When was the Olympics held in Salt Lake City? Champions and prizewinners of the Olympic Games

North American state of Utah won the right to hold winter competitions in its city of Salt Lake City. The Olympics on the shore of the Salt Lake caused mixed emotions and rightfully went down in history as one of the most scandalous. Unjust judging, doping tightening deprived many athletes of the deserved awards, to which they had been going for more than one year.

Scandalous Olympics

The 19th Winter Games took place from 8 to 24 February 2002 in the US city of Salt Lake City, which won the right to hold the competition in the first stage of voting for IOC members. Already this fact was the first bell, that someone's personal interests interfered in the matter and a lot of money is involved here. The face of the Olympics in Salt Lake City was spoiled by numerous lawsuits and scandals.

Jacques Rogge, the new head of the Olympic Committee, turned out to be not the kind of person who is able to make the right decisions without going after the media, and his decisions about doping have not always been fair. The reputation of the IOC was greatly undermined by numerous scandals and trials, which continued even after the winter Olympics closed.

Salt Lake City has become for many athletes and fans a place of dereliction of hope and an example of how big money decides the fate of medals. But only not for the national team of Norway - for it this Olympiad was historical - the first place in the medal standings. And again Ole Einar Björndalen proved that he has no equal in biathlon.

Why Salt Lake City?

The Olympics took place just a few months after the sad events in New York, when the towers of the shopping center were attacked by terrorists and a large number of people died. In the city that hosted the athletes, increased security measures were taken, because no one could guarantee that such attacks would not be repeated.

What is the secret of the fact that it was Salt Lake City who won the contest for hosting the Olympic Games from Sweden's Östersund and Canadian Quebec? Information about a certain money fund, from which such members of the Olympic committee were financed, became public. As a result of the investigation, about ten members of the organizing committee were forced to resign, and some were prosecuted for corruption charges.

Opening of the first Olympiad of the third millennium

The inauguration ceremony of the 19 th Winter Olympic Games began with a delay - the United States President George W. Bush was late. More than 60 thousand fans and guests of the city gathered on this day in the stands of the Rais Exxl stadium.

After the greetings of the US President and the head of the IOC, the state flag of the United States was placed on the stadium, which became symbolic - it was found under the ruins of the Shopping Center in New York.

Then the audience could enjoy the first part of the theatrical performance, the main character of which was a simple 12-year-old American teenager. His character, Child of Light, was the personification of all that good and kind that was originally laid in every person. The lantern that was in the hands of this character, became a symbol of the fight against evil, it was passed from hand to hand, and in the end he moved to the audience to the stands. The beautiful idea of the directors of the statement about universal unity helped not to pay attention to the cool and dank weather (in Salt Lake City that day it was about 0 degrees).

77 delegations from different countries of the world passed in front of the audience, especially warmly received teams from countries where there is no snow at all. The smallest delegation was the delegation of Bermuda - only one athlete. Russia took the second place in the number of athletes represented, the flag of the delegation was carried by Alexey Prokurov, for whom these competitions were the fifth Olympiad in his sports career. After the parade of delegations, the theatrical performance continued. It should be noted that the opening ceremony can be called the most positive moment in the history of the 19 th Winter Olympic Games. What was happening at the competitions themselves, many still remember with tears in their eyes.

Prizewinners

How did the Olympic medal look? Salt Lake City, again, became a happy city for a small Scandinavian country: in the first place is the national team of Norway - in its treasury of 13 gold awards. The second place was taken by the German national team - 12 medals, and the team of the hosts of the Olympics closed the top three - 10 gold medals. The Russian national team at this Olympiad took the 5th place in the overall team competition - on the account of athletes 5 awards of the highest standard.

In total, 78 sets of awards were played at this Olympiad. In the ski races Julia Chepalova brought the Russian team 2 medals. Competitions for freestyle and snowboard awards in the treasury of Russia were not added. All medals were played in 15 disciplines.

Triumph of the Russian national team

Russian figure skating was presented at these competitions by a very powerful team. Sports and dance duets, single men's and women's skating - in each of these species, Russians were the contenders for the highest awards.

One of the first surprises was the result in the competition of sports couples. Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze deservedly won these starts and brought in the treasury of the national team the long-awaited gold. But it was not the final. The North American media raised a real howl, demanding a review of the results in favor of the Canadian couple Zhami Sale and David Pelletier. The International Olympic Committee and the International Federation of Speed Skating in the end did not survive the active pressure from the press, and the results of the competitions in this form of figure skating were revised.

The symbol of unfair judging was this Olympics, Salt Lake City. Figure skating has not yet known such cases, that athletes were awarded two sets of gold medals.

Alexey Yagudin

The main battle for prizes in single men's skating was led by two talented Russian figure skaters. But this Olympiad was held under the sign of Alexei Yagudin. This tournament was, perhaps, the most successful career in Alexei. At 21, this athlete won the hearts of spectators with his composition "Winter", which became the classic of men's single skating and received the highest marks for choreography and image creation.

The free program of the pupil Tatyana Anatolievna Tarasova beat all records - 9 judges gave their votes to the athlete and for the first time 2 jumps were performed with four turns during one performance (one of which is in a cascade of jumps). For his artistry, Alex received four maximal ratings of 6.0, and no one doubted his victory.

Evgeni Plushenko won a silver medal, and this was the beginning of his sports career at such a high level.

Stolen gold

The biggest disappointment was the silver medal of Irina Slutskaya in solitary women's skating in Salt Lake City. Olympics For this talented skater, and for the entire Russian team, ended not as successfully as she deserved. The main hope of Americans Michelle Kwan allows a fall and with such a result can no longer claim the highest award. Irina rolled back her arbitrary program impeccably, but America needed a national hero. 15-year-old Sarah Hughes becomes an Olympic champion, ahead of Ira with just one referee's voice. It turns out that the artistry of a womanly Slutskaya is worse than that of a young American figure skater.

Doping scandals

A lot of doping scandals brought this Olympics (Salt Lake City). Russia is again involved in doping proceedings. Sportswomen Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova were found in the blood of a prohibited drug, and their results were canceled, and the athletes themselves were disqualified. Great Lazutina did not have only one gold medal to match the most titled champions in this sport. In her sporting career, it was the last Olympics.

Salt Lake City: hockey

Russia-Canada - the final match with the participation of these teams could become a decoration of the competition. Unfortunately, he was not destined to take place. Our hockey players did not manage to beat the hosts of the tournament in the semi-final. The result is bronze medals. The match with the Belarusian national team for the third place was held with a big advantage of the Russian team.

And the Olympic champions were the ancestors of this sport, Canadians, and for the first time since 1952. The general manager of the national team of Canada, the famous NHL player Wayne Gretzky, gathered in his team all the strongest players in the country, and under the leadership of coach Pat Quinn they managed to beat the hosts of the tournament, the US team in a decisive match. For the Canadians, these Games turned out to be gold.

Such were the joys and disappointments, anger and tears in Salt Lake City. The Olympics showed the whole world that while big money will be involved in sports, it will never be a real holiday.