Round Olympics: barefoot champion and Lithuanian sports medals

1900 Paris was the capital of the second Olympic Games. 1920 (exactly 100 years ago) the Olympic Games took place in the Belgian city of Antwerp. 1940 The Summer and Winter Olympics (in Helsinki and Garmisch in Partenkirchen) were canceled due to the ongoing World War II. In the 1960s. Summer games were chosen by the world’s athletes in Rome, and for winter games in Squarel (USA). 1980 The Summer Olympics were held in Moscow and the Winter Games on Lake Pleside, United States. In Sydney, Australia, in 2000. Summer Olympics, 2010 The Winter Games were organized by the Canadian city of Vancouver.

Lithuanian athletes made their debut at the 1924 Olympics. In Paris, however, the results of the interwar Olympics were very modest (they still attended the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and the St. Moritz Winter Olympics). ). After World War II, 1952-1988. At the Summer and Winter Olympics, the best Lithuanian athletes (101 of them were selected) participated in the Soviet Union of Occupation (USSR) teams and won 60 medals (25 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze) . Since 1992 the Lithuanian Olympians at the Barcelona Olympics are once again athletes of a sovereign state.

So this year marks the 60th anniversary of Rome, the 40th anniversary of Moscow, and the 20th anniversary of the Sydney Olympics. The anniversaries of these Olympics are a good opportunity to remember how the Lithuanian athletes fared and what they managed to win.

Rome – 1960

More than 5,300 athletes from 83 countries participated in the Rome Olympics. They delivered 150 sets of medals. Athletes from the USSR, USA USA And Italy won the most medals: 103, 71 and 36, respectively.

1960 The first Paralympic Games were also held. Ludwig Guttman, the founder of his idea, said that sport was an excellent way for soldiers who became disabled during World War II to return to normal life.

Four Lithuanian athletes participated in the Olympic Games in Rome. Three of them became winners of the Olympic awards, and there was very little shortage before the fourth medal.

Olympic silver was won by Zigmas Jukna and Antanas Bagdonavičius, a helmsman rower. (Russian helmsman Igor Rudakov).

Birutė Zalagaitytė-Kalėdienė won the bronze medal (World record holder of 1958), dropped a spear 53.45 m.

Mykolas Rudzinskas, who was paddling in a double kayak with a Ukrainian Ivan Golovachov, ranked fourth in the 1000m distance.

It should be noted that our rowers Z.Jukna and A.Bagdonavičius still participated in 1964. Tokyo and 1968 In the Mexican Olympics. Rowing in an eight-seater boat in the USSR national team (distance 2000), they took 5th place at the Tokyo Olympics, and four years later became bronze medalists in Mexico. B.Kalėdienė won 4th place at the Tokyo Olympics.

Of the Olympic Games Interestingly, it can be remembered that Abebe Bikila, from Ethiopia, won the marathon and covered the distance barefoot.

He was the first black African to win Olympic gold.

The future King of Greece, Constantine II, won a sailing gold medal. Among the sailors on the Greek national team was the Greek princess Sofia, the future wife of King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Moscow – 1980

More than 5,000 athletes from 80 countries gathered for the Moscow Olympics. The Games were boycotted by 64 countries and territories (due to the USSR’s military invasion of Afghanistan in 1979). 203 sets of medals were distributed. At that time, the USSR won 195 medals, the GDR (former German Democratic Republic) 126, and Bulgaria 41.

16 Lithuanian athletes participated in the Moscow Olympics, they won up to 11 medals (7 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze).

For the second time, basketball player Angelė Jankūnaitė-Rupšienė and handball player Aldona Česaitytė-Nenėnienė became Olympic champions (for the first time at the Montreal Olympics in 1976).

Gold medals t. p. basketball player Vida Šulskytė-Beselienė and handball player Sigita Mažeikaitė-Strečen, swimmers Robertas Žulpa and Lina Kačiušytė (both 200m to the chest; Lina with the Olympic record) won. At a distance of 100 m, Kačiušytė was seventh in the chest.

Runner Remigijus Valiulis won the Olympic gold in the 4 x 400m relay.

Handyman Voldemar Novicki became the Olympic vice champion.

The bronze medals were won by eight-place rowers Jonas Narmontas and Jonas Pinskus and basketball player Sergejus Jovaiša.

Among other things, A.Rupšienė and A.Nenėnienė are the first Lithuanian athletes to become Olympic champions twice.

One step away from the medal was the shooter Vladas Turla, who took 4th place. Galina Murashova was seventh in the final. Lithuanian judges also worked at the Moscow Games, and Janis Grinberg from Vilnius was even the director of the Olympic handball tournament.

Incidentally, J.Narmontas, V.Novickis and G.Murašova also participated in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. With the USSR handball team, V. Novickis became the Olympic champion there. S.Jovaiša already with the Lithuanian national basketball team in 1992. He won bronze at the Barcelona Olympics.

Olympic Trivia: Foreign Olympians often didn’t understand what was happening in the stands. Before the stadium opened, a third of the spectator seats were already occupied. It turns out that some of the “fanatics” of the Olympic Games were state security agents (KGB) and plainclothes militiamen.

Due to the boycott of the Olympic Games, only one participant remained in the first Olympic women’s hockey tournament: the USSR national team. Therefore, five more teams were urgently invited. And here, the Zimbabwean team from Africa met less than a week before the Games and managed to win a gold medal!

The Seoul and Calgary Summer Olympics were the last in which the Lithuanian Olympians fought for the Soviet Union. After the restoration of independence in 1991. Membership of the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee (LTOK) in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also restored. Lithuania, as a sovereign state, returned to the Olympics after a forced 52-year break in 1992. Barcelona Olympics.

Sydney – 2000s

2000 Summer Olympics were held in an Australian city 10,651 athletes from 199 countries attended in Sydney, who were awarded 300 sets of medals. The largest number of medals was won by the United States – 93, Russia – 89 and China – 59.

Lithuania’s honor in Sydney was championed by 61 Olympic athletes: representatives of kayaking and canoeing, boxing, cycling and trekking, judo, gymnastics, wrestling, rowing, athletics, basketball, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting, and modern pentathlon. The Lithuanian flag was carried at the opening ceremony in 1988. Vice Olympic champion and 1992 Olympic champion, discus thrower, Romas Ubartas.

The Lithuanians won five Olympic medals. Olympic champion Daina Gudzinevičiūtė and discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna became Olympic champions.

Sydney cycling medalist Diana Žiliūtė, rowing team Kristina Poplavskaja and Birutė Šakickienė, and a men’s basketball team coached by Jonas Kazlauskas were represented by Gintaras Einikis, Saulius Štombergas, Eurelijus Žukauskas, Šarus Jukauskas, Darius Sonurunas, Dariusgansas, Dariusgansas, Guru, Yasuskas, Dariusga , Kęstutis Marčiulionis, Dainius Adomaitis.

In the semifinals, Lithuania’s basketball players lost just 83:85 to the American national team made up of NBA stars. In the bronze medal match, the Lithuanians clearly outplayed the hosts of the Games, Australian basketball players 89:71, and for the third time in a row became Olympic bronze medalists (formerly in 1992 in Barcelona and in 1996 in Atlanta).

Boxer Ivanas Stapovičius (5th place), pentathlete Andrejus Zadneprovskis (7), kayaker Alvydas Duonėla (7) and fighter Mindaugas Ežerskis (7) were in the top eight.

Participating in 2004 At the Athens Olympics, V. Alekna became the Olympic champion for the second consecutive time. He won bronze at the Beijing Olympics. D.Gudzinevičiūtė since 2012. is the President of LTOK.

Interesting: Australia 1992 1 cent coins were withdrawn from circulation, melted and used to produce bronze medals for the Sydney Olympics.

In total, during the 30th anniversary of restored independence, 485 Lithuanian athletes participated in seven summer and eight winter Olympics, winning 25 Olympic medals (6 gold, 6 silver and 13 bronze).

Unfortunately, the XXXII Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, were postponed this year until 2021 due to the global coronavirus pandemic. In the summer, the name of the games remained unchanged. Despite the postponement of the Games, athletes and National Olympic Committees who have already won tickets to the Tokyo Olympics will not lose them. Currently 57 percent. Quotas have already been distributed, so around 5,000 more athletes will join these athletes.