The Winter Olympics in Nagano in 1998 - the eighteenth in a row - became a truly significant event 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 history, de facto called on states to suspend not only international, but even internal conflicts. Finally, the unwritten ban on wars during the Olympics, known from the annals of Ancient Greece, has finally “earned”.
Nagano - medal count
Olympics in Nagano hosted 2338 athletes, of which 810 were women. It became the most massive 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 played curling medals: two sets - for men and women. The debut of the Games was for such snowboarding competitions as giant slalom and half-pipe races. Of the seventy-two countries competing for prizes, only twenty-foursucceeded with two hundred and five medals.
In the overall standings, athletes from Germany won the largest number of awards at the Nagano Olympics: they had twenty-nine awards, including twelve gold, nine silver, eight bronze. The Norwegians were second with twenty-five, and the Russians were third 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 Nagano Olympics that paved the way for such sports as snowboarding, without which it is already difficult to imagine modern world competitions of this magnitude, for somewhat exotic curling and women's light hockey. At these games, the first test was made of valves with a detachable heel and sent the book of previous records to the archive. Both athletes and spectators were truly amazed by the new skates, which were developed by the Dutch and introduced by the Canadians. Their idea, like all ingenious ones, was simple: the creators decided not to fix the blade tightly to the boot anymore, but on the contrary - to make it movable. It was this small revolution that caused all previous records to fall and the tables had to be compiled again.
For the first time on Japanese soil, surprisingly reliable and durable Kevlar equipment 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, drew packed stadiums.
The Nagano Olympics was the first to host women's ice hockey competitions. The Americans became the champions, the Canadian team was in second place, and the Finnish team won the bronze. The 1998 Games were a step into the future for the White Olympiad, whose popularity year by year was increasingly inferior to its summer counterpart, largely due to the lack of new types of competitions. However, the prevalence of debutants still fell short of becoming competitions of this level. Both the ability to hit a bat on an icy target, and hockey among women, and skating on a snow board were practiced to a greater extent only in a few countries in the world. And their presence at such a large-scale sports forum as the Nagano Olympics was explained, oddly enough, only by its spectacularity.
1998 Olympic Mascots
The wise Japanese chose four "snowlets" as mascots: these were such mascots of the Games as 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 suggestions received from sports fans.
Emblem
The emblem was no less interesting. The Olympics in Nagano were represented by a flower, on the petals of which athletes were depicted - representatives of one or another winter sport. The emblem was similar to the snowflake, which symbolizes the Winter Olympics. And alsoshe was associated with a mountain flower. Thus, the Japanese, great lovers of ecology, have emphasized their respect for nature and environmental issues in Nagano Prefecture. The dynamic look of this colorful and bright emblem, according to experts, was a testament to the atmosphere of enthusiasm in which the Games were held, while at the same time symbolizing their splendor.
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, where hockey was also represented by members of the NHL - the strongest players in the world, was advertised by this richest league. Just before the start of the Games, the NHL leadership held three exhibition matches in Japan. This was done with the aim of instilling in the Japanese an interest in hockey. After that, according to rumors, the impressionable Asians - the hosts of the Olympics - literally "got sick" with the game with the puck and stick. And although they understood the rules with great difficulty, they maintained the atmosphere in the stadium very effectively.
The leadership of the NHL 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 "masters" of ice left Nagano without even winning the "bronze". Russia and the Czech Republic reached the final. However, our compatriots did not succeed in the final duel to "print out" the gates of Hasek. Moreover, in the thirdperiod, the Russians missed a rather offensive puck, and as a result won silver medals.
Success of Russian athletes
It is known that cross-country skiing is the main event in the Winter Olympics. And so they are always given great attention. In 1998, Larisa Lazutina, already a two-time Olympic relay champion, won the silver medal in the classic 15 km individual race. Gold was received by her compatriot Olga Danilova. 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 brothers Bure, Alexei Zhamnov, Alexei Yashin, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Kovalenko, and Sergei Fedorov came to defend the honor of Russian sports. With these guys, and Fujiyama was on the shoulder, and the Sea of Japan was knee-deep, and the Olympics in Nagano were strong enough. Figure skating was represented by a fairly powerful team, but the audience was most impressed by the surprisingly complex and clean program of Ilya Kulik, who won gold.
Interesting facts
The 1998 Olympic Games were not without scandals. Frustrated by their failure, the players of the American hockey team staged a brawl, breaking furniture in their rooms in the sports village, thereby causing not only material but also moral damage to the organizers of the competition.
Surprisingly, the most "Russian" among allteams in Nagano was the national team of Kazakhstan. The Russian national team included one Ukrainian and one Lithuanian each, 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 the twentieth of February. Luckily, no participants or spectators were hurt. In ice dancing, Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov from Russia became two-time Olympic champions. And only after the last victorious performance it turned out that the partner danced with a broken wrist.
Closing the Olympics
The ceremony of farewell to the Games, as well as the opening, was accompanied by fireworks. It was a salute of rare beauty - five thousand high- altitude charges took off into the evening sky in just eight minutes. Participants say that the Winter Olympics in Nagano, one of the most emotional in the history of the World Games, flew by just as fleetingly. Competitions of this magnitude were held in Japan, and 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 repeatedly amazed the world with its technologies, and the 1998 Nagano Olympics were no exception.
