Utah's North American state has won the right to host winter events in its Salt Lake City. The Olympics on the shores of the Salt Lake caused mixed emotions and rightfully went down in history as one of the most scandalous. Unfair refereeing, doping toughening deprived many athletes of well-deserved awards to which they had been going for more than one year.
Scandalous Olympics
The 19th Winter Games were held from February 8 to 24, 2002 in the American town of Salt Lake City, which won the right to hold competitions at the first stage of voting by IOC members. Already this fact was the first bell that someone’s personal interests intervened and a lot of money was involved. The face of the Salt Lake City Olympics has been 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 being led by the media, and his decisions regarding doping were not always fair. The IOC’s reputation has been greatly undermined by numerous scandals and litigation, which continued after the Winter Olympics closed.
Salt Lake City has become for many athletes and fans a place of frustration and an example of how big money decides the fate of medals. But not for the Norwegian team - for her, this Olympics was historical - first place in the medal standings. And again, Ole Einar Bjerndalen 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 hosting the athletes, increased security measures were taken, because no one could guarantee that such attacks would not happen again.
What is the secret that it was Salt Lake City that won the competition for the Olympic Games in Sweden Östersund and Canadian Quebec? Information about a certain monetary fund, from which such coercion of the members of the Olympic Committee was financed, became public. According to the results of the investigation, about ten members of the organizing committee were forced to resign, and criminal cases were opened against some on charges of corruption.
Opening of the first Olympics of the third millennium
The opening ceremony of the 19th Winter Olympics began with a delay - United States President George W. Bush was late. More than 60 thousand fans and visitors gathered that day in the stands of the Rais Eksl stadium.
After the greeting of the President of the United States and the head of the IOC, the United States state flag was taken out to the stadium, which became symbolic - it was found under the ruins of the Shopping Center in New York.
Then the audience was able to enjoy the first part of the pageant, the main character of which was a simple 12-year-old American teenager. His character, the Child of the Light, was the personification of all that good and kind that was originally inherent in every person. The lantern, which 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 passed on to the audience in the stands. The great idea of the directors of the production of universal unity helped to not pay attention to the cool and dank weather (in Salt Lake City that day was about 0 degrees).
77 delegations from around the world walked in front of the audience, and teams from countries in which there was no snow at all received especially warmly. The smallest delegation was the delegation of Bermuda - just one athlete. Russia ranked second in terms of the number of athletes represented, the flag of the delegation was carried by Alexei Prokurorov, for whom these competitions were the fifth Olympiad in his sports career. After the parade of delegations, theatrical performance continued. It should be noted that the opening ceremony can be called the most positive moment in the history of the 19th Winter Olympic Games. What happened at the competitions themselves, many still remember with tears in their eyes.
Prizewinners
What did the Olympic medal standings look like? Once again, Salt Lake City has become a happy city for a small Scandinavian country: the Norwegian team is in first place - it has 13 gold medals in its piggy bank. The second place was taken by the German team - 12 medals, and the team of the hosts of the Olympics - 10 gold medals closed the top three. The Russian team at this Olympics took 5th place in the overall team standings - on the account of athletes 5 awards of the highest standard.
A total of 78 sets of awards were won at this Olympics. In skiing, Julia Chepalova brought the Russian team 2 medals. Freestyle and snowboard competitions did not add rewards to the piggy bank of Russia. In total, medals were played in 15 disciplines.
The triumph of the Russian team
Russian figure skating was represented at these competitions by a very powerful team. Sports and dance duets, single male and female skating - in each of these types of Russians were as candidates 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 the long-awaited gold to the piggy bank of the national team. But it was not the final. North American media raised a real howl, demanding a review of the results in favor of the Canadian couple Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. The International Olympic Committee and the International Speed Skating Federation in the end could not withstand the onslaught of the press, and the results of the competitions in this type of figure skating were revised.
The Olympics, Salt Lake City, has become a symbol of unfair refereeing. Figure skating did not know such cases when two sets of gold medals were awarded to athletes.
Alexey Yagudin
The main struggle for prizes in men's single skating was fought by two talented Russian skaters. But this Olympics was held under the sign of Alexei Yagudin. This tournament was probably the most successful in the career of Alexei. At the age of 21, this athlete won the hearts of the audience with his composition "Winter", which became a classic of men's single skating and received the highest marks for choreography and image creation.
The free program of the pupil Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova broke all records - 9 judges voted for the athlete and for the first time 2 jumps with four turns were performed during one performance (one of which is in the cascade of jumps). For artistry, Alexey received four maximum 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 women's single skating in Salt Lake City. Olympiad for this talented skater, and for the entire Russian team, it ended not so successfully as she deserved. The main hope of the Americans Michelle Kwan admits a fall and with this result can no longer claim the highest award. Irina skated her free program impeccably, but America needed a national hero. 15-year-old Sarah Hughes becomes the Olympic champion, ahead of Ira by just one referee's vote. It turns out that the feminine Slutskaya's artistry is worse than that of a young American figure skater.
Doping scandals
Many doping scandals brought this Olympics (Salt Lake City). Russia is again implicated in doping proceedings. The athletes Larisa Lazutina and Olga Danilova were found to have a prohibited drug in their blood, and their results were canceled, and the athletes themselves were disqualified. Great Lazutina did not have just one gold medal to equal the most titled champions in this sport. It was this Olympics that became the last in her sports career.
Salt Lake City: Hockey
Russia-Canada - the final match with the participation of these teams could be a decoration of the competition. Unfortunately, he was not destined to take place. Our hockey players failed to beat the tournament hosts in the semifinals. The result is bronze medals. The match with the Belarusian national team for third place was held with a great advantage for the Russian national team.
And the Olympic champions were the founders of this sport, Canadians, and for the first time since 1952. The general manager of the Canadian national team, the famous NHL player Wayne Gretzky, gathered all the country's strongest players in his team, and under the guidance of coach Pat Quinn they managed to defeat the tournament hosts, the US team, in a decisive match. For Canadians, these Games turned out to be golden.
Such were the joys and frustrations, anger and tears in Salt Lake City. The Olympics showed the whole world that while big money will interfere in sports, it will never be a real holiday.