International Olympic Committee : News

Jean-Claude Killy - Alpine skiing

10/2/1968 12:00:00 AM

Killy had grown up in the French Alpine village of Val d'Isère, skiing since his youngest days, and had competed in the 1964 Games, without winning a medal. In the intervening years, though, he had blossomed – in the 1966-67 season, for instance, he won 12 of 16 world cup races.

Killy was entered in all three categories at the 1968 Games – downhill, slalom and giant slalom. French fans were keen to see him match the remarkable performance of Austria's Toni Sailer back in 1956, who won all three golds, but the challenge was, if anything, now even more formidable. Sailer had won the downhill with ease; Killy was never likely to have things so easy.

He started with the downhill where the greatest challenge came from another Frenchman, Guy Périllat. He went first and set a time that was unbeaten by the next 13 skiers. But then came Killy, who went 0.08secs faster to take gold.

Next up was the giant slalom, decided, for the first time, by a combination of two runs on separate days rather than a single run. This time, Killy's victory was more emphatic – going fastest on the first run, and then extending his lead to take a second gold.

It left just the slalom for Killy to satisfy those lofty French hopes, and he set the fastest time on the first run. In the second round, in poor weather, he went first, but skied slower, and then had to wait to see if anyone would beat his overall time.

Karl Schranz might have done – but he was controversially disqualified after a race official said he’d missed a gate – but in the end Herbert Huber was the nearest to beating Killy, taking the silver medal 0.09secs behind.

Killy had achieved what France so wanted – three gold medals at his home Olympic Winter Games. “The party went on for two and a half days,” he later said, “and the whole time I never saw the sun once.”

Nancy Greene - Alpine Skiing

2/17/1968 12:00:00 AM

In Grenoble, she entered all three of the Alpine skiing events, buoyed by her World Cup triumphs, but she could finish only tenth in the downhill, the first of them.

The slalom was a much better competition for her. She was third after the first run and then produced an outstanding display to set the fastest time in the second round, moving her up to second place, and silver medal behind France's Marielle Goitschel.

The giant slalom was her final chance to win a gold medal. It was a competition in which Greene had taken part in the previous two Games, but her results were not much of a clue as to what was to come. In 1960, she was placed 26^th while four years later she improved to 16^th.

This time round, though, there was a different Nancy Greene in Canada's colours. She had carried the nation's flag at the opening ceremony, and had learnt from her past mistakes. Where once nervousness had hindered her, now her coaches knew the solution – before her race, they took her for a coffee and kept talking until it was nearly time to start.

Her mind clear, Greene skied impeccably to take victory. In fact, she skied extraordinarily well. That day, there was less than a two-second gap between second-placed Annie Famose, of France, and Britain's Davina Galicia, in eighth. But the gap between Greene and Famose was more than two and a half seconds, a cavernous margin in a sport such as this.

It was her final Olympic competition. She retired as Canada's most decorated skier and was later named as the country's greatest female athlete of the 20^th Century.

Anatoli Firsov - Ice Hockey

2/17/1968 12:00:00 AM

The first five matches came and went for the USSR, each with the widely predictable victories. Finland, East Germany, West Germany and the United States were all thrashed with some ease. The Soviet Union won each match by a margin of either eight or nine goals and Firsov scored in each contest, totalling eight in those first four matches.

But then came a surprise – a game against Sweden that proved a close contest. Firsov scored two as the favourites scraped through 3-2. But now there were sudden doubts about their brilliance – and those doubts were to increase. Suddenly their next match, against Czechoslovakia, did not seem quite the foregone conclusion that most had expected.

So it proved. The Czechs took an early 3-1 lead and never looked back, eventually winning 5-4. Firsov failed to score for the first time, although he did claim a single assist. And now the tournament favourites were reeling, having lost for the first time in half a decade.

With one match left, three teams could still win the title – the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia or Canada. The pivotal game was the Soviets against Canada, and finally the favourites rediscovered their winning touch. Gone was the nervousness of the defeat two days previously, and in its place a triumphant confidence. Firsov scored twice as his team won 5-0 to assure themselves of gold.

As for Firsov, he finished the Games with 12 goals and four assists. He was named the best forward of the competition, as well as being its top scorer.

Eugenio Monti - Bobsleigh

2/15/1968 12:00:00 AM

In Grenoble, he continued to focus on both competitions. His first Olympic Games had been at Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956, when he left with two silvers, and now, at the age of 40, he knew his career was in its final stages. His Olympic medal collection now comprised two bronzes and two silvers. He came to France in search of two golds. Remarkably, he won both.

The two-man contest could not have been closer. At the start of the final run, West Germany I, piloted by Horst Floth, led by a tenth of a second from Monti’s Italy I sled. The Italians went first and broke the track record. The German response was impressive – but they finished a tenth of a second slower. With both crews setting exactly the same cumulative time, gold went to Italy on the basis of producing the single fastest run.

Buoyed by his first Olympic gold, Monti coped with difficult conditions in the four-man contest to again lead his team to success. Once more, the margin was tiny – less than 0.1secs over two runs – but he did win his second gold, and so became the first man to win both bobsleigh events at the same Olympic Winter Games.

It was the last race of his illustrious career. Monti retired with six Olympic medals, nine world titles and the enduring respect of the Olympic family. He went on to become manager of the Italian bobsleigh team.

Fred Anton Maier - Speed skating

2/15/1968 12:00:00 AM

Maier was also a keen cyclist and had won a bronze medal in the national Norwegian time trial championships in 1957, when he was just 18 years old. Ten years later, and less than a year before his return to the Olympic arena in search of his first gold medal, he entered the national cycling championships again – and once more came away with a bronze medal.

After that, though, it was all about the skating. Maier was aiming at both the 5,000m and 10,000m contests in Grenoble, events at which he held the world record. Just a few weeks before the Olympic Games began, he won European titles at both events. His form seemed assured – but, as so many athletes have discovered over the years, the Olympic competition brings a unique set of pressures.

His first contest was the 5,000m, where the greatest challenge was likely to come from Kees Verkerk of the Netherlands. Verkerk went in the third pair and lived up to expectation, moving ahead of Maier's world record pace and eventually finishing in a time of 7mins 23.2secs – a new record.

Maier was in the fifth pair, now aware that he would have to produce the fastest time in history to win gold. For the first 1500m, he was precisely on Verkeerk's pace but then he accelerated slightly. By the halfway point, he was notably ahead of schedule and, as he crossed the finishing line, Maier was clocked at 7mins 22.4secs, good enough to retake the world record and claim his first gold medal.

Few doubted he would win again two days later in the 10,000m. This time, he was drawn to go off in the first pair, but still his time was outstanding, obliterating the Olympic record by a daunting 26 seconds. It was not a world record, though, falling more than three seconds outside his own best time. However, when Verkeerk, skating in the third pair, failed to go faster, the gold seemed as good as won.

Most observers had counted without Sweden's Johnny Höglin, and for good reason. Despite being a familiar face on the circuit, Höglin had never finished in a podium position. Yet here he was, matching Maier's pace for kilometre after kilometre and then, in the closing 1200m, actually going ahead of it. He hung on to win one of the most surprising gold medals the sport has known.

Maier was disappointed but undeterred. A few weeks later, he again won the world championship titles at 5,000m and 10,000m. During 1968, he set seven world records.

Manfred Schmid - Luge

2/15/1968 12:00:00 AM

Schmid was entered in both the singles and doubles events, and in both he faced formidable competition from East Germany. Thomas Köhler was the reigning champion in the singles, while his compatriot Klaus Bonsack was also hotly tipped. The two would unite forces in the doubles event.

His first run set the tone – fastest of all and, significantly, a gaping 0.52secs ahead of Köhler and even more clear of Bonsack. There was no opportunity for Schmid to become complacent, though, as the second run proved - Köhler fastest this time, precisely halving that deficit. Bonsack was second quickest.

The third run saw another tight battle for supremacy with Köhler going fastest by a slight margin from Schmid. This time it was less than a tenth of a second, leaving Schmid with a 0.18secs advantage going into the final run.

But the final run was never to be. Bad weather caused it to be postponed, and then cancelled outright. The medals were awarded on the basis of the first three runs, with Schmid declared the Olympic champion.

Köhler and Bonsack were dominant in the doubles competition, fastest in both runs. But Schmid and his partner, Ewald Walch, were next quickest each time, to take the silver medals. It completed quite a haul for Schmid to take home.

He continued competing at the sport's top level for more than a decade, taking a world championship bronze in 1978. But these two Olympic medals were to be the only ones of Schmid's career, although he competed in the Games of both 1972 and 1976.

Aleksandr Tikhonov - Relay 4 x 7.5 km

2/15/1968 12:00:00 AM

Tikhonov had had three days to reflect on his narrow failure to win a gold medal in the 20km event at Grenoble. His silver was still a towering achievement for a young skier, but he knew that if only he had missed just one target, instead of two, then victory would have been his, instead of going to the Norwegian Magnar Solberg. Now, though, had another chance to win a title – and this time he would need the support of his Soviet Union team-mates.

The 4 x 7.5km relay was a new event for the Olympics. The Norwegians had won world championship titles in both 1966 and 1967 but the Soviet Union were considered just as strong, if not better, thanks to a line-up of athletes that appeared intimidatingly strong– including Tikhonov.

Tikhonov took the first leg, and produced a blistering pace. Despite having to endure a penalty loop for a missed target, he handed over with a lead of 45 seconds from Sweden. Norway were almost a further minute back and already looking unlikely to challenge for gold.

In fact, the contest was closer than the bare statistics suggested. Norway's Solberg set the fastest split time of the day – but he and his fellow countrymen also missed enough targets to scupper their hopes with a series of penalty laps.

The Soviet team won by a margin of nearly two minutes in the end, giving Tikhonov the gold medal that he had missed out on a few days earlier. It was the start of a remarkable run for him – he won relay gold in each of the next three Games as well, and also won five individual world championships. But individual Olympic gold was destined always to elude him.

Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov - Figure skating

2/14/1968 12:00:00 AM

Belousova was now 32, while her husband was 35. By the demanding standards of their sport, they were indeed old – but they were also outstanding athletes who had only started skating in their teens. Perhaps the absence of childhood skating injuries helped to prolong their careers – certainly they showed no lack of energy in the 1968 Games.

Besides, the form book was on their side. Since winning gold in Innsbruck in 1964, the pair had been World and European champions each season. Their age may have slowed them slightly, but experience showed in other ways – their performance and confidence charmed the judges and spectators alike, as they delivered romantic and creative displays.

For the first time at an Olympics, the pairs had to skate a compulsory routine, followed by a free programme. The Protopopovs, as they were almost universally known, won both phases by a considerable margin.

It was the end of their era of dominance. Another Soviet couple, Irina Rodnina and Aleksey Ulanov, replaced them at the pinnacle of the sport. However, the Protopopovs remained in love with figure skating, as well as each other. They defected to Switzerland in 1979 and carried on skating in professional shows, performing into their 70s. The couple who were once considered too old to compete, eventually became two of the most enduring stars their sport has known.

Ole Ellefsæter - Cross Country Skiing

2/14/1968 12:00:00 AM

One of the great characters of these Games was Norway’s Ole Ellefsæter. He was clearly an outstanding skier, but was also an exceptionally good track athlete. Ellefsæter had been Norwegian steeplechase champion six years in a row and represented his country in international athletic competition.

He was also a man of the woods. Ellefsæter worked as both a lumberjack and as a forestry technician. His training routine involved a lot of skiing in the forests around his home.

His achievements didn't finish there, though. Ellefsæter even released two hit records, including one whose lyrics were a celebration of the 1968 Games. There were also two LPs, one released the year before the Grenoble Olympics – and the other the year after.

As for his accomplishments as an athlete – he was a truly great skier. Ellefsæter managed 8^th in the 50km race in the 1964 Games, but came to Grenoble at the peak of his powers. He had won the 1967 Norwegian Championship and also that year's international races in Holmenkollen and Lahti.

His first gold medal came in the relay race, in which Ellefsæter skied the anchor leg. Three days later, though, came his greatest challenge – the solo race across 50km.

Conditions were fast but difficult, with a bitter cold having affected the nature of course during the night. After 15km another Norwegian, Reidar Hjermstad, was leading by 21 seconds from Ellefsæter but over the next 10km Ellefsæter took over at the front. It was a lead he was never to relinquish, despite the efforts of the Soviet Union's Vyacheslav Vedenin, who finished second some 17 seconds behind. Only 52 seconds separated first from sixth, and Ellefsæter's time set a new record that was to last for more than a decade.

Ellefsæter competed in the 1972 Games in Sapporo, finishing tenth in defence of his 50km title. At the age of 33, he retired from skiing.

Marielle Goitschel - Alpine Skiing

2/13/1968 12:00:00 AM

She had been a world champion at the age of just 16. Like Jean-Claude Killy, Marielle came from a village near Val d'Isère and was already accustomed to Olympic success. What made her unusual was that her greatest competition often came from her own sister.

Four years before, both the slalom and the giant slalom in Innsbruck had been turned into family contests between Marielle and her older sister Christine. Marielle won the giant slalom, with Christine taking silver. In the slalom the situation was reversed, Marielle having to be content with silver.

In Grenoble, there was only one Goitschel sister taking part, for Christine's form had suffered seriously after a bad ankle injury two years previously. Marielle, though, was entered into all three events – the downhill, giant slalom and slalom.

The first was the downhill, in which she came eighth. But her main focus was on the two slalom events and, three days later, came the slalom race itself. The early leader was another young prodigy – America's Judy Nagel. But having led the way in the first run, she fell at the beginning of her second run and was then disqualified for missing a gate.

Instead, it was to be a battle between Marielle and Nancy Greene, a tussle won by the home favourite with a margin of 0.29secs. France had another medal to celebrate, while Greene went on to win the giant slalom a couple of days later, with Goitschel down in seventh place.

She retired at the end of the season, still only 22 years old. She had won 11 world championship medals, at the time second on the all-time list.