Olympics in Nagano. Winter Olympics in Nagano. Famous skaters of russia, Olympic champions 1998 Olympic figure skaters

The 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano - the eighteenth in a row - became truly significant for world sports. It was on the eve of the Games in Japan that the UN General Assembly in its resolution, for the first time in its history, de facto called on states to suspend not only international, but even internal conflicts. Finally, the unwritten ban on the conduct of wars at the time of the Olympics, known from the annals of Ancient Greece, has finally "earned".

Nagano - medal standings

The Nagano Olympics hosted 2,338 athletes, of which 810 were women. It became the most popular in terms of the number of participants and countries. In total, athletes from seventy-two countries came to Japan, who competed in fourteen sports and sixty-eight disciplines. For the first time, the Olympics in Nagano competed for medals in curling: two sets - for men and women. The Games also made their debut for such snowboarding competitions as giant slalom and half-tube races. Of the seventy-two countries fighting for prizes, only twenty-four have achieved success, having received two hundred and five medals.

In the overall standings, the largest number of awards that the Olympics in Nagano played were won by athletes from Germany: they had twenty-nine awards, including twelve gold, nine silver, eight bronze. The second were the Norwegians with twenty-five, and the third were the Russians with eighteen medals.

First time in Nagano

The last winter games of the century have become a kind of bridge to the future. It was the Olympics in Nagano that opened the way for such sports as snowboarding, without which it is already difficult to imagine modern world competitions of this magnitude, for a somewhat exotic curling and a women's light version of hockey. At these games, the first test was performed for the klapa, which had a breakaway heel and sent the book of previous records to the archive. Both athletes and spectators were truly amazed by the new skates that were developed by the Dutch and introduced by the Canadians. Their idea, like everything ingenious, was simple: the creators decided not to firmly attach the blade to the shoe anymore, but, on the contrary, to make it movable. It was this small revolution that became the reason that all previous records fell and the tables had to be compiled anew.

For the first time on Japanese soil, amazingly reliable and durable Kevlar gear was tested. For two weeks the public watched the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Hockey, played for the first time in the history of the Games by professionals from the NHL, collected packed stadiums.

The Nagano Olympics were the first to host women's ice hockey competitions. The American women became champions, the Canadian team was in second place, and the Finnish team won the bronze. The 1998 Games became a step into the future for the White Olympics, the popularity of which from year to year was more and more inferior to its summer counterpart, and largely due to the lack of new types of competitions. However, the prevalence of debutants still fell short of becoming a competition of this level. Both the ability to hit an ice target with a bat, and women's hockey, and snowboarding were mostly practiced in only a few countries in the world. And their presence at such a large-scale sports forum as the Olympics in Nagano was explained, oddly enough, only by its entertainment.

1998 Olympics mascots

The wise Japanese chose four "snowlets" as mascots: these were the mascots of the Games, such as the owls Sukki, Tsukki, Nokki and Lekki. The word snowlets is formed from two roots: snow - “snow”, and let "s -“ let's. ”And since the Games are held every four years, the mascot consisted of four owls, whose names were chosen from almost fifty thousand ideas and proposals received from sports fans.

Emblem

The emblem was no less interesting. The Olympics in Nagano was represented by a flower, on the petals of which athletes were depicted - representatives of a particular winter sport. The emblem was similar to the snowflake, which symbolizes the Winter Olympic Games. She was also associated with a mountain flower. Thus, the Japanese, great lovers of ecology, have focused on their respect for nature and environmental issues in Nagano Prefecture. The dynamic appearance of this colorful and vibrant emblem, according to experts, was a testament to the atmosphere of enthusiasm in which the Games were held, at the same time symbolizing their magnificence.

Nagano Olympics - ice hockey

The final of this type of competition was called the "dream tournament" by the press. For the first time in the history of the Winter Games, the Nagano Olympics, in which hockey was represented by members of the NHL - the world's strongest players, was advertised by this richest league. Before the start of the Games, the NHL leadership held three exhibition matches in Japan. This was done in order to instill an interest in hockey in the Japanese. After that, according to rumors, impressionable Asians - the hosts of the Olympics - literally "got sick" with a game with a puck and a stick. And although they understood the rules with great difficulty, they maintained the atmosphere at the stadium very effectively.

The NHL management understood that the participation of stars of this magnitude would once again advertise this overseas championship. In addition, it seemed to the Americans and Canadians that they would be able to repeat the 1996 World Cup final, and it was they who would meet in the final match. However, thanks to the Czechs, the North American ice “masters” left Nagano without even winning the “bronze”. And Russia and the Czech Republic reached the final. However, our compatriots did not manage to "print" Hasek's goal in the final match. Moreover, in the third period, the Russians conceded a rather offensive puck, and as a result won

Success of Russian athletes

Cross-country skiing is known to be a staple in the Winter Olympics. And therefore, they are always given great attention. In 1998, already a two-time Olympic champion in relay races, she won a silver medal in the individual fifteen kilometers in classic style. Her compatriot Olga Danilova received the gold. The team of Russian girls - N. Gavrilyuk, O. Danilova, E. Vyalbe and L. Lazutina - once again delighted their fans by winning the 4 x 5 km relay.

The Bure brothers, Alexey Zhamnov, Alexey Gonchar, Andrey Kovalenko, and Sergey Fedorov came to defend the honor of Russian sports. With these guys, Fujiyama was on the shoulder, and knee-deep, and the Olympics in Nagano were up to the strength. Figure skating was presented by a rather powerful team, but the audience was most impressed by the surprisingly complex and clean program of the winner of the "gold".

Not without scandals at the 1998 Olympic Games. Frustrated by their failure, the players of the American hockey team made a brawl, breaking the furniture in their rooms in the sports village, thereby inflicting on the organizers of the competition not only material, but also

Surprisingly, the most "Russian" among all the teams in Nagano turned out to be the national team of Kazakhstan. The Russian national team consisted of one Ukrainian and one Lithuanian, while this Central Asian country sent only ethnic Russians to the Games.

The main surprise of the competition in Nagano was a magnitude five earthquake that occurred on February 20th. Fortunately, none of the participants and spectators were hurt. In ice dancing, they became two-time Olympic champions with Evgeny Platov from Russia. And only after the last victorious performance it turned out that the partner was dancing with a broken wrist.

The farewell ceremony for the Games, as well as the opening ceremony, was accompanied by fireworks. It was a fireworks of rare beauty - five thousand high-altitude charges soared into the evening sky in just eight minutes. Participants say that the Winter Olympics in Nagano, one of the most soulful in the history of the World Games, flew just fleetingly. Competitions of this scale were held in Japan, and they simply could not help but amaze with scientific and technical innovations worthy of the coming twenty-first century. The Land of the Rising Sun has amazed the world with its technologies more than once, and the 1998 Nagano Olympics were no exception.

The first champion in the performance of special figures in the history of the Winter Olympic Games was Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin in 1908 in London. With his victory in figure skating, the history of our Olympic victories began. Our skaters opened the next victory page only in 1964 in Innsbruck, showing the highest class of the Russian school.

Figure skating is the most beloved and spectacular sport. With what impatience they awaited the television broadcasts of the performances of the best skaters in the world. The whole country froze at the TV screens, "rooting" for our athletes. There were meteoric ups and downs, but our figure skating school remains the strongest in the world. Let's remember the names of our Olympic champions in the most beautiful winter sport ...

IX Olympic Winter Games 1964 in Innsbruck

The first gold medals in the history of figure skating were brought to the Soviet team by Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov.

At the games in Innsbruck, they were ahead of the strongest couples in the world. The most graceful, strongest, most romantic pair of all skating pairs on ice. They are still together and still go out on the ice. Last year, Oleg Protopopov celebrated his 80th birthday, together with Lyudmila on the ice.

X Olympic Winter Games 1968 in Grenoble

4 years later, Belousova and Protopopov again climbed to the first step of the podium, confirming their success at the previous Olympic Games. Our duet Tatyana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik, who became silver medalists of the Olympics in Grenoble, also fought for the championship with them.

XI Olympic Winter Games 1972 in Sapporo

Games in Sapporo became the beginning of the star path of our legend in sports pair skating Irina Rodnina. Together with her first partner Alexei Ulanov, she won her first Olympic gold medal.

Our athletes - Lyudmila Smirnova, Andrey Suraikin - also became silver medalists. The first silver appeared in men's single skating. It was won in the fight against the 1971 world champion Slovak Ondrej Nepele.

XII Olympic Winter Games 1976 in Innsbruck

For the first time, ice dancing was included in the competition program at the Olympics in Innsbruck. And the first gold in this kind of figure skating became ours! The brilliant couple Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov showed the highest skill and brought the "gold" to our team. "Silver" also went to our piggy bank of Olympic awards thanks to Andrei Minenkov and Irina Moiseeva.

XIII Olympic Winter Games 1980 in Lake Placid

Pair skating. Our couples again won gold and silver awards: Irina Rodnina - Alexander Zaitsev and Marina Cherkasova - Sergei Shakhrai. For Irina Rodnina, this is already the third highest Olympic award. The whole world was surrounded by shots, where on the first step of the pedestal, Rodnina's tears flowed to the sound of the anthem of our country. Tears of pride, tears of happiness…. Just a year before the Olympics, Irina and Alexander missed the world championship, but the reason was the most joyful - the birth of a son, another, albeit not an Olympic victory. And here they are again - the best. And how the American fans were waiting for the "Gold", because it was their "home Olympics"! It was not even the performance of our brilliant pair that broke the American pair, but 15 minutes of Rodnina and Zaitsev's presence at the training session, who showed the opponents the undeniable superiority of our pair. As a result, the American couple withdrew from the competition, unable to withstand the psychological stress.

The "Silver Couple" became world champions the same year, and Marina was only 15 years old at the time of the Olympic Games!

In ice dancing, the Olympic "gold" was won by Gennady Karponosov and Natalya Linichuk (students of Elena Tchaikovskaya), who brilliantly performed not only the obligatory dances, but also the incendiary "Lezginka". “Bronze” went to Andrei Minenkov and Irina Moiseeva.

XIV Olympic Winter Games 1984 in Sarajevo

The Sarajevo Winter Games brought the first Olympic medal in women's singles skating. Kira Ivanova, after a two-year disqualification, was able to win a bronze medal in a tough fight with titled rivals.

In pair skating, gold medals were won by Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, who made their debut at the World Championship a year before the Olympics and won a sensational victory. Their gold medals at the Sarajevo Olympics showed that this was no coincidence.

In ice dancing, Natalya Bestemyanova and Andrei Bukin became silver medals, and Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko added bronze medals to the Olympic treasury. Oh, how upset and bewilderment our fans felt when our couple got lower marks compared to Jane Torvel and Christopher Dean. And what a delight the third place caused, which became sensational for us.

XV Olympic Winter Games 1988 in Calgary

Among sports couples, the first were our Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov, who snatched the victory from our own pair, the Olympic champions of Sarajevo Elena Valovoy and Oleg Vasiliev. This is the seventh "gold" in sports pair skating in a row since the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck. It is noteworthy that Gordeeva and Grinkov started out as singles, but they decided to pair them.

The pinnacle of their sports career was the Olympic gold medals of Natalia Bestemyanova and Andrei Bukin. Marina Klimova and Sergey Ponomarenko became silver medalists.

An unexpected and all the more outstanding was the victory of Viktor Petrenko, an 18-year-old skater from Odessa, who originally planned to enter the top six.

XVI Olympic Winter Games 1992 in Albertville

For the first time at the Olympic Games, our team played as the United Team of the countries that were formerly part of the USSR. Three top Olympic awards - an amazing result of the games in Albertville for our skaters!

As you remember, the first Olympic champion among men was Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin back in 1908 in London, and Igor Petrenko became the second at the Albertville Olympics. Gold awards, one might say, according to the established tradition, were won by our couple - students of Tamara Moskvina Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev, who performed an exceptionally technical and harmonious program to the magic music of Franz Liszt. "Silver" was won by Elena Bechke and Denis Petrov, who also trained with Moskvina.

Before the 1992 Olympics, the "silver couple" in ice dancing at the last Olympiad Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko passed to Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova, who added original choreography to the excellent technique they had worked out with their first coach Natalya Dubova. Their spectacular new program earned them the long-awaited Olympic gold medal. Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin, students of Natalia Dubova, became bronze medalists.

XVII Olympic Winter Games 1994 in Lillehammer

At the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, Russia played as an independent team for the first time and again became three times gold.

In men's single skating, the "golden" performance was the performance of Alexei Urmanov, who completed the maximum number of triple jumps. Ice dancing brought our team gold and silver medals. Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov became Olympic champions, and Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin became silver medalists.

The return to "amateurs" from professional ice ballet was triumphant for Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov - they became two-time Olympic champions!

XVIII Olympic Winter Games 1998 in Nagano

The first gold medal in figure skating in Nagano was the medal of Ilya Kulik, the only one of all the participants in the competition who not only perfectly completed all the elements of the program, but also took a big risk - a jump in 4 turns, which no one could then do.

Among sports couples, the main struggle was between our duets - the experienced Arthur Dmitriev with the new partner Oksana Kazakova and the young duet Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. A German couple competed with them. However, only Dmitriev and Kazakova skated their program flawlessly, having won the 10th Olympic gold medal for their team in this type of figure skating.

Ice dancing became a real sensation - for the second time in a row Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov became Olympic champions, showing real professionalism and endurance. Our couple Angelica Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov also became silver medalists.

XIX Olympic Winter Games 2002 in Salt Lake City

The Salt Lake City Games were rife with scandals. Not without a misunderstanding in figure skating. Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won gold medals in pair skating, but the judges decided to share their championship with the Canadian pair, the Canadian pair D. Sale and D. Peletier. For the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics in pair skating, a second set of medals was awarded 5 days after the competition.

The fate of gold medals in women's singles and ice dancing was decided by just one judge's vote, which, alas, was not in our favor. Silver medalists were Ilya Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva and Irina Slutskaya.

In men's single skating, the first two steps of the podium were taken by our figure skaters: Alekse Yagudin (gold) and Evgeni Plushenko (silver).

XX Olympic Winter Games 2006 in Turin

And again triple gold! Two-time world champions, five-time European champions, three-time Russian champions, Tatyana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin became Olympic champions in pair skating. For the fourth Olympiad in a row, gold in men's singles skating has been on the account of our team - the three-time world champion and six-time European champion Evgeni Plushenko became the Olympic champion. It was he who, for the first time in the history of figure skating, performed the combination of a quadruple toe loop - triple toe loop - triple rittberger.

The brilliant Russian couple Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov (two-time world champions, three-time European champions, three-time Russian champions) became champions in ice dancing.

In women's single skating, Irina Slutskaya became the bronze medalist due to an unfortunate fall.

XXI Olympic Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver

Games in Vancouver, alas, did not bring triumph to our skaters. Evgeni Plushenko became the silver medalist in men's singles skating, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin became bronze medalists in ice dancing.

XXII Olympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi

Nagano (Japan)

The Winter Games returned to Japan 26 years after the Sapporo Olympics. In the fight for the right to host the sports forum, Nagano overtook the American Salt Lake City, Swedish Östersund, Spanish Haku and Italian Aosta. The competition on the island of Honshu was accompanied by heavy snow with rain and fog, due to which some of the starts had to be postponed. In addition, a magnitude 5 earthquake hit Nagano Prefecture on February 20 - the Olympians were terrified, although no one was hurt. At the same time, the Games themselves left a pleasant impression. First of all, thanks to the hospitality of the Japanese and the wonderful audience. In addition, the organizers of the Olympics managed to restrain the general sponsors of the IOC, who were very intrusive during the previous 1996 Summer Olympics.

Venue - Nagano, Japan
7 - 22 February 1998
Number of participating countries - 72
The number of athletes participating - 2176 (787 women, 1389 men)
Medal Sets - 68
Team Winner - Germany

Three main characters of the Games according to "SE"

Dominik Hasek (Czech Republic),
hockey
Hermann Mayer (Austria),
skiing
Larisa Lazutina (Russia),
ski race

BORE OUTSIDE GREETZKY

The number of participants in the Winter Games in Nagano for the first time exceeded 2,000 athletes. This was due to the new expansion of the competition program. Women's hockey, snowboarding and curling have entered the family of winter Olympic sports. But the main event was the agreement between the IOC and the NHL, which for the first time in history allowed players from the strongest hockey league in the world to compete at the Olympics. The last restrictions on the manifestation of the pros at the Games were canceled, and a break was taken in the regular season of the NHL. The hockey tournament in Nagano has beaten all possible TV ratings. Although CBS, which paid $ 375 million for the right to broadcast the Olympics, was still unhappy about the unsuccessful performance of the Americans and Canadians.

The Russian men's national ice hockey team in Nagano was made up entirely of NHL players, with the exception of the third goalkeeper Oleg Shevtsov. The main stars of the team were considered Pavel Bure, Sergey Fedorov and Alexey Yashin. Vyacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Alexander Mogilny, Nikolai Khabibulin, Sergey Zubov and some other famous hockey players refused an invitation to the national team. In many respects, the refusal was caused by the failed performance of our "dream team" at the 1996 World Cup, as well as the death in the spring of 1997 of the President of the National Ice Hockey Federation Valentin Sych, who was killed by a killer's bullet. Perhaps it was the refusenik stars that the Russian national team lacked to defeat the Czechs in the 1998 Olympics finals.

The decisive match of the hockey tournament between the national teams of the Czech Republic and Russia ended with a football score 1: 0 in favor of our rivals. The Czechs, in which Dominik Hasek and Jaromir Jagr shone, became Olympic champions. And the Russian fans could only console themselves with the phenomenal result of Pavel Bure - in the semifinals, the captain of the Russian team sent as many as five goals to the Finnish goal.

But the great Canadian striker Wayne Gretzky, for whom Nagano was the first and last chance to perform at the Olympics, was noted for only four assists in the entire tournament. It got to the point that the coach of the Canadian national team, Mark Crawford, did not entrust the 37-year-old veteran with the execution of the post-match shootout in the semifinals against the Czechs. In that series, Hasek won all five duels against the "Maple Leaves", depriving the founders of hockey of chances for gold. The frustrated Canadian stars could not get together in the match for third place with the Finns and were left in Nagano without any medals at all.

SKIER TRIUMPH

In addition to hockey, in February 1998, the entire country followed the Olympic figure skating tournament. In it, Russia won three gold out of four - Ilya Kulik, a pair of Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, as well as a dance duet Oksana Grischuk and Yevgeny Platov did their best. The latter took the second Olympic title in a row in Nagano, despite the fact that Oksana performed with a broken wrist. In addition, two months before the start of the Games, Grischuk unexpectedly announced that now she should be called Pasha (according to one version, so that she would not be confused with the Ukrainian single skater Oksana Baiul). After Nagano-1998, the duo broke up. Grischuk began performing with Alexander Zhulin and returned to the former name.

The performances of our skiers in Japan turned out to be very successful. Representatives of Russia - Larisa Lazutina, Olga Danilova and Yulia Chepalova collected all the individual gold, in addition, the Russian national team won the relay. For 21-year-old Chepalova, this was the first Olympics - it was in Nagano that her star rose. In men, the hero of the ski track was the Norwegian Bjorn Daly, who at the end of the 1998 Games became the most titled athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics - in his collection there are 8 gold and 4 silver medals. Another record was set in the figure skating tournament - 15-year-old American Tara Lipinski became the youngest individual champion in the history of the White Games.

One of the highlights of the 1998 Olympics was the incident with Austrian skier Hermann Mayer. After a terrible fall in downhill, the Austrian not only returned to the start, but also won gold medals in the super-giant and giant slalom. Thanks to this feat, the nickname Herminator stuck to Mayer - by analogy with the invulnerable movie Terminator. In the luge competition, the public applauded the German Georg Hackl, who won the third Olympics in a row. The Hackl medal proved to be an important contribution to the German national team's piggy bank - the Germans won the overall standings, beating the Norwegians by two golds. Our team dropped to third place for the first time. Even the incredible victory of the biathlete Galina Kukleva, who in the 7.5 km race was ahead of the German Usha Disl by only 7 tenths of a second, did not help.

CHAMPION SPIRIT

The scandal marked the Olympic debut of snowboarding. The first ever Olympic champion in giant slalom, Canadian Ross Rebalyatti, immediately fell for marijuana. The athlete explained the presence of the drug in his doping test by a visit to a party - where Ross's friends allegedly lit sensimilia, and Rebalyatti accidentally inhaled intoxicating smoke. The addict champion was disqualified, but, to everyone's surprise, was acquitted two days later. The IOC decided not to escalate the situation and believed the Canadian's excuses. In addition, it turned out that marijuana is not included in the list of prohibited drugs - this misunderstanding was corrected, but they did not retrospectively punish the athlete.

In general, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch did not like to pedal the topic of doping and, according to some reports, even thought about legalizing stimulants. But the competition in Nagano was the last Winter Olympics of the Spanish marquis. Soon, the sport will have completely different times, and the future of many champions of the Japanese Games will not be as bright as it seemed in 1998. Larisa Lazutina and Olga Danilova will end their careers after doping revelations at the 2002 Olympics; in 2009, Yulia Chepalova will fall under the hood of anti-doping services. Another skier, the winner of the 30 km race, Finn Mika Mullyula, two years after Nagano will be at the center of a high-profile doping scandal, addicted to alcohol and in 2011 will be found dead in his apartment. The police will conclude that Myllyula committed suicide.

German speed skater Claudia Pechstein, who won the 5000m race at the 1998 Games, will be disqualified at the end of her career on the basis of her "blood passport", will spend several years in the courts and ultimately prove that her abnormal test results are caused by a hereditary disease. By the way, Pechstein achieved success in Nagano not only thanks to her natural qualities, but also against the background of the technical revolution that took place in the mid-1990s in this sport. On the eve of the 1998 Games, almost all the leading skaters began to use slip-on skates with a breakaway heel. The novelty, combined with a special running technique, made it possible to increase the length of the skater's push and its speed. Best of all with valves by the beginning of the Olympics, the Dutch and the Germans got used to. But Russian athletes were not ready for these changes.

2,176 athletes from 72 countries took part in these Games.

Has been played 68 sets of awards in seven sports. The Olympic championship included competitions in curling and snowboarding... Of the 72 countries that fought for the prizes, only 24 have achieved success, having won 205 medals.

1. Emblem of the 1998 Olympics.
2. Talismans of the 1998 Olympics.

Long before the start of the 18th Winter Olympic Games, experts predicted that any country would need 11-12 gold medals to win a team victory in Nagano. And this forecast was fully justified. After the competitions in all 68 numbers of the program were over, the German delegation won 12 medals of the highest standard, Norway - 10, Russia - 9.

Opening ceremony of the 1998 Olympics.

The main sports facility built for the Olympics is the ice sports arena Nagano Olympic Memorial Arena... Designed and built in accordance with the latest standards and requirements for this type of sports facility, the Nagano Olympic Memorial Arena is one of the most advanced and adapted for international competitions in the Asian part of the planet, and, in addition, the first indoor ice arena for skaters. in Japan. Competitions of athletes in such disciplines as figure skating, hockey, short track, curling are regularly held here. The spectator tribunes of the sports complex are capable of simultaneously receiving about 10 thousand sports fans.

1998 Olympic champion in men's singles Ilya Kulik.

Three gold medals were added to the common piggy bank by Russian figure skaters. Champions in pair skating became Oksana Kazakova and Arthur Dmitriev, in ice dancing - Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov, in men's singles - Ilya Kulik.

Ilya Kulik- Silver medalist of the 1996 World Championship, European Champion 1995, Honored Master of Sports (1998). Ilya was brought to the rink by his mother when he was 5 years old. The first coach was V. Gromov, but later Kulik trained for a long time with Marina and Viktor Kudryavtsev. In the 1995-1996 season, Tatyana Tarasova began to help Kulik work on the choreography of the programs, and at the 1996 World Championships Ilya became a silver medalist, losing by one judge's vote. In May of the same year, he finally moved on to train with Tatyana Anatolyevna.

It was a unique creative union. Tarasova put a lot of mental and physical strength into Kulik, felt his complex nature, and developed his talent not only as a master of technique and excellent performance of jumps, which is one of the main indicators in single skating. She made his skating beautiful, soulful, emotional.

In Nagano, in a short program in an avant-garde style to the music of Jean-Michel Zhara, Ilya cleanly performed a cascade - a triple axel - a triple toe loop. In the free program, to the music of George Gershwin, he showed himself to be a real artist with amazing choreography and the highest technique - he was the only participant who cleanly performed all the jumps and, for the first time in international competitions, was the first to show a quadruple jump - a sheepskin coat.

In 1999, he finished performing in amateur sports and began a professional career. He performed in various American ice shows, including Stars on Ice, where he still participates. In parallel, he graduated from the Russian Academy of Physical Culture.

In 2002 he married his compatriot Ekaterina Gordeeva- two-time Olympic champion in pair skating, who competed with her husband Sergei Grinkov who died early. Ilya and Katya have a common daughter, Liza, and a daughter of Katya and Sergei - Dasha, whom Ilya brings up, giving the children all their free time. Together they live in the American state of Connecticut, in the city of Avon, and train in Newington.

1-2. Olympic champions-1998 in doubles Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev.
3. Silver medalists of the 1998 Olympics in doubles Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

Champions and prize-winners of the 1998 Olympics

Men's single skating
Gold - Ilya Kulik (born 1977), Russia.
Silver- Elvis Stojko (born 1972), Canada.
Bronze- Philippe Candeloro (born 1972), France.

Women's single skating
Gold- Tara Lipinski (born 1982), USA.
Silver- Michelle Wing Kwan (born 1980), USA.
Bronze- Chen Lu (born 1976), China.

Sports couples
Gold- Oksana Kazakova (born 1975) - Artur Dmitriev (born 1968), Russia.
Silver- Elena Berezhnaya (born 1977) - Anton Sikharulidze (born 1976), Russia.
Bronze- Mandy Wötzel (born 1973) - Ingo Steuer (born 1966), Germany.

Dance couples
Gold- Oksana Grischuk (born 1972) - Evgeny Platov (born 1967), Russia.
Silver- Angelica Krylova (born 1973) - Oleg Ovsyannikov (born 1970), Russia.
Bronze- Marina Anissina (born 1975) - Gwendal Peizerat (born 1972), France.

Nagano champions in pair skating became Oksana Kazakova and Arthur Dmitriev, and Dmitriev is the only skater in the world who won Olympic gold twice ( 1992 and 1998), with different partners ( previous partner - Natalia Mishkutenok ). The coach of this wonderful couple Tamara Moskvina When asked about Arthur's victory in 1998, she answered: " If you climbed two high, high peaks, and the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Games are huge peaks, and after that you went down into the valley, lived there and then decided: let me climb even higher, but with a new a man in a bundle, to use mountaineering terminology, and not as young as before, it will be, oh, how hard it is for you. Therefore, this last medal for Arthur is the heaviest. But also the most valuable. He overcame not only sports difficulties, but also his own. After all, when you become great, in order to rise even higher, in assessing yourself, on the contrary, you need to go down and climb from scratch.".

Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov for the second time they became Olympic champions in ice dancing - an unprecedented case in figure skating. This brilliant couple are four-time world champions, three-time European champions. They showed the highest skill and fortitude. Only after the end of the competition it turned out that Grischuk had a broken wrist!

As Oksana admitted in an interview, Nagano's gold was special for her. Seven months before the important competition, Platov underwent a complex knee operation. She was completely exhausted - both physically and emotionally: “When you stand on the top step of the podium and they call you invincible, your opponents simply lose heart. Indeed, other athletes tried to fight with us in competitions, but we were technically a cut above them. Even minor inaccuracies could not affect our result. On the other hand, this state of affairs forced all skaters to train to the limit and even beyond their capabilities, which means that we simply had no right to relax. The situation was aggravated by my own injury (as it turned out later, a broken arm), which I told everyone about only at the end of the tournament. I felt wild pain, but I was afraid to find out the doctors' diagnosis and did not want to upset my relatives, coach and partner. Having made the decision to endure the pain, I did not report the fracture to anyone. Immediately after the Olympics, the doctors gasped when I turned to them. A plaster cast was immediately applied to the arm. Needless to say that against such a background, the victory was really hard-won for us, and therefore all the more valuable ?! "

Olympic champions-1998 in ice dancing Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov.

And in the women's single skating, a talented American figure skater won Tara Lipinski- world champion (1997), US champion (1997).

Tara went out on the ice at the age of three and immediately attracted the attention of the coaches. The baby was talented and hardworking. Riding in amateurs, she was distinguished by her children's style of riding, insanely rejoicing in the performed jumps. The judges, contrary to the rules, did not lower the marks for her execution of the triple lutz from the wrong edge (inside). However, 15-year-old Tara did not accidentally become the first in the chosen sport, not only natural data played a role in this, but also a character who does not know how to come to terms with secondary roles.

Receiving the Olympic gold medal, she could not hide her tears. It was said that these were not only tears of joy from the victory won. American newspapers did not spare their champion, calling her a "circus piglet." To this was added the divorce of her parents, the illness of the closest person - her grandmother. Almost immediately after the victory in Nagano, Lipinski moved from amateur to professional - at the age of 15, at the height of fame and success.

1. Silver medalists of the 1998 Olympics in ice dancing Angelica Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov.
2. Bronze medalists of the 1998 Olympics in ice dancing Marina Anisina and Gwendal Peizerat.

Notable facts

Russian skiers have achieved unprecedented success in the Olympic history, winning all five races on the most difficult tracks in Hakuba. Three gold medals - two for victories in individual races and one in the relay, as well as silver and bronze medals brought from Japan to the town of Odintsovo near Moscow Larisa Lazutina... This athlete accomplished a real feat, for which, immediately upon her return to her homeland, by the decree of the President of the country, she was awarded the title “Hero of the Russian Federation”.

The representative of the Vladimir region returned from Japan as a two-time Olympic champion Olga Danilova... It was she who, ahead of her rivals at a 15-kilometer distance, won the first gold medal played in Nagano and gave additional confidence to her teammates.

1. Silver medalist of the 1998 Olympics in women's singles Michelle Kwan.
2-3. 1998 champion in women's singles Tara Lipinski.

The real discovery of the Games turned out to be Yulia Chepalova... The victory in the 30 km race of this young athlete, who was born in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and studied at the Khabarovsk State Institute of Physical Culture, was unexpected for many. But not for the coaches: they saw in Chepalova the future leader of our women's ski team.

Separate words of gratitude deserve Elena Vyalbe and Nina Gavrylyuk... They did not manage to win in individual races, but they flashed at their stages of the relay and deservedly received gold medals. From now on, both Vyalbe and Gavrylyuk are three-time Olympic champions, since Gavrylyuk in 1988 and 1994, and Vyalbe in 1992 and 1994 already shared the joy of victory in the relay races with their friends.

Another gold medal was won for Russia by a biathlete from Tyumen Galina Kukleva... The 7.5 kilometer race she won was one of the most dramatic. At the finish line, the champion and the silver medalist were separated by just 0.7 seconds. An elusive moment in which years of painstaking work were concentrated.

Closing ceremony of the 1998 Olympics.

The audience very quickly forgets their heroes. They are being replaced by new ones ...

Therefore, it is very good that the blog Ice of Life a cycle dedicated to champions and prize-winners of past Olympiads was conceived. We must know all those who made the sports history of our people, fought and defended the honor of the country. Today I want to talk to you about the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.

The last Winter Games of the outgoing century were held in Japan, where they returned 26 years later.

The mascot of the XVIII Winter Olympics was snowlets - four owls - "Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Zucchi" reputed to be wise birds. And the word "Snowlets" itself consists of "snow" (snow) and "let" s "(let's). The number" 4 "symbolizes the fact that the Games are held every four years, as well as four seasons.

Official Olympics 98 emblem - snow flower ... Its creators tried to express the dynamics of sports in the form of an alpine flower, its five multi-colored petals represent the stylized figures of athletes in motion on the snow.

The emblem can also be seen as a flowering alpine plant, highlighting the great importance that Nagano attached to ecology. The bright, festive colors of the Games emblem are an expression of the movement and feelings of the Olympians gathered in Nagano.

And how unique are the medals of these Olympic Games. In the center of the medal is a lacquer miniature with the emblem of the Games against a background of mountains, hand-painted by famous craftsmen from the province of Kiso, who thus sought to realize the idea: Games from the heart - together with love. The medals are made in a combination of Japanese and Western technologies and using metalworking techniques traditional for Nagano.

The method for creating lacquer miniatures is called "Poppies" at its core - the principle of spraying the smallest gold particles onto the lacquer that has not yet hardened. As conceived by Japanese artists - the creators of lacquer miniatures, each Olympic award is slightly different from the others, as it is made by hand and by different craftsmen.Each of them is as unique as the fate of a person, as a victory at the Olympics.

On the obverse of the medals is the emblem of the Games in Nagano, reminiscent of the soft light of the morning sun framed by olive branches. The central part of the reverse side of the medals is also made using the “poppies” technique - the lacquer miniature depicts mountains in the vicinity of Nagano.

Medal weight: 256 (gold), 250 (silver) and 230 (bronze) grams. Diameter 80 mm, thickness 7 mm.

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It is possible that some of you have preserved postage stamps issued on the occasion of the 18th Winter Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998.

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The XVIII Winter Olympic Games were held from 7 to 22 February, at the opening ceremony of which the Emperor of Japan Akihito made an opening speech.

Japanese athletes were invited to the opening ceremony - figure skater Midori Ito lit the Olympic flame, a the double fighter Kenji Ogivarra took the oath of athletes.

But long before the start of the Olympic Games in Nagano, experts predicted that any country would need 11-12 gold medals to win a team victory. And this prediction was fully justified. The German delegation had 12 medals of the highest standard, Norway - 10, Russia - 9, of which 3 gold medals were won by our figure skaters (Champions in pair skating became Oksana Kazakova and Arthur Dmitriev, in ice dancing - Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov, in men's singles - Ilya Kulik.)

By the way, the hosts of the Games took only 7th place in the medal standings, but won five gold medals - two in ski jumping, one each in speed skating, short track speed skating and freestyle.

If you look at the statistics of the performances of our national figure skating team for the period: from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Olympic Games in Japan, then there is a tendency to return to square one, our skaters again began to occupy leading positions. The country seemed to wake up from all the cataclysms, and gradually we again began to declare ourselves as leaders in the competitions of the highest level.

In general, our skaters at this Olympics won five medals of various denominations:

Ilya Kulik - gold in men's single skating

Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev - gold in sports pairs

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze - silver in sports pairs

Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov - gold in ice dancing

Angelica Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov - silver in ice dancing

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In men's single skating, the places were distributed as follows:

Gold - Ilya Kulik, Russia.

Silver - Elvis STOJKO, Canada.

Bronze - Philippe CANDELORO, France.

In men's single skating at this Olympics, the bright star was Ilya Kulik.

At that time, he had the following titles:

silver medalist of the 1996 World Championship,

1995 European champion,

Honored Master of Sports (1998).

When Ilya was five years old, my mother brought him to the rink. The first coach was V. Gromov, but later Kulik trained for a long time with Marina and Victor Kudryavtsev... In the 1995-1996 season, Kulik began to help work on the choreography of programs Tatiana Tarasova, and at the world championship 1996 Ilya became a silver medalist having lost by one referee's vote. In May of the same year, he finally moved on to train with Tatyana Anatolyevna. Tarasova did not yet have experience of working with single skaters. I didn't really believe in the success of their union. Five months before Nagano, trouble happened to Ilya: during training, he drove into a crack in the ice and punched his right jerk leg with the blade of a skate. The doctors had to insert a metal pin into his leg, because of which they had to forget about training for a long time. Nevertheless, Ilya Kulik continued functional training for the Games on simulators, and by the time the Olympic championship was held he was able to fully recover.

It was a unique creative union. Tarasova put a lot of mental and physical strength into her pupil, felt his complex nature, and developed his talent not only as a master of technique and excellent performance of jumps, which is one of the main indicators in single skating. She made his skating beautiful, soulful, emotional.

His short program in Nagano was done in an avant-garde style with music by Jean-Michel Jard. The athlete cleanly performed the most difficult jumping elements: cascade, triple axel and triple toe loop - and took a leading position.

It remained to unmistakably skate the free program. When preparing for the free program, Ilya Kulik took a serious risk: he included in it the most difficult technical element - a quadruple jump, which very few people could then cope with. Ilya Kulik did not always succeed in this jump either, but a minute before the end of the warm-up, the athlete confidently rode up to the side where Tatyana Tarasova was standing, and told her: “Don't worry, I’ll make this jump in 4 turns. I’ll do it!” The skater fulfilled his promise. His dance directed to music by George Gershwin , was performed at the highest choreographic and technical level. Ilya Kulik became the only participant in the competition who performed all jumps absolutely cleanly, and the only athlete to make a four-turn jump.

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Sports couples:

Gold - Oksana Kazakova - Artur Dmitriev, Russia

Silver - Elena Berezhnaya - Anton Sikharulidze, Russia

Bronze - Mandy Woetzel and Ingo Steuer, Germany

Nagano champions in pair skating became Oksana Kazakova and Arthur Dmitriev... At the same time, I want to note that Dmitriev is the only skater in the world, winner of Olympic gold twice (1992 and 1998), with different partners ( previous partner - Natalia Mishkutenok).

Kazakova - Dmitriev, Nagano 1998.

The coach of this wonderful couple Tamara Moskvina When asked about Arthur's victory in 1998, she answered as follows: "If you climbed two high, high peaks, and the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Games are huge peaks, and after that you went down into the valley, lived there and then decided: let me climb even higher, but with a new person in tandem, if you use mountaineering terminology, and not as young as before, it will be, oh, how hard it will be for you. Therefore, this last medal for Arthur is the most difficult. But also the most valuable. He overcame not only the difficulties of sports, but also After all, when you become great, in order to rise even higher, in assessing yourself, on the contrary, you need to go down and climb from scratch. "

Dmitriev was the only one who performed the partner's signature descent, throwing her over her back.

The brilliant performance of this magnificent couple under the leadership of Tamara Nikolaevna Moskvina allowed them to rise to the highest step of the podium.

Moskvina has a well-developed sense of miscalculation of positions, she is an excellent mathematician, she sees further than many of her colleagues. She began to prepare Kazakova's shift to Dmitriev back in Nagano. As usual, I calculated everything accurately and correctly: after the 1998 Olympics, Kazakova - Dmitriev leave, and Berezhnaya - Sikharulidze, her students, silver Olympic medalists come to replace them.

Already at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Lena and Anton laid a solid foundation for victory at the next 2002 Games. Back in Nagano, Berezhnaya - Sikharulidze were worthy rivals to Kazakova-Dmitriev, and as Artur Dmitriev admitted, that they could even have won if they had not made some mistakes.

And now I bring to your attention the performance of the "bronze" medalists of the Olympic Games in Nagano - Mandy Wetzel as Ingo Steuer (Germany)

Winners of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in figure skating among sports couples (from left to right):

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze (Russia, silver), Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev (Russia, gold) and Mandy Wetzel and Ingo Steuer (Germany, bronze) during the awards ceremony, Nagano, Japan. February 10, 1998.

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Dancing couples:

Gold -Oksana Grischuk - Evgeny Platov, Russia

Silver -Angelica Krylova - Oleg Ovsyannikov, Russia

Bronze -Marina Anisina and Gwendal Peizerat(Marina Anissina- Gwendal Peizerat), France

Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov are a unique duet, each performance is a masterpiece.

Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platovbecame Olympic champions for the second time in ice dancing - an unprecedented case in figure skating. This shiny pair - Olympic champions, four-time world champions, three-time European champions ... They showed the highest skill and fortitude. Only after the end of the competition it turned out that Grischuk had a broken wrist!

(watch this unique performance, I'm sure many of you will have tears at the end of this number, and pride in such great athletes will remain in your hearts)

As Oksana admitted in an interview, Nagano's gold was special for her. Seven months before the important competition Platov underwent complex knee surgery. She was completely exhausted - both physically and emotionally: "When you stand on the top step of the podium and you are called invincible, your opponents simply lose heart."

Silver this Olympiad in dance pairs was won by Russian figure skaters Angelica Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov.

Let's watch the beautiful dance "Carmen". How organic and natural Angelica looks in this issue. She is a real Spanish woman: gentle, passionate, sensual, alluring ...

Bronze medalists in dance pairs at the Olympic Games in Nagano - Marina Anisina - Gwendal Peizerat (France) .

"Romeo and Juliet" to music by Sergei Prokofiev.

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Women's single skating:

Gold -Tara LIPINSKI, USA.

Silver -Michelle KWAN, USA.

Bronze -Chen Lu (Lu CHEN), China

Our country was represented by -

Irina Slutskaya, 5th place winner... These were the first Olympic Games in Irina's career. In Nagano, due to the fall, Irina became only fifth. Although a month later with the same program, she won silver at the World Championship. Many different happy and exciting moments will be associated with her name, and that unforgettable unprecedented event at the Olympic Games in the American Salt Lake City ... But that will be later ... In the meantime, let's see Irina's performance in Nagano.

AND Maria Butyrskaya(trainer Elena Chaikovskaya) The athlete's program was distinguished by great originality, excellent skating technique with a sense of rhythm and excellent plasticity of movements.

But then Maria took only offensive 4th place... She still considers the Games 98 in Nagano to be the biggest disappointment in her life. Then Butyrskaya, with just one judicial vote, lost the bronze medal to the Chinese woman Lu Chen.

Bronze went to the figure skater from China - Lu Chen.

Michelle Kwan won the silver medal for this Olympiad.

And the talented American figure skater won Tara Lipinski - world champion (1997), US champion (1997).

An interesting fact is that American figure skater became the youngest winner of the Olympic Winter Games, winning gold in singles at age 15.

Receiving the Olympic gold medal, she could not hide her tears. She was still a child, but she had to go through great trials and emerge victorious.

Almost immediately after the victory in Nagano, Lipinski moved from amateur to professional - at the age of 15, at the height of fame and success.

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So our journey into the past ended, in Nagano for the 1998 Olympic Games. Many years have passed since then. These athletes were replaced by new ones, who became the heroes of the next Olympic Games. We rejoiced for them, grieved with them over their defeats and failures, were proud. Time does not stand still. And now the fire will soon be lit at the new Olympic Games, with which we have the brightest hopes. Let this competition be the fairest and fairest in the history of the Games. And we will cheer, worry about our favorite athletes, we will wish them victory. After all, we are fans, we are their support and strength ...

Thank you for attention