points.  “Burnaby Joe” scored the eventual game-winner to break a 2-2 tie with a laser of a wrist shot, which beat Mike Richter late in the second period.

They would score two more from there and listen to the Canadian fans in attendance sing “O Canada” as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Once again Team Canada won the Gold Medal in this years Winter Olympics, taking down Sweden at the 2014 Sochi games. While the Americans fell to Finland in the Bronze Medal game after falling to Team Canada in the semi-finals.

The United States has the most medals of any team in men’s Olympic Hockey play with 22, but the Canadians and Swedish are tied in second with 21 medals. 

 

However, the Canadians have the most Gold medals of any team in Olympic history with nine, seven more than both Sweden and the United States. 

 

The United States has the most Silver medals with eight, four more than Canada who is second with four. Sweden has the most Bronze medals in Olympic competition with four, tied with Czechoslovakia.

NBA Trade Deadline; Sochi Olympics; Spring Training Podcast

Scratch Hit Sports creator Stephen Langsam talk about the NBA All-Star Weekend with former co-host of the Sporting Hangover, Ryan Hilton, and dive in head first to talk about what we did and did not like about the All-Star Weekend, and what we thought about the trades made at the trade deadline.

After that we talk about the Sochi Olympics and finish up with some spring training talk with the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants.

LINK: SCRATCH HIT SPORTS PODCAST

Yamaguchi Wins Olympics Gold

On Feb. 21, 1992, figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi won an Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating. It would be the first, and only, Olympic medal won by Yamaguchi during her figure skating career.

Going into the ’92 Albertville Games, the United State’s Tonya Harding and Japan’s Midori Ito held the advantage of being able to consistently land their triple axels, while Yamaguchi decided to concentrate on her artistry and her triple-triple combinations. That turned out to be a great decision, as she went on to win the competition, despite a couple of slip-ups during her free program. That was largely due to the fact that neither Harding nor Ito were able to land their triple axels.

United State figure skating star Kristi Yamaguchi on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1992 after winning the Gold Medal at the Albertville Winter Olympics.

After successfully defending her World title later that year, Yamaguchi would turn professional and tour with Stars on Ice for several years.

Yamaguchi also won another World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two national titles in 1989 and 1990 as a pair’s skater with Rudy Galindo.

Yamaguchi was a local commentator on figure skating for San Francisco TV station KNTV (NBC 11) during the 2006 Winter Olympics. In 2006 Yamaguchi was the host of WE TV Series Skating's Next Star, created and produced by Major League Figure Skating, then in 2008, Yamaguchi became the celebrity champion in the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars.

Yamaguchi received the Inspiration Award at the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards. Two days after her Dancing with the Stars champion crowning, she received the 2008 Sonja Henie Award from the Professional Skaters Association.

Among her other awards are the Thurman Munson Award, Women's Sports Foundation Flo Hyman Award, and the Great Sports Legends Award. She is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Olympic Hall of Fame, World Skating Hall of Fame, and the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

In 2010 Yamaguchi worked as a daily NBC Olympics skating broadcast analyst on NBC's Universal Sports Network. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Kristi was also a special correspondent for the Today Show.

Yamagucci has also seen the silver screen as an actress in both the 1994 film D2: The Mighty Ducks and 2005 film Go Figure. In both movies she acted as herself.

She also has graced the pages of novels, authoring three books including Figure Skating for Dummies, PURE GOLD and Always Dream.

USA Hockey Team Thrashes Nagano

On Feb. 19, 1998, that the United States Men’s Olympic hockey team was found responsible of thrashing their hotel rooms at the Olympic Athletes Village in Nagano.  The damage to the room was done just a few hours after the team was ousted from the tournament by the Czech Republic by a 4-1 score.

A few members of Team USA hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

Although the vandalism was minor (broken chairs, dented walls and doors, emptied fire extinguishers) it was a senseless and childish act by the sore loser Americans.  None of the players ever came forward and confessed and therefore no one was ever punished, however, Chris Chelios the captain of the team did write a check for $3000 out of his own pocket to cover the damages.

The 1988 Olympics also saw the Fifty-seven nations and 1,423 athletes participated in the Games, with five countries making their debut in the Winter Olympics. Super-G made its Olympic debut, while curling, freestyle skiing, short track speed skating and disabled skiing were demonstration sports. Speed skating was held in an indoor rink for the first time and the Games were extended to 16 days.

The other sports involved with the Olympic Games were Apline Skiing, Biathalon, Bobsleigh, Cross-country skiing, Figure Skating, Luge, Nordic Combined and Ski jumping.

As at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the only previous Games hosted in Canada, the host country failed to produce any gold medals.

The Soviet Union won the most medals of any country with 29 total, including the most Gold medals with 11, nine Silver medals and nine Bronze medals.

The East Germans won the second most amount of medals, with 25 total, including nine Gold medals, the most Silver medals of any country with 10 and six Bronze medals.

Switzerland rounded out the top three countries with medals earning 15 total, tallying five of each Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

The United States tied for eighth most medals with six, earning two Gold medals, one Silver medal and three Bronze medals.

Matti Nykänen won all three ski jumping events. Yvonne van Gennip won three gold medals in speed skating, setting two world records. Alberto Tomba won two gold medals in alpine skiing.

Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards and the Jamaica national bobsled team entered with little experience but gathered massive media attention, resulting in qualification rules for later Games.

“Cool Runnings” the movie starring John Candy was about the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team.

Second Winter Olympics: St. Moritz

On Feb. 19, 1928, the second Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland.

The 1928 Games were the first true Winter Olympics held on its own as they were not in conjunction with a Summer Olympics. The preceding 1924 Games were retroactively renamed the inaugural Winter Olympics, though they had been in fact part of the 1924 Summer Olympics. All preceding Winter Events of the Olympic Games were the winter sports part of the schedule of the Summer Games, and not held as a separate Winter Games. These games also replaced the now redundant Nordic Games, that were held quadrennially since early in the century.

Athletes from 25 nations competed at these Games, up from 16 in 1924. Nations making their first appearance at the Winter Olympic Games were Argentina (first participation of a delegation coming from a country belonging to the Southern Hemisphere), Estonia, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Romania.

The events in the St. Moritz games included Bobsleigh, Figure skating, Ice hockey, Nordic skiing, Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, Ski jumping, Speed skating, Tobogganing (skeleton).

 

The Demonstration sports included Military patrol and Skijoring.

Fluctuating weather conditions made these Olympics memorable. The opening ceremony was held in a blizzard.[10] In contrast, warm weather conditions plagued the Olympics for the remainder of the Games, requiring cancellations of one event with temperatures as high as 25 °C (77 °F).

Highlights from the games included Sonja Henie winning her first gold medal in women's figure skating.

An Olympics Gold medal from the 1928 Winter Games in St. Moritz.

Ivar Ballangrud won the Olympic title in the 5,000m speed skating and Clas Thunberg won the 500m and the 1,500m.

Norway collected the most medals at the games with 15 total, earning six Gold medals, four Silver medals and five Bronze medals.

The United States earned the second most medals with six, collecting two Gold, two Silver and two Bronze medals.

Sweden earned the third most medals with five, two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze medal.

The single bronze medal won by Switzerland is the lowest output by a host nation at an Olympics.

NHL Cancels Season

On Feb. 16, 2005, that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman officially canceled the 2004-05 season. 

This would mark the first time that a major North American sport would cancel an entire season due to a labor dispute.  It would also be the first year that the Stanley Cup was not awarded since 1919.

Upon their return to action, a number of rule changes were implemented in order to restore offense and make the game more exciting and fast-paced.  The removal of the red line, the shootout to break ties and more obstruction penalties being called led to more offensive chances and more goals being scored.  Offense was lacking in the “old NHL” but the new rules certainly helped create a more thrilling and up-tempo game.

All four major North American sports (NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA)  have had their issues with labor disputes, the NHL had it again this year, but never to this extent. 

Within the past few years we have seen both the NFL and the NBA go through labor disputes of their own, but in both cases the owners and the players were able to come to an agreement and avoid having their seasons cancelled.

Lake Placid Winter Olympics Kick Off

On Feb. 14, 1980, the thirteenth Winter Olympic games, a multi-sport event which was celebrated from Feb. 13 through Feb. 24 in Lake Placid, New York. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932. 

The only other candidate city to bid for the Games was Vancouver-Garibaldi, British Columbia, Canada; which withdrew before the final vote.

The mascots of the Games were "Roni" and "Ronny", two raccoons. The mask-like rings on a raccoon's face recall the goggles and hats worn by many athletes in winter sports.

The sports were played at the Olympic Center (later renamed Herb Brooks Arena), Whiteface Mountain, Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run, the Olympic Ski Jumps, the Cascade Cross Country Ski Center, and the Lake Placid High School Speed Skating Oval.

The East Germans won the most medals with 23 total including nine Gold medals, seven Silver medals and seven Bronze medals.

The Soviet Union had one less medal than East Germany with 22, but had the most Gold medals with 10. They also had earned six Silver medals and six Bronze medals.

The United States finished third in total medal count with 12, earning six Gold medals, four Silver medals and two Bronze medals.

The most notable highlight of the Games involved the United States men's ice hockey team. The team was composed mostly of collegiate players and was not predicted to advance beyond group play.

They won the gold medal, defeating the heavily favored Soviet team and Finland in the medal round. The United States team's 4–3 win over the Soviet team, which came into the 1980 Games having won four consecutive Olympic gold medals, became known as the "Miracle on Ice" in the U.S. press.

The win captured the hearts of Americans during a time of Cold War tensions, even though it was the win against Finland that captured the gold medal. A film about the event, called Miracle, was released in 2004.

Other notable highlights included

Lake Placid 1980 marked the first use of artificial snow in Olympic competition.

Cyprus made their Olympic debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The People's Republic of China and Costa Rica both made their Winter Olympic debut. The Republic of China had boycotted the Games over the IOC's recognition of the PRC as "China", and its request for the Republic of China to compete as "Chinese Taipei".

Sweden's 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 of the United States won 5 gold medals in speedskating (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m), setting 4 Olympic records and 1 world record (10,000m) in the process. Heiden was the first to win 5 individual gold medals at one Winter Games.

Robin Cousins won gold for Great Britain in the men's singles figure skating.

The closing ceremonies were held indoors at the Herb Brooks Arena.

In possibly the most dramatic duel of the games, Sweden's Thomas Wassberg edged Finland's Juha Mieto in the 15 km cross-country skiing by 0.01 seconds, the closest margin of victory ever in Olympic cross-country skiing. This led the International Ski Federation (ISF) to time all events to the nearest 1/10 second in the future.

This years' Winter Olympics in Sochi are kicking off and currently the United States is trailing only Norway in medal count with 12 to their Norwegians 14. It also marked only the third time in Olympic history that the United States swept the podium in a single discipline with three Americans atop the podium on Men's skiiing slopestyle.

Nagano Olympics Open

On Feb. 7, 1998, the Opening Ceremonies for the 18 Winter Olympic games open at Nagano, Japan.

Seventy-two nations and 2,176 participants, 1,389 men and 757 women, contested in seven sports and 72 events at 15 venues.

The Games saw the introduction of women's ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. National Hockey League players were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey again.

The ’98 games are most remembered for Bjorn Dæhlie’s performance. He won three gold medals in cross-country skiing, making him the most-winning Winter Olympic competitor ever, becoming the first winter Olympics athlete to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.

Alpine skier Hermann Maier survived a fall in the downhill and went on to win gold in the super-G and giant slalom.

The Netherlands won five of the ten speed skating events, including two each by Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer. Canada beat Denmark in the women's curling final, securing the latter their first Winter Olympic medal ever.

Women's ice hockey was contested at the Olympic games for the first time ever, and the United States beat the Canadians 3–1 for the gold medal. United States went undefeated in the women's tournament. The Czech Republic defeated Russia by a score of 1–0 for the men's gold medal, while Finland won both the men's and women's bronze medals for ice hockey.

Cross-country skier Bjorn Dæhlie’s of Norway won three gold medals in Nordic skiing to become the first winter Olympian to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.

Curling returned as an official sport, after having been demoted to a demonstration event after the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924

Snowboarding debuted as an official sport.

Players from the NHL were able to compete in men's ice hockey due to a three-week suspension of the NHL season.

Tara Lipinski, 15, narrowly beat Michelle Kwan in women's figure skating to become the youngest champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Alpine skier Hermann Maier (Austria) survived a fall in the downhill and went on to gold in the super-g and giant slalom.

Speed skaters Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer won two gold medals each for the Netherlands; 5 out of 10 titles in speed skating went to the Netherlands.

Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati (Canada) won the gold medal, after initially being disqualified for testing positive for marijuana.

Azerbaijan, Kenya, the Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their first appearance at the Olympic Winter Games.

Denmark won their first winter Olympic medal (and only one to date) when they won a silver medal in the women's curling event.

Australia won their first individual Winter Olympic medal when Zali Steggall won bronze in the women's slalom.

Germany won the most medals and the most gold medals in the Olympics with 29 total, 12 Gold medals, nine silver medals and eight bronze medals.

Norway finished second in total medal count and Gold medals, with 25 medals, 10 Gold, 10 Silver and five bronze.

Russia finished third in total medals and Gold medals, with 18 total, nine Gold, six Silver and three Bronzes.

Canada finished fourth overall in total medal count with 15, six Gold, five silver and four bronze.

The United States finished fifth in total medal count with 13 and tied for fourth in Gold medals with Canada, six. The United States also finished with three silver medals and four bronze medals.

Host country Japan finished seventh overall in total medal count with 10 medals, and tied for six with five Gold medals. Japan finished with only one Silver and four Bronze medals.

The United States were the leading nation in athletes appearing in the Olympic games with 186. The next closest was Japan with 156.

Eleven countries; Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Cyprus, India, Iran, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela only had one athlete compete in the games.

Fourteen countries; the Bahamas, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Gambia, Guam, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Lebanon, Kuwait, Netherlands Antilles and Tajikistan all registered to take part in the games but did not send a team.

The 2014 Winter Games, the 22nd running of the Winter Olympics kicked off at Sochi in Russia last night with men’s figure skating. The games will continue through last February with most coverage coming on NBC.