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 well-known from the annals "earned" Ancient Greece an unwritten ban on warfare during the Olympics.

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 Nagano Olympics 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 centuries 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 scale, 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 tear-off 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 has been 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 the summer analogue, 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. And 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 Nagano Olympics 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 one or another winter sports... 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, focused on their respect for nature and conservation issues. the environment 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 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, 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 match... 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 missed a rather offensive puck, and as a result won

Success of Russian athletes

It is known that ski race are staples in the Winter Olympics. And so they are always given great attention... In 1998, being already a two-time Olympic champion in relay races, won a silver award at individual race 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.

Defend the honor Russian sports brothers Bure, Alexey Zhamnov, Alexey Gonchar, Andrey Kovalenko, and also Sergey Fedorov arrived. With these guys, Fujiyama was on the shoulder, and knee-deep, and the Olympics in Nagano was 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 flew by just as fleetingly - one of the most soulful in history. World Games... 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.

Nagano (Japan)

The Winter Games returned to Japan 26 years after the Sapporo Olympics. Fighting for the right to accept sports forum Nagano was ahead of 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 struck 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 rein in the general sponsors of the IOC, who were very intrusive during the previous 1996 Summer Olympics.

		Z	WITH	B	Total
1	Germany	12	9	8	29
2	Norway	10	10	5	25
3	Russia	9	6	3	18
4	Canada	6	5	4	15
5	USA	6	3	4	13

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 OVERCOMES GRETZKY

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. In the winter family Olympic species sports entered women's hockey, snowboarding and curling. 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 the world. 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 others refused an invitation to the national team famous hockey players... In many ways, the refusal was caused by the disastrous performance of our "dream team" at the 1996 World Cup, as well as the death of the president in the spring of 1997 national federation hockey player Valentin Sych, who was killed by a killer's bullet. Perhaps it was the refusenik stars that the Russian team was not enough to defeat the Czechs in the 1998 Olympics finals.

Decisive match 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. Czechs, which included Dominik Hasek and Jaromir Jagr, 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 national team sent as many as five goals into the gates of the Finns.

And here is the great Canadian scorer Wayne Gretzky, for whom Nagano was the first and last chance to perform at the Olympics, during the entire tournament he was noted for only four assists. 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 whole country followed Olympic tournament figure skating. 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 named 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 her 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 champion in the history of the White Games in individual types programs.

One of the most highlights The 1998 Olympics turned out to be an 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 audience 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, was immediately caught on 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 was 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 be in 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 Myllyla - two years after Nagano will be in 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 eventually 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 of the leading skaters began to use slip-on skates. The novelty in combination 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. And here Russian athletes they were not ready for these changes.

What is really worth being proud of for your country is the level of our athletes, and especially the strength of the women's figure skating team. For the first time in history, two Russian figure skaters broke the world record at the Olympic Games with an interval of 20 minutes. Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova skated their short programs so brilliantly that there was almost no doubt: tomorrow they will rise to the podium for medals.

Earlier, until 2002, we did not have a single Olympic medalist, until Irina Slutskaya won silver in Turin. In Sochi, the situation has improved: 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova became the champion.

The new season has already impressed the world community: Zhenya and Alina are in the piggy bank in the team tournament, and now they are also breaking records, not paying attention to either the complicated refereeing system, in which not a single mistake can be made.

While our athletes in Pyeongchang are preparing for last day competitions, we recall 10 of the most memorable figure skating performances at the Olympic Games of yesteryear. A lot has changed over the years: the scoring system, the level of jumps and the value of tricks, but figure skating still impresses viewers.

1. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, 2006 Olympics in Turin

Maxim Marinin and Tatiana Totmianina received their gold in Turin to the music from the famous film by Franco Zeffirelli "Romeo and Juliet". The skaters showed the highest class, even despite the fact that shortly before the performance, Tatyana received a serious head injury. At the moment, this rental is considered a reference number in pair figure skating.

2. Tessa Virtu and Scott Moir, 2010 Vancouver Olympics

This Canadian couple won the first of several gold medals in their homeland in 2010. In this enchanting dance, they not only perform the most difficult technical elements at high speed, but also strikingly convey the mood of the melody with movements. It is worth noting that at their third Olympics in Pyeongchang, they showed such passionate numbers in short and free programs that fans began to joke about how they wanted to smoke after. The result is another set of gold medals.

3.Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

During the warm-up before the free program, the rivals of this pair from Canada tried to ram and knock the opponents down. Allegedly by accident. Anton was able to push his partner away and take a hit on himself, only injuring his hand, but this was already a wake-up call.

The judges gave the victory to Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, but the Canadians demanded to reconsider the results of the tournament. The four-day scandal ended with a re-awarding ceremony, where two couples, ours and the Canadian, received gold at once.

4. Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov, 1998 Olympics in Nagano

This couple became the owner of an impressive record, hitting the pages of the Guinness Book of Records. Only they managed to win the Olympics twice in the entire history of ice dancing.

The preparation was incredibly difficult. The couple constantly quarreled, Oksana dreamed of gold, and considered other options unacceptable, Zhenya panicked so much that he was almost ready to shoot himself. Nevertheless, they received the second well-deserved gold for their number "Memorial".

5.Alexey Yagudin, 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

Another performance to be really proud of. Never before have men in singles received all sixes for artistry. Brilliantly performed short program"Winter" is still considered the benchmark in terms of choreography and the creation of an artistic image on ice.

Alexey became the first Olympic champion to complete two quadruple jumps in the program.

6. Nancy Kerrigan, 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer

In Lillehammer, Nancy received gold medal after a serious knee injury caused by her main rival. The film about this confrontation has already received many excellent reviews, because it perfectly demonstrates the intensity of passion and excitement that accompanies the skaters.

7.Yuna Kim, 2010 Vancouver Olympics

The South Korean figure skater won the women's tournament in Vancouver, breaking her own record by 16 points, which Yevgenia Medvedeva held for 8 years. In Sochi, Yuna received silver, which her fans absolutely disagreed with, creating hundreds of petitions to review the points. The IOC did not find any violations, but the "goddess Yuna" in the eyes of compatriots is considered the winner of the 2014 Olympics. By the way, in Pyeongchang it was she who lit the fire during grand opening competitions.

8. Adelina Sotnikova, 2014 Olympics in Sochi

According to the media, the brilliant performance of this skater made it possible to forget about all the failures in other disciplines. The light and airy performance made the hall freeze, and the complexity of the elements performed helped her bypass the figure skater Yuna Kim and get the coveted gold.

9.Margarita Drobyazko and Povilas Vanagas, 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City

Unfortunately, this performance did not bring the pair a single medal, which subsequently erupted into a serious scandal. Margarita and Povilas appealed to Olympic Committee but the protest was rejected. Drobyazko and Vanagas said that after this story they had no choice but to immediately leave the big sport.

10. Yuzuru Hanyu, Sochi 2014 Olympics

The Japanese talent regularly appears in the news as a figure skater who has once again broken a record. His coach approached the preparation with all seriousness and taught the ward to ride in any conditions, up to extreme: sparring, darkness, complex jump combinations. The more press around, the better! Stress should become a familiar part of the environment. Judging by how dazzlingly Yuzuru skates, all this is not in vain.

The first champion in the history of the Winter Olympic Games in the performance of special figures became 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 school figure skating 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 couple of all pair skating 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 rose 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 Suraykin - 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.

In pair skating, the second "gold" was won by Irina Rodnina, paired with Alexander Zaitsev. It's even hard to imagine that after her first Olympics, Rodnina almost left the big sport.

Again, ours was the "silver" in men's single skating - Vladimir Kovalev became the winner.

In the women's single skating, our team was left without awards, but we can't remember the name of the youngest participant winter olympiads in their entire 90-year history is impossible! And not just the name. But also 5.9 marks for execution free program and her famous three triple jumps during her.

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 the third highest Olympic award. The whole world was surrounded by shots, where Rodnina's tears flowed on the first step of the pedestal to the sound of the national 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, one more, though not 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 undisputed 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

Winter Games in Sarajevo brought the first Olympic medal in women's single 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, Natalia 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.

Pinnacle sports career became the Olympic "gold" of Natalia Bestemyanova and Andrey 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 the second was Igor Petrenko at the Albertville Olympics. Gold awards, one can 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.

"Silver couple" in ice dancing last olympiad Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, before the 1992 Olympics, 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 gold three times.

In men's single skating, the "golden" was the performance of Alexei Urmanov, who performed maximum amount 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 of 4 turns, which then no one could 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. The competition was a German couple. 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 - Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov became Olympic champions for the second time in a row, 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

Games in Salt Lake City were full of 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, the second set of medals was awarded 5 days after the competition.

The fate of gold awards 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. Fourth Olympiad in a row gold in singles men's skating 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 became champions in ice dancing Russian couple Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov (two-time world champions, three-time European champions, three-time Russian champions).

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

In a world that is attracting more and more children - future champions - as well as interesting and beautiful to watch on TV or on an ice rink.

The emergence of figure skating

The first skates on iron runners appeared in the 13-14 centuries in Holland, therefore it is she who is considered the ancestor of figure skating.

After the appearance of skates of a fundamentally new type, popularity also came, which incredibly contributed to the rapid development of this sport, which at that time boiled down to drawing various figures on the ice and at the same time not losing a beautiful pose.

The first figure skating rulebook was published in England in 1772 and was called "A Treatise on Ice Skating." It described all the main figures known at that time. Thus, Great Britain secured the authorship of all figures that are required in figure skating. In addition, in 1742, the first ice skating circles appeared here, and official rules for the competition were developed and approved.

The founder modern style figure skating sports historians unanimously recognize American Jason Heinz. It was he who played a major role in its distribution throughout the world, and, in particular, in Russia.

Figure skating development in Russia

In the Russian Empire, figure skating was very popular back in the days of Peter I, who brought the first skates from Europe. It is noteworthy that the Russian emperor was the first to come up with the idea of ​​attaching skates directly to shoes and created, in fact, the prototype of modern skates.

The first Russian manual for figure skaters was published in 1838 in St. Petersburg and was called “ Winter fun and the art of ice-skating ", compiled by the gymnastics teacher of the military educational institution G.M. Pauli.

Figure skating appeared in Russia in 1865, and at the same time the first skating rink was opened in the Yusupov Garden in St. Petersburg. At that time, it was the most comfortable in all of Russia and immediately became a platform for the professional training of figure skaters. And in 1878 the first competition among Russian athletes was held.

The first skaters of Russia began to appear at the end of the 19th century. The pioneer who took part in international competitions was A.P. Lebedev, who was a lawyer by training.

Nikolay Poduskov became a member of the first already official competition, which was held in 1896 and took 4th place in single skating, but on open championship Russia in 1901 took the last place.

Georgy Sanders, taking part in the same competitions as Poduskov, took 3rd place, becoming a bronze medalist. In addition, he was the first to perform complex figures, the author of which was, which in turn helped another famous Russian figure skater - Nikolai Panin, who performed them at the 1908 Olympics in London, to win the first Olympic "gold" for Russia.

From Soviet champions who won the highest awards in various competitions in figure skating, the most famous are Sergey Chetverukhin (silver at the Sapporo Olympics, bronze at the 1971 World Championship, silver at the World Championships in Calgary (1972) and Bratislava (1973) and bronze at the European Championship in 1969) and Sergei Volkov (in 1975 - world champion, USSR champion in 1974 and 1976).

Famous Russian male figure skaters in single skating

Famous skaters Russia more than once became champions and won prizes in all kinds of tournaments - from the Olympic Games to championships of various levels, Grand Prix and Cups.

One of the first best figure skaters in Russia was Alexei Urmanov - multiple medalist and champion of the USSR, Russia and European champion, Olympic champion in 1994.

At the 1998 Olympics, Russia again won a gold medal in men's singles, which he won. In addition to the highest Olympic award, this famous Russian figure skater has gold in the Russian championship, silver and bronze in the world and European championships.

One of the most famous and the best athletes Russia is Alexei Yagudin, who has the main athlete's award - the "gold" of the 2002 Olympics. He multiple champion Europe and the world, winner of the Grand Prix finals in figure skating.

No less famous is the young single skater Maxim Kovtun, who has several serious victories on his account. He is a three-time winner of the Russian Championship and took silver at the 2015 European Championship.

The most famous and titled figure skater in Russia and all over the world is Evgeni Plushenko. He is the owner of gold medals at two Olympiads (2006 - singles, 2014 - in team skating), twice took the "silver" of the Olympic Games. Plushenko won the world title three times, the European champion seven times and the Russian championship ten times. He also has many other awards and titles.

Plushenko has a number of sporting achievements and his business card was performing in competitions the most complex figures single skating... There is no equal to him.

Russian male figure skaters are rightfully considered one of the best in the world.

Famous Russian female singles

Unfortunately, feminine single skating Russia cannot boast of a long history of performances and awards in this sport.

The history of victories began only in 1976 with the appearance of the skater It was she who won the first awards at the European Championship, and later became the third at the World Championship.

The first Olympic medal - "bronze" - was won by single skater Kira Ivanova in 1983.

Success came to the skaters only when, for the first time in the history of Russia, Irina Slutskaya won the 1996 European Championship. And already in 1999, also at the European Championship, Maria Butyrskaya, Soldatova and Volchkova won all the awards. In the same year, Butyrskaya won gold at the World Championship.

Despite the fact that the best skaters in Russia Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya no longer perform, they are the most famous and legendary skaters in Russia to this day.

The current leaders of Russian women's single skating are Yulia Lipnitskaya and Adelina Sotnikova.

Sotnikova, the first and so far the only one, won the Olympic gold medal in women's singles. In addition, she became the winner of the Russian championships 4 times, twice won silver at the European championships.

Figure skating connoisseurs call Adeline a child prodigy, because at the age of 13 she performed the most difficult elements of figure skating.

Yulia Lipnitskaya is also an Olympic gold medalist in team competition... In addition, she has awards of various merits at the world and European championships, including junior ones.

Julia is now 17 years old, Adeline is 19, and behind them is the future of women's single skating in Russia.

Best in pair skating

Russia in pair skating for titles, regalia and worldwide famous athletes much more lucky than singles.

Even those who are very far from the world of sports know Russian pair skaters by their last names and faces.

Our couple Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova won their first Olympic "gold" back in 1964, again in 1968. They are the authors of many of the elements that are still part of the compulsory program of performances around the world. At that time, this couple was the only one who skated in a way that no one else could.

The next couple to conquer the Olympics were Alexey Ulanov and Irina Rodnina - in 1972. Irina Rodnina won the next gold medal in a pair with Alexander Zaitsev in 1976 and 1980.

The most famous skaters of Russia - Olympic champions in pair skating it is:

Maxim Marinin and Tatiana Totmianina;

Roman Kostomarov and Tatiana Navka.

The leaders of pair skating today are the figure skaters of Russia Maxim Trankov and Tatyana Volosozhar, who already have 2 Olympic gold medals (in pair skating and in team competitions) and they are not going to stop there.

Best Couples in Ice Dancing

Sports ice dancing as a separate discipline was included in the program international competitions only in 1950.

In this program, Russia (then Soviet Union) represented famous couple and Lyudmila Pakhomova, who set the tone for dancing around the world and became world champions 6 times and won gold at the 1976 Olympics.

The first, already Russian, famous dance couple and Evgenia Platova twice became gold medalists of the 1994 and 1998 Olympics, which made them champions in this sport.

A couple is known and among the achievements of which there is a bronze medal of the 2010 Olympics, a double gold of the European Championships and the 2009 world champions.

One of the most famous young dancers, Elena Ilinykh, brought Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals to the Russian and European championships to the medal box of Russia. The couple broke up after the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

To date, the best, strongest and most famous figure skaters in Russia in ice dancing - Dmitry Soloviev and Ekaterina Bobrova - are champions of Europe and Russia.