From February 13 to February 24, 1980, the XIII Winter Olympic Games were held in Lake Placid (USA). Unfortunately, the US government did not provide proper assistance to Lake Placid in preparation for Winter Games. Reconstruction sports facilities was not completed, and a new prison building was used for housing in the Olympic village. There were difficulties with transport, problems with the transfer of correspondence. At the same time, President Carter's administration spent heavily on the Lake Placid campaign to boycott the Moscow Olympics. At the 82nd session of the IOC, US Secretary of State S. Vance, with the assistance of the American Olympic Committee, insisted on depriving Moscow of the right to host the Games.

All these unpleasant moments did not affect the sports side of the Winter Games too much. The competitions, in which 1283 athletes from 49 countries took part, were held in an extremely tense struggle.

The program of the Games included 38 competitions: biathlon (races for 10 and 20 km, relay race 4x7.5 km), bobsleigh (men) - two and four, skiing (men - races for 15, 30 and 50 km, relay race 4x10 km, jumping from the springboard (70 and 90 m), Nordic combined; women - races for 5 and 10 km, relay race 4x5 km), alpine skiing (men and women - downhill, slalom and giant slalom), luge (men and women on 1-seater and men on 2-seater sledges), speed skating (men - 500, 1000, 1500 and 10,000 m, women - 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000 m), figure skating skating (men and women, singles and pair skating, sports dancing on ice), ice hockey. The gold medals of the debutant of the Games, an athlete from the USSR N. Zimyatov, became a real sensation in the competition of skiers. The World Cup competitions preceding the Games strongly indicated that the winners of the cross-country skiing competitions were to be the athletes of Sweden and Norway. However, Lake Placid's first gold medal was won by N. Zimyatov, who won the 30 km race. A few days later he won the second gold medal- at a 50-kilometer distance. N. Zimyatov received the third gold medal for the victory in the team that won the 4x10 km relay. The fight in the 15 km race was dramatic, in which the Swede Thomas Wassberg was only a hundredth of a second ahead of the Finn Yoho Mieto.

The victory of the US hockey players was unexpected. Made up of the best players universities and colleges and a well-trained team held the tournament very confidently and was deservedly awarded with gold medals. Another sensation was two gold and two silver medals won by athletes from Liechtenstein. X. Wenzel (slalom and giant slalom) became the owner of gold medals in alpine skiing.

Photo: AFP

A. Tikhonov (USSR) competed at the Winter Olympics for the fourth time and won the fourth gold medal. The third gold medal was given to I. Rodnina for the victory in pair skating.

The remarkable skill of the American skater E. Hayden, who won all 5 gold medals, allowed the US team to take the overall third place in the unofficial standings. Hayden's achievement is striking not so much because the athlete won a record number of medals for some Games, but, first of all, with victories at seemingly completely incompatible distances - from a "pure" sprint to a typical stayer. Hayden achieved high results in cycling- In 1985, he became the US professional champion, and in 1986, he participated in the Tour de France. The athlete refused tempting offers in commercial activities and preferred a career as a doctor.

Athletes of the GDR did not limit themselves to successful performance in sports in which they had already become recognized leaders. In Lake Placid, they managed to win gold medals in the women's 10 km cross-country skiing (B. Petz), in single skating skating among women (A. Pech), in speed skating among women at a distance of 500 m (K. Enke).

53-year-old athlete from Sweden, Karl-Erik Erikson, managed to take only 19th place in the double bobs competition and 21st in the quad bobs. However, he became the first athlete to compete in six Winter Olympics.

In the unofficial team standings, the GDR team took first place - 154.5 points and 24 medals (respectively 10, 7.7). The second place went to the athletes of the USSR - 147.5 points and 22 medals (10, 6, 6). In third place was the US team - 99 points and 12 medals (6, 4, 2).

Information provided by the Russian Olympic Committee.

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Unfortunately, the US government did not provide proper assistance to Lake Placid in preparation for the 1980 Winter Olympics. The reconstruction of sports facilities was not completed, and a new prison building was used for housing in the Olympic village. There were difficulties with transport, problems with the transfer of correspondence. At the same time, President Carter's administration spent heavily on the Lake Placid campaign to boycott the Moscow Olympics. At the 82nd session of the IOC, US Secretary of State Vance, with the assistance of the American Olympic Committee, insisted on depriving Moscow of the right to host the 1980 Olympics. All these unpleasant moments did not affect the sports side of the Winter Olympics too much.

The competitions, in which 1283 athletes from 49 countries took part, were held in an extremely tense struggle. The program of the Olympics included 38 competitions: biathlon - races for 10 and 20 km, relay race 4 x 7.5 km; bobsleigh, men - two and four; skiing, men - 15, 30 and 50 km races, 4 x 10 km relay, 70 and 90 m ski jumping; ski biathlon; women - 5 and 10 km races, 4 x 5 km relay; alpine skiing, men and women - downhill, slalom and giant slalom; luge, men and women on 1-seater and men on 2-seater sledges; speed skating, men - 500, 1000, 1500 and 10000 m, women - 500, 1000, 1500 and 3000 m; figure skating, men and women, in single and pair skating, sports ice dancing; hockey.

The gold medals of the debutant of the Olympic Games, an athlete from the USSR Nikolai Zimyatov, became a real sensation of the skiing competition. The World Cup competitions that preceded the Olympics clearly indicated that the winners of the cross-country skiing competitions were to be the athletes of Sweden and Norway. However, Lake Placid's first gold medal was won by Zimyatov, who won the 30 km race. A few days later, he won a second gold medal - in the 50-kilometer distance. Nikolai Zimyatov received the third gold medal for winning the team that won the 4 x 10 km relay. The fight in the 15 km race was dramatic, in which the Swede Thomas Wassberg was only a hundredth of a second ahead of the Finn Yoho Mieto.

The victory of the US hockey players was unexpected. Composed of the best players from universities and colleges and well-prepared team very confidently held the tournament and was deservedly awarded gold medals.

Another sensation was two gold and two silver medals won by athletes from Liechtenstein. Hanni Wenzel won gold medals in alpine skiing in slalom and giant slalom.

Soviet biathlete Alexander Tikhonov competed at the Winter Olympics for the fourth time and won his fourth gold medal.

Irina Rodnina won the third gold medal in pair skating.

The remarkable skill of the American skater Eric Hayden, who won all 5 gold medals, allowed the US team to take the overall third place in the unofficial standings. Hayden's achievement is striking not so much because the athlete won a record number of medals for some Olympic Games, but first of all with victories at seemingly completely incompatible distances - from "pure" sprint to typical stayer. Hayden also achieved high results in cycling - in 1985 he became the US professional champion, and in 1986 he participated in the Tour de France race. The athlete refused tempting offers in commercial activities and preferred a career as a doctor.

Athletes of the GDR did not limit themselves to successful performance in sports in which they had already become recognized leaders. In Lake Placid, they managed to win gold medals in the women's 10 km cross-country skiing - Barbara Petzold, in the women's single skating - Anette Pötsch, in the women's 500 m speed skating - Karin Encke.

53-year-old athlete from Sweden, Karl-Erik Erikson, managed to take only 19th place in the double bob competition and 21st in the quadruple. However, he became the first athlete to compete in six Winter Olympics.

In the unofficial team standings, the GDR team won first place with 154.5 points and 24 medals - 10 gold, 7 silver, 7 bronze. The second place went to the athletes of the USSR with 147.5 points and 22 medals - 10 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze. In third place was the US team, winning 99 points and 12 medals - 6 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze.

The 1980 Winter Olympics took place at a good time - it ended before the scandal about the boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow broke out. Therefore, all the states that were going to take part in the competition sent their teams to the games, turning a blind eye to the political confrontation for a while.

Some states, such as Cyprus and Costa Rica, were represented at the Winter Olympics for the first time. Also present at the games was a team from the People's Republic of China, for the first time in its communist history. Prior to this, only the delegation of Taiwan participated in the games, and China considered it impossible for itself to compete with an unrecognized state, which, in turn, did not consider the communist regime in China to be legitimate.

In the unofficial team standings, the USSR national team took first place. The most successful was the performance of Soviet biathletes, as well as skiers. Figure skaters also brought gold. Irina Rodnina, the star of the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, confirmed her status by winning the third Olympic gold paired with Alexander Zaitsev. In ice dancing there is also a Soviet couple - Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov. In a hard struggle, Soviet hockey players also managed to get silver.

Second place, narrowly behind Soviet Union received the GDR team. Traditionally high level showed German bobsledders and skiers.

The United States came only third. The athletes of this country received 12 medals, almost 2 times less than the athletes of the USSR and the GDR. Moreover, 5 out of 6 gold medals for the Americans were won by speed skater Eric Hayden. He set a record - no one before him won first place in all speed skating distances. Brought the sixth gold to America hockey team, traditionally strong in this country.

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• Winter Olympics 1980

1980 in the history of modern Olympic movement best known for the boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics However, the Winter Games also took place that same year. They were held at the beginning of the year in the American city of Lake Placid and were not accompanied by any political conflicts.

The opening ceremony of the games with the participation of the then US Vice President Walter Mondale took place on February 14, 1980 at the city hippodrome, which can accommodate 30,000 spectators. And the closing ceremony 11 days later was held on a specially built for the Olympics ice rink Herb Brooks Arena. A week and a half, which fit between these two events, passed under the sign of the dominance of athletes from the two countries - the GDR and the USSR.

German Olympians won the most medals - 23. In biathlon, they received five awards, while the remaining four went to Soviet athletes. In bobsledding, two teams of the GDR won four out of six awards, in luge - three out of nine.

Representatives of the USSR received seven awards in cross-country skiing and four of them were gold. According to the already established tradition, the Soviet figure skaters were also strong, bringing two gold, silver and bronze medals to the common piggy bank. But the hockey players, who had previously become Olympic champions five times in a row, sensationally lost to the US team made up of students and college students. In total, the athletes of the Soviet Union won one award less than the GDR team, but the USSR had more gold medals.

The Americans were third in the number of awards. In addition to the unexpected gold of hockey players, all other medals the highest standard US Olympians at the XIII Winter Olympics were owned by speed skater Eric Hayden. At these games, he went to the start five times and each time turned out to be faster than his rivals. With this achievement, the 21-year-old American could single-handedly take the US to third place. medal count. In addition to him, the Hayden family was also represented on the skating track by the younger sister of Eric, who also did not remain without an award - she received bronze in skating for three kilometers.

In total, 38 sets of awards were played at the 1980 Winter Olympics, for which almost 1,100 athletes from 37 countries competed.

38 sets of awards were played in six sports.

By decision of the 82nd session of the International Olympic Committee It was determined that the host city of the XIII Winter Olympic Games in 1980 would be Lake Placid. Candidates included: Banff ( Canada), Oslo ( Norway), Chamonix ( France) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen ( Germany). This historic decision was made at a meeting of IOC delegates, representatives of National Olympic Committees and international sports federations. The session was held in the conference hall of one of the best hotels in the city. More than 100 people attended this meeting. Representatives of the US delegation cheered. After all, Lake Placid after long break again became the capital of the Games. The first Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid in 1932. This quiet resort town, of course, rightfully deserved to become the organizer of the XIII Winter Olympic Games in 1980.

1. Mascot of the 1980 Olympics.
2. Official poster Olympic Games 1980.
3. A set of postage stamps issued by the US Postal Service for the 1980 Olympics.

Champions and medalists of the 1980 Olympics

Men's single skating
Gold - Robert Cousins ​​(Robert John "Robin" Cousins, born 1957), UK.
Silver- Jan Hoffmann (born 1955), East Germany.
Bronze- Charles Tickner (Charles Frederick "Charlie" Tickner, b. 1953), USA.

Women's Singles
Gold- Annette Pötzsch (born 1960), East Germany.
Silver- Linda Fratianne (Linda Sue Fratianne, b. 1960), USA.
Bronze- Dagmar Lurz, born in 1959, Germany.

sports couples
Gold- Irina Rodnina (b. 1949) - Alexander Zaitsev (b. 1952), USSR.
Silver- Marina Cherkasova (b. 1964) - Sergei Shakhrai (b. 1958), USSR.
Bronze- Manuela Mager (born 1962) - Uwe Bewersdorff (born 1958), East Germany.

dancing couples
Gold- Natalya Linichuk (b. 1956) - Gennady Karponosov (b. 1950), USSR.
Silver- Kristina Regőczy (Krisztina Regőczy, born 1955) - András Sallay (András Sallay, born 1953), Hungary.
Bronze- Irina Moiseeva (b. 1955) - Andrey Minenkov (b. 1954), USSR.

Lake Placid is located in the north of the United States in a picturesque place among national reserves ( 38 percent of the state), and its suburbs are foothills and lakes covered with snow from November to April. February is the snowiest month. Thus, the climate is very favorable. All this as a whole determined such a choice. In addition, the presence of a developed infrastructure of highways and airports and a railway network was taken into account. You can reach Montreal, just north of Lake Placid, in two hours by freeway, and New York City in five hours. The large Adirondack Airport is 17 miles from the town and a private jet airfield is a five-minute drive away.

An important factor was the fact that the inhabitants of the town were devoted fans winter views sports. After all, it was not in vain that already in 1904 there were created sports clubs. And one more remarkable fact - the first Olympic champion in winter sports, who won a gold medal in speed skating at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix France), was a resident of Lake Placid. The fact that Lake Placid was the organizer of the III Winter Olympic Games in 1932 also played a role.

The Olympic venues are easily accessible and close to downtown Lake Placid, with the exception of the luge and bobsleigh tracks, and skiing and biathlon, which were located six miles from the Olympic Village. Ski slopes were built 8 miles from the town.

The population of the town is 5,000 people. During the Games, they received 10,000 visitors who were accommodated in 150 hotels and motels. Among these guests were representatives of the IOC, the NOCs of the participating countries of the Games and international sports federations and the media, and, of course, athletes. In addition, 50,000 people were stationed within a 50-mile radius.

The US government did not provide proper assistance to Lake Placid in preparation for the Winter Games. The reconstruction of sports facilities was not completed, and a new prison building was used for housing in the Olympic Village. There were difficulties with transport, problems with the transfer of correspondence. At the same time, President Jimmy Carter's administration spent heavily on the Lake Placid campaign to boycott the Moscow Olympics. At the 82nd session of the International Olympic Committee, US Secretary of State Vance with the assistance of the American Olympic Committee, he insisted on depriving Moscow of the right to host the Games.

All these unpleasant moments did not affect the sporting side of the white Olympics too much. Competitions were held in an extremely tense struggle.

The opening ceremony of the 1980 Olympics.

The total construction costs amounted to $16.2 million. The main object was Olympic Center - this is an international skating rink, an ice arena of a stadium, having areas of 60 x 30 meters and 200 x 85 feet, respectively, as well as a reconstructed ice arena Olympic Stadium 1932, which adjoined an oval 400-meter ice track. The total capacity of the stands of the International Ice Rink was 8,500 seats, out of 5,000 seats on the lower tier and 3,500 seats on the upper level of the arena, and ice arena stadium - 2500 seats. For the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, artificial snow was used.

In May 1979, two meetings were held between government and sports delegations from Greece and the United States. Representatives of the National Olympic Committee of Greece presented a plan for organizing a torch relay in their country, and the American side presented a scheme for moving the torch relay through the United States. The organizers of the torch relay across the United States have developed its route in such a way that it passes through all the states of the country, reflecting the development of the state throughout its 200-year history. The organization of the torch relay aroused great interest among the athletes. More than 10,000 people took part in the official competition for the selection of participants in the torch relay, and only 52 athletes became direct participants, including 26 women and 26 men, and the official escort was 500 volunteers - representatives of various sports societies. The selection results were announced in April 1979.

1. Olympic champions in 1980 in the category of sports couples Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev.
2. Silver medalists of the 1980 Olympics in the category of sports couples Marina Cherkasova and Sergey Shakhrai.

The gold medals of the debutant of the Games of an athlete from the USSR became a real sensation of the skiing competition. Nikolai Zimyatov. The World Cup competitions preceding the Games strongly indicated that the winners of the cross-country skiing competitions were to be the athletes of Sweden and Norway. However, Lake Placid's first gold medal was won by Zimyatov, who won the 30 km race. A few days later he won a second gold medal - in the 50-kilometer distance. Zimyatov received his third gold medal for winning the team that won the 4 x 10 km relay. There was a dramatic struggle in the 15 km race, in which the Swede Thomas Wassberg just a hundredth of a second ahead of the Finn Yoho Mieto.

Alexander Tikhonov (biathlon) competed at the Winter Olympics for the fourth time and won a fourth gold medal.

Legendary Soviet skier Galina Kulakova won her eighth and last Olympic medal- silver in the relay.

Unexpected was the victory of the US hockey players over the seemingly invincible team of the USSR, who won Olympic gold five times in a row. Composed of the best players from universities and colleges, the well-prepared team had a very strong tournament and were deservedly awarded gold medals.

In figure skating, athletes from the USSR took almost half of the podium - two golds, silver and bronze.

Received the third gold medal Irina Rodnina for the victory in pair skating - with Alexander Zaitsev. This medal has become the most expensive for her. After the birth of the child, Rodnina managed to short term restore fitness. Rodnina's tears of joy on the podium during the performance of our anthem became a symbol of the Lake Placid Olympics for the entire Soviet Union.

Among the dancing couples, the first were wonderful Soviet athletes Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov.

Natalya Vladimirovna Linichuk(born in 1956, Moscow) performed in tandem with Gennady Mikhailovich Karponosov(born - 1950, Moscow) - Soviet figure skaters, two-time world champions (1978-1979), two-time European champions (1979-1980), Honored Masters of Sports of the USSR (1978), now figure skating coaches.
Linichuk and Karponosov trained with Elena Chaikovskaya and played for the Dynamo Moscow club. They received their first medal at the senior level in 1974. At the 1976 Olympics, when ice dancing was introduced into the program of the Winter Olympic Games, they came in fourth. Further, their success continued, and they became world champions in 1978 and 1979.
They won the 1980 Olympics, but in the same year they lost to the Hungarian couple at the World Championships. Cristina Regoshi - András Shallai. In 1981, Linichuk and Karponosov ended their sports career.
Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov became successful ice dancing coaches. They work in the city of Aston (USA). In their coaching duet, Gennady is in charge of the compulsory dances, and Natalia is in charge of the original dance and free program. Their students at various times were such Russian couples: Oksana Grischuk - Evgeny Platov, Anzhelika Krylova - Oleg Ovsyannikov, AND Rina Lobacheva - Ilya Averbukh, Tatyana Navka - Nikolai Morozov, Anna Semenovich - Roman Kostomarov, Galit Khait - Sergey Sakhnovsky(Israel), Albena Denkova - Maxim Stavinsky(Bulgaria), Tanith Belbin - Benjamin Agosto(USA). In June 2008, the leaders of the Russian team announced their decision to train with Linichuk and Karponosov Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.

Among men's singles, the winner of the Games was the representative of Great Britain Robin Cusins. At the 1976 Games, he was only 10th, at the 1978 World Cup - third, and in 1979 - second. Cousins ​​continued the tradition brilliant victories great British figure skaters.

They say talented people are talented in everything. This can be fully attributed to Robin Cusins. He belongs to that rare type of skaters who equally combine the ability to perform the most complex elements and convey to the viewer the impulses of his soul. The name of Cousins ​​entered the golden fund figure skating along with the names of his compatriots: Diana Tauler-Bernard Ford, John Curry, Jane Torvill - Christopher Dean.
At the end successful career in amateurs, the Olympic champion was not lost, but revealed himself in new guises. In 1989, Cousens took over the coaching staff of the new Ice Castle International training center in San Bernardino (USA). He is a great athlete, choreographer, artist, designer, singer - and continues to amaze us to this day.

1. 1980 Olympic champions in ice dancing Natalya Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov.
2. Bronze medalists of the 1980 Olympics in ice dancing Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov.

Another sensation was two gold and two silver medals won by athletes from Liechtenstein. Alpine skiing gold medal winner Hanni Wenzel (slalom and giant slalom).

Remarkable skill of the American speed skater Eric Hayden, who won all 5 gold medals, allowed the US team to take the overall third place in the unofficial standings. Hayden's achievement is striking not so much because the athlete won a record number of medals for some Games, but, above all, victories in both sprint and stayer distances. Hayden also achieved high results in cycling: in 1985 he became the US professional champion, and in 1986 he participated in the Tour de France race. The athlete refused tempting offers in commercial activities and preferred a career as a doctor.

For the first time, the sprint was included in the biathlon program of the Winter Olympics. The first champion in the new discipline was Frank Ulrich from the GDR.

Gold in women's singles belongs to Annette Pötsch- an outstanding East German figure skater. Pötsch is a two-time world champion (1978, 1980), a four-time European champion (1977-1980), a five-time champion of the GDR (1976-1980). She trained with a famous trainer from the GDR Jutta Müller in the famous sports club SC Karl-Marx-Stadt (SC Karl-Marx-Stadt).
A distinctive feature of Annette's style of skating is a huge advantage in compulsory figures, athletic sports programs. Owned two triple jumps - sheepskin coat and salchow. Pötsch currently works as a coach in Chemnitz and is an ISU referee.

Skaters from the USSR won silver in competitions among sports pairs Marina Cherkasova(who was only 15 years old) and Andrey Shakhrai.

The appearance of a pair of Cherkasov - Shakhrai on the ice aroused genuine interest among all figure skating fans. 13 year old girl and adult partner. Sergei Shakhrai was six years older than Marina Cherkasova and 35 cm taller (at that time, Marina was 138 cm tall). At their first European Championships in Helsinki in 1977, the unusual couple immediately won bronze. When Zhuk was asked why he made such an unusual pair, he reasonably remarked: “I don’t train basketball players. It's figure skating." A year later, Marina grew by 20 cm, and Zhuk answered the same question differently: “I don’t train midgets.”
When, after the holidays, the exhausted Marina, together with Sergey, went out on the ice, nothing was possible: the technique changed, the jumps did not work. Cherkasova and Shakhrai in 1980 still won a gold medal at the World Championships and a silver medal at the European Championships. But at the Olympics, it was not possible to take gold. After that sports career Marina and Sergei began to decline. Already in Moscow, the coach made a decision: the Cherkasov-Shakhrai pair no longer exists. Now Sergey lives in Australia and trains sports couples, Marina works as a coach in Moscow, in ice palace"Umka" - raises future ice stars from five-year-old babies. And she proudly says that she always dreamed of doing this. Even despite the fact that she did not have time to fully realize herself in sports.

Generally winter Olympics 1980 for the USSR was successful. Soviet athletes became winners in general medal count- won 10 gold medals, 4 of which were in cross-country skiing.

1. Olympic champion 1980 in men's singles Robert Cousins.
2. Silver medalist of the 1980 Olympics in men's singles Jan Hoffmann.
3. 1980 Olympic champion in women's singles Annette Petch.

The teams entered the final tournament with baggage: the USSR - 2 points, Sweden, the USA - 1 each, Suomi - 0. The first match in pulque was the meeting between the USA and the USSR. A draw was enough for the Soviets to maintain leadership.

Annoyed by the difficult endings of previous matches, the Soviet hockey players got down to business immediately. Shot at point-blank range twice Zhluktov. Didn't score Alexander Golikov. Makarov attacked twice from an uncomfortable hand. And only after that the Americans for the first time delivered the puck to the gates of Tretiak. This ratio of attacks - one to four - was approximately observed in the future. And it was not surprising that the debutant Krutov in the 10th minute he opened the scoring by substituting a stick for a throw Kasatonova.

The Americans did not get much ahead, but they tried. Them top scorer Mark Johnson tried to crawl to the gate in Kharlamov's way - between two defenders. And here Buzz Schneider did not philosophize: he clicked as soon as he entered the zone, and even almost from the side.

Tretyak overslept this click, and the score became 1:1 . Makarov restored the status quo, but the hosts managed to level the score once again on last second period.

Here is how it was. Five seconds left, with the puck was Dave Christian in your zone. And from there, from behind the red line, he launched the disc towards the other side's goal. Already straightened on the occasion of the end of the period Tretyak hit the puck right in front of him, and his partners, too, apparently, were already in the locker room in their thoughts. Unlike Johnson, who managed to finish off. Finnish referee Carl Gustav Kaisla conferred with the judge-timekeeper and counted the goal. Viktor Tikhonov, without waiting for a break - and tenths of a second remained to wait - immediately changed Tretyak to Myshkin.

He already did such a thing at the Challenge Cup - he put the second goalkeeper at the most decisive moment. But then it was a balanced, deliberate, albeit risky decision. Here it was adopted, rather, under the influence of emotions. Which, however, is quite understandable. If the USSR national team honestly played two goals in the first period, both American goals seemed to come from nowhere. Rather, it is known - from under the Tretyak. In any case, this is how it could be seen from the bench.

Tikhonov, however, had time to think things over during the break. Nevertheless, he left Myshkin at the gate. Prior to that, Vladimir had already played in two matches on the ice of Lake Placid (by the way, some kind of strange one - sometimes blue, sometimes white) - against Japan and Holland. Tretiak, according to neutral observers, was not in his best shape at this tournament. However, this replacement was also an additional psychological dope for the Americans.

They could be proud that they forced the coach of the opponents to remove Tretiak himself from the game!

The second period began, and everything seemed to fall into place. John Harrington earned removal on Kharlamov(in the old days, the Americans usually grabbed a lot of unnecessary removals, but here they tried to play as cleanly as possible), and Maltsev most popped out one on one with Jim Craig – 3:2 . He still managed to fix his helmet on the way while he was running. The advantage could have been even greater if not for Craig. On the other hand, the game of the Soviet team looked too academic. There was no desire to roll the opponent, just the players tried to do their job well, fulfilling the plan for throws and passes.

Surprisingly, it seems that the Soviet team simply did not have enough spirit for the third period. I remembered the pre-Olympic 10:3, well, I couldn’t believe that the American team could lose. The USSR national team generally lost to her only once in history - 20 years ago in Squaw Valley (2: 3). First of all, the players are experienced - Tretiak and Valery Vasiliev, recalled that after the departure of the Czechoslovaks, they finally believed in their own invincibility and “drilled holes for the orders” that were promised to them. In addition, the Soviet team usually managed to demonstrate its power in the final period. So leading 3:2 after 40 minutes, she was in no way prepared for what happened a little later.

And here's what happened. The Americans proved to be just as hardy as their formidable opponent and equalized the game. After removing Krutov, Johnson scored his second goal. She got stuck at the feet of Sergei Starikov, and Johnson found her first. And after a minute and a half, the captain of the hosts Mike Eruzione for the first time led the US team ahead. Myshkin closed the review of his own defender Vasily Pervukhin, and the puck slipped under his arm.

In the remaining 10 minutes, although the USSR national team created chances, there were no more of them than, say, in the first 10 minutes of the match. Look at the ratio of shots by period: 18:8, 12:2, 9:6 - in the third

almost equal. Brooks continued to use four links, making quick shifts whenever possible. The final assault did not work out at all - Tikhonov could not even release the sixth field player. The "miracle" happened. Al Michaels, who reported on the ABC channel (he had Ken Dryden as an expert), did not fail to twist the image in his final words: “11 seconds left, 10, countdown ... Morrow gives the puck to Silk ... 5 seconds left. Oh, do you believe in miracles? YES!!!"

In fact, it has not yet been won the Olympics. The Finns tied with the Swedes (3:3), and the Soviet team smashed Tre Krunur to smithereens - 9:2 . The hosts had to take at least one point in the match against Finland. But the Suomi team had a very strong tournament and also still claimed medals, although not gold ones. Like Jim Craig, worked wonders in goal 33 year old Jorma Valtonen. After two periods, the Finns led 2:1, but the Americans turned this game upside down as well. goals Phil Vercota, Rob McClanahan and Mark Johnson brought them another strong-willed victory - 4:2. Team USA became a two-time Olympic champion.

Perhaps the main effect of "Miracle on Ice" was that it caused an unprecedented hockey boom in the United States.

A whole generation of future athletes chose this sport, and the fact that in the early 90s there was an active influx of players from American colleges into the NHL had its origins in that Olympic victory. Nearly every '96 World Cup winner claimed to have chosen hockey after seeing "Miracle on Ice" as a child.

More than half of the players on the US Olympic team went on to play in the NHL. Ken Morrow immediately joined the New York Islanders and became the first hockey player to win the Olympics and the Stanley Cup in the same season. Neil Broten became the first American to score 100 points in a season in the NHL regular season. Mike Ramsey spent 18 seasons in the league, and Dave Christian– 14. But, perhaps, for each of them Olympic victory was the most memorable moment of his career. And Mike "Rizzo" Eruzione just retired from hockey right after the end of the Games. At 25 years old. The captain of the gold team considered that one “miracle” was enough for him.

Nobody managed to repeat the “miracle” in the coming years. In the sense - to beat that USSR national team. She won the next three world championships, the next three Olympics, and in the 1981/82 season she defeated a team made up of the best representatives of the NHL in the Canada Cup final - 8: 1. But if a miracle is repeated, then it will cease to be a miracle...

Photo: NHL Hall of Fame (hhof.com), Getty Image