Media "Sport-Express Internet" founder of JSC "Sport-Express" editor-in-chief Maksimov M. A. History of the Olympic Games Queue to check tickets to the stadium

II Winter Olympic Games were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland from February 11 to 19, 1928.

Select city

Unlike previous Games, the selection of the new capital took place on a competitive basis. At the IOC session in May 1926 (Lisbon, Portugal), among the three Swiss candidate cities - Davos, Engelberg and St. Moritz - a choice was made in favor of the latter.

It is interesting that the Dutch initially applied to host the 1928 Olympics, but withdrew their candidacy due to uncertainty that the weather in February would allow the Games to be held with dignity. The Swiss, in turn, were more confident in the climate, although, as it turned out, in vain. The insidiousness of nature that year truly knew no bounds: on some days a week’s worth of precipitation fell in the mountains, but then the temperature rose to +20°, and the athletes drowned in deep puddles.

Participating countries

The 1928 Games were attended by 464 athletes (26 women) from 25 countries. Among the debutants of the Winter Games were representatives of Germany, Holland, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, as well as envoys from distant Japan, Argentina and Mexico.

The countries that took part in the Winter Olympics for the first time are highlighted in blue.
Green - previously participated in the Winter Olympics.
The yellow dot is the location of the games (St. Moritz).

Kinds of sports

The Games program included competitions in cross-country skiing, ski jumping, combined events, bobsleigh, skeleton, speed skating, figure skating and hockey.

Curling, which was classified as a demonstration sport at the previous Games, left the games. Military patrol competitions (the prototype of modern biathlon) were transferred from the main competitions to demonstration ones. Skeleton made its debut as the main type at the games. Dog racing was also present as a demonstration event at the games.

The opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the Games took place on February 11 on the ice of the Badrutz Park skating rink. It snowed heavily at night, so the organizers had to postpone the ceremony by half an hour to clear the snow from the skating rink. The ceremony began with the arrival of IOC members, as well as high-ranking Swiss officials.

Spectators gather for the opening ceremony

President of the Swiss Confederation Edmund Schults arrives at the opening ceremony

After the official guests arrived, the parade of athletes began. An interesting point - many of them came with their equipment, dressed in sportswear. The skiers carried their skis, and the hockey players were fully equipped (their first games began immediately after the opening ceremony).

Parade of participating countries. Team Canada

National team flag bearers

President of the Swiss Confederation Edmund Shults addressed the audience with a solemn speech and declared the II Winter Olympic Games open. Afterwards, the flag of the Olympic movement was raised over the stadium, and the Swiss combined skier Hans Eidenbenz took the Olympic oath on behalf of all athletes.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the II Winter Olympic Games took place on February 19. On this day, competitions were still taking place, postponed to a later date due to warm weather conditions. The pairs figure skating tournament ended in the morning, and the closing ceremony began immediately after the end of the hockey match between the national teams of Canada and Switzerland.

As at the opening of the Games, a parade of participating countries was again held, marching with national flags.

The President of the Swiss NOC, in accordance with the protocol, presented awards to the winners and prize-winners of the Games, and also congratulated all participants on the completion of the Olympics. Then the Olympic flag was lowered to the sound of fireworks.

After this, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Count Henri de Bayeux-Latour officially declared the II Winter Olympic Games closed.

Scandals at the II Winter Olympic Games

Before the 10,000 m speed skaters' race, the hot sun melted the ice on the track, but the organizers decided not to cancel the competition. The race was opened by the American Irving Jaffee and Norwegian Bernt Evensen. The ice continued to melt, and the results worsened from race to race. The fifth pair withdrew from the race because the quality of the ice no longer allowed them to continue the competition. The competition was declared over, and the organizers distributed the medals among those who managed to run. The first pair had the best result, gold went to Irving Jaffee, silver to Bernt Evensen. The Finns and Norwegians lodged a protest because many athletes, including one of the favorites, the Norwegian Ivara Ballangruda, did not have time to get to the start. It was decided to cancel the results of the competition and not award medals in this event. But the US delegation demanded that the medal be returned to its athlete Irving Jaffee, threatening otherwise to leave St. Moritz. The organizing committee tried to reach a compromise and decided to hold a repeat race once favorable weather conditions arrived. But the decision came as a surprise to Norwegian speed skaters, who had already left Switzerland with no hope of a repeat competition. However, weather conditions did not allow restarts. Awards in this discipline officially remained unrewarded.

The 500m competition was also not without surprises. Chronometers, which in those years were able to record time with an accuracy of only tenths of a second, revealed two winners and four (!!!) bronze medalists. Not foreseeing such a situation, the organizers of the Games went so far as to “borrow” the missing medals from other disciplines that had not yet been played, and then urgently produced additional tokens.

In 1925, Pierre de Coubertin announced his resignation. Fairly disappointed, he published a “sports testament”, in which he once again outlined his concept regarding the essence of sport: “Professionalism, that’s the enemy!”- he makes the following conclusion: “Despite some disappointments that instantly dashed my best hopes, I believe in the peaceful and moral qualities of sport.”.

On May 28, 1925, at a session in Prague, the International Olympic Committee elected a new president - a Belgian diplomat Comte de Bayeux-Latour, who performed his duties until 1942, until his death. To host the 1928 Games, the IOC received only one application - from the largest city in the Netherlands, Amsterdam. Naturally, she was satisfied. After a sixteen-year break, the German team entered the Olympic start, and, I must say, entered with a solid composition - 233 people. Athletes from Malta, Panama and Rhodesia took part in the Olympics for the first time.

On the eve of the opening of the Games there was a big scandal. The French athletes decided to get acquainted with the Olympic complex, which consisted of a football field bordered by a ring intended for athletics competitions. Around this ring there was another one made of cement for bicycle racing. All this was surrounded by cozy stands with forty thousand seats, above which rose a tower that looked like a windmill. A group of French athletes, led by the Secretary General of the French Athletics Federation, Paul Mericamp, approached the stadium and came across a guard who forbade them to enter. Just a few minutes earlier, the German team had entered the stadium, and the fury of the French was difficult to describe. Merikamp tried to push the watchman to the side, and he, in defense, hit the French leader in the face with a key. A fight broke out, and after a while the French left. The organizing committee immediately apologized to them, and this would have been the end of the incident. But the next day the French bus was stopped before entering the stadium because they did not have a pass. The athletes got off the bus and walked towards the stadium. And then an exact repetition of yesterday’s incident occurred: the same guard who knocked out Mericamp again stood in the way of the French delegation. It was too much! Considering this a provocation, the French got on the bus and left the parade. The Minister of Foreign Affairs had to intervene. If we consider what happened with the French delegation to be a misunderstanding, everything else went fine, without much noise, quietly and somehow non-festively, everyday.

For the first time, the Olympic program included competitions among women in athletics - 100 and 800 meter running, 4 x 100 meter relay, high jump, discus throw - and gymnastics.

The American won the 100-meter race, and she also won a silver medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay.
   A 16-year-old student didn't know she was a good runner until her teacher saw her running after training. She began running competitively just four months before the 1928 Olympics. In her first outdoor performance, she set a world record in the 100 meters.
At the Amsterdam Olympics, Betty won by half a meter in the 100m final, competing for only the fourth time in this event.

Three years after her Olympic triumph, Elizabeth was in a plane crash. The man who found her even thought she was dead, carried her into the trunk of his car and took her to the funeral home. She was unconscious for seven weeks and couldn't walk properly for another two years, but she survived. Betty Robinson wanted to return to the sport and compete in sprints. But her leg could no longer fully bend at the knee, which prevented the athlete from taking the correct starting position. However, she could run in relay races. And in 1936, Betty Robinson won her second gold medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay as part of the American team.

All the athletes' performances were marked by world records. For men, the records, with rare exceptions, stood.

But overall the fight was exciting and interesting. As at previous Games, Finnish track and field athletes performed well. They won five gold, five silver and four bronze medals and won the 1500m, 5000m, 3000m steeplechase and 10,000m. In the last distance, Paavo Nurmi was first at the finish line. Unfortunately, this was not the same Nurmi. It was said that, at the behest of the team leaders, Nurmi let his friend Ritola take the lead in the 5000 meter race. Many people believed this at the time. Now it is even more difficult to say whether this is true or not. Nurmi also took part in steeplechase. But here he had no chance of winning at all, he made very unforgivable mistakes when overcoming obstacles, and when jumping over a hole with water, he was forced to take a swim.

American track and field athletes won nine gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals in Amsterdam.

The admission of women to athletics competitions caused one incident: during the 800-meter race, young women fell exhausted onto the track. Since 1932, this distance was excluded from the Olympic program, and it appeared again only at the XVII Games, in 1960.

Marathon running brought an unexpected victory to France. A little Algerian became the hero of the marathon El Ouafi, laborer from the Renault factories in Billancourt. His run in Amsterdam was a masterpiece of tactics, caution, and ability to persevere. After the first ten kilometers he was 2 minutes 30 seconds behind the leaders. The leaders - Japanese and Finnish - seemed much more active. The Japanese K. Yamada, small but surprisingly sinewy and strong, made a breakthrough at the twenty-fifth kilometer. His mistake was that he went ahead very early. This mistake by Yamada became a trump card for El Uafi, who, picking up speed, saw on his road rivals who had exhausted themselves in the battle with the Japanese. When the second hour of the race struck, he was already passing the Japanese runner. But three kilometers before the finish line, another danger awaited him - the Chilean M. Plaza rushed forward. But he overestimated his strength, and one and a half kilometers before the finish, El Uafi was already confident of his success. And he became an Olympic champion.

Old rivals meet again in swimming: Swede Arne Borg, American and Australian Andrew Charlton. Weissmuller competed in the 100-meter freestyle and the 4 x 200-meter relay, ultimately winning two gold medals. Borg won the 1500m freestyle. Swimmers set world and Olympic records at all distances. Johnny Weissmuller performed brilliantly in swimming pools in America and Europe for about ten years. His collection includes five gold Olympic medals. Twice he became the Olympic champion in the shortest and most popular swimming distance - 100 meters freestyle. At the same distance, Weissmuller was the first to break the minute and brought the world record to 57.4 seconds by 1924.

In the pre- and post-war years, the screens of the world were filled with numerous episodes of the American action movie “Tarzan”. Of particular success were those episodes in the film where Tarzan demonstrated amazing athletic qualities: a breathtaking competition with a crocodile, breathtaking stunts in the jungle, and the hero’s long underwater journeys. The excellent athletic abilities of the performer in the role of Tarzan are undeniable. This is not surprising: after all, five-time Olympic champion Johnny Weissmuller starred in the role of Tarzan.

And until the age of eleven, Johnny could not swim at all. He was a frail, sickly boy. And one day during a medical examination, the doctor patted him on the shoulder and said: “If you want everything to be okay, young man, do more sports, preferably swimming.” “Thank you, doctor.” “Swimming is my favorite sport,” answered little Johnny, embarrassed to admit that he couldn’t swim at all.
But from that very day he began to come to a small river on the western outskirts of Chicago and, floundering near the very shore, desperately beating the water with his arms and legs, he tried to learn to swim. Several months of unique training passed, and Johnny could confidently compete with the surrounding boys. And then he came to the pool. Over several years of training, he grew stronger, grew, and turned into a real giant, slender and handsome.

One day, the head coach of the US Olympic team saw him in the pool. William Bachrach. He had long been looking for a tall, thin athlete who looked like a fish. Such a swimmer was supposed to bring Bachrach's plans to life. He liked Johnny and started working with him. Later, already an Olympic champion, Weissmuller recalled:
"Bachrach said then that I should swim for style, not for speed. And after that, throughout my entire career, I swam for style, and not for speed. Speed ​​was the result of this method.".
For a whole year, Johnny trained in the pool all alone. Bakhrakh did not want to show it to anyone. He thought it was too early. Every day for an hour Johnny swam, holding the board with his hands and working only with his legs. He wanted to study the superb footwork of Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, the 5th and 7th Olympic Games champion in the 100m freestyle. Johnny then placed his feet in the rubber tube and spent the next hour perfecting his arm work and body position.

Just as any good specialist, when creating something new, his own, uses the experience accumulated by his predecessors, Weissmuller and his coach carefully, bit by bit, selected the best from the world's outstanding swimmers. They were not blind copyists. They studied and selected only the most important thing: the manner of performing this or that element. And only after a detailed analysis was a decision made: how, in what form and to what extent this could be used for Johnny, taking into account his great ability to work and his excellent physical characteristics by that time. In a word, Bachrach adapted the technique of outstanding swimmers to the individual characteristics of his talented student.

Johnny Weissmuller became famous for his victories in Olympic swimming pools, for his records: for ten years no one could come close to his record in the 100-meter dash. But his most important merit is that he gave the world’s swimmers an example of a thoughtful, creative attitude to swimming technique, to training methods, and showed how much a well-thought-out training system and preparation for competitions means.

At the Amsterdam Olympics, the winner of the weightlifting competition was for the first time determined by the sum of the classical triathlon - bench press, snatch, and clean and jerk. Weightlifters competed in five weight categories, and Olympic and world records were broken in all categories.

In freestyle wrestling, which was called freestyle wrestling in those years, US athletes were noticeably displaced by Europeans, and primarily by Finns and Swedes. Only in the featherweight division the title of Olympic champion went to an American.

Italians and French competed in fencing competitions with foils and epees. And if the first in both cases won as a team, then in the individual competition the veteran, the Frenchman, prevailed Lucien Gaudin. This is how the career of this outstanding fencer, who fought for the Olympic title for twenty-five years, ended brilliantly. The Hungarians proved to be the strongest saber fencers, winning the championship in both the individual and team competitions. It was their first of seven consecutive Olympic gold medals.

The grass hockey competition brought together 9 teams. For the first time, Indian hockey players took part in the Olympics. The debut brought them gold medals. From then until 1960 they were undefeated, and only in Rome did they have worthy rivals in the Pakistani team.

The football tournament attracted 17 teams. The final was South American: Uruguay played Argentina. To determine the champion, two matches had to be played. The first ended in a draw - 1:1. And only in the additional second match were the Uruguayans able to win -2:1. In the match for third place, the Italian team defeated the Egyptian team with a score of 11:3.

In Amsterdam, the first victories were won by representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun: Mikio Oda in triple jump and Ishiyuki Tsuruta in the 200m breaststroke.

The largest number of prizes went to US athletes at the IX Olympic Games, who won 22 gold, 18 silver and 16 bronze medals. But the Americans received credit points in only nine types of the program out of twenty. Second place in the unofficial team competition was taken by representatives of Germany, who received credit points in sixteen program events.

At the Games of the IX Olympiad in Amsterdam, a tradition was born that was never broken subsequently: throughout the entire Games, a fire burned in Olympia from the sun using a mirror.

Select city

Two cities competed to host the 1928 Summer Olympics: Amsterdam and Los Angeles. Preference was given to the capital of the Netherlands. 14 IOC members voted for this decision, with four against and one abstention. A series of subsequent discussions and repeated votes did not change the results of the first vote. Los Angeles held .

Preparation for the Games

The 1928 Olympic Games were the first to be held without Pierre de Coubertin as IOC president. In 1925, the 62-year-old founder of the Olympic movement announced his retirement for health reasons. Before leaving, Coubertin, partly disillusioned with the Olympic movement, published a “sports testament”, in which he once again outlined his concept regarding the essence of sport: “Professionalism, that’s the enemy!” His “testament” ended with the following optimistic conclusion: “Despite some disappointments, which in an instant destroyed my best hopes, I believe in the peace-loving and moral qualities of sport.”

A tradition arose in Amsterdam, which was never broken later: during the Games, a fire was lit in Olympia from the sun using a mirror. The runners carried it to Amsterdam, passing it to each other like a relay race. They crossed Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.

Starting from this Olympics, sponsorship cooperation between the IOC and the famous Coca-Cola concern began.

A stall selling Coca-Cola at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam

Symbolism

Posters for the IX Summer Olympic Games were designed by artist Joseph Rovers.

Two of them are considered the main ones. One shows a marathon runner holding a laurel branch, a symbol of victory and the Olympic spirit. The three wavy lines at the bottom of the poster - red, white and blue - symbolize the national flag of the Netherlands.

In another, an athlete runs through the stadium, while the Olympic flag with five rings flutters in the distance.

Participating countries

After a 16-year break, German athletes were allowed to participate in the Games. Athletes from Malta, Panama and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) took part in the Olympics for the first time. The USSR national team did not take part in the 1928 Games.

All countries participating in the 1928 Summer Olympics: Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Denmark, Egypt, India, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , Cuba, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Rhodesia, Romania, USA, Turkey, Uruguay, Philippines, Finland, France, Czechoslovakia, Chile, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, South Africa, Japan.

A total of 2,883 athletes from 46 countries took part in the Games.

Athletes from the USA won with a clear advantage. But at the same time, the Americans won medals in only 9 sports out of 20, while the athletes of the German team, which was second in the overall standings, achieved success in 16 sports.

The opening ceremony

Traditionally, the Olympic Games were to be opened by the head of state. However, Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands, a true Christian, resolutely refused to take part in the ceremony, because she considered the Olympics to be “pagan games.” The games were opened by her husband, Prince Hendrik of Orange. The Queen was not present at the Olympic events at all.

Amsterdam Olympic Stadium. Opening ceremony of the 1928 Games

At the opening ceremony, a traditional parade of athletes took place, and Harry Denis, a Dutch football player, pronounced the Olympic oath on behalf of the athletes.

The Estonian national team before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 28, 1928

Team Denmark at the opening ceremony of the Games

Team Great Britain at the parade of participating countries

Cars parked near the Olympic Stadium

Olympic medical staff

Press box at the IX Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam

The head of the security service with a collection of photographic equipment confiscated from visitors. Photography was permitted only to accredited photographers

Before the opening ceremony, competitions in hockey (May 17-26) and football (May 27-June 15) were held. Therefore, the official start date of the Games is May 17.

Scandals of the IX Summer Olympic Games

On the eve of the opening of the Games, French athletes, led by the Secretary General of the French Athletics Federation, Paul Mericamp, went to the Amsterdam stadium to familiarize themselves with the venue of the competition. The guard tried to keep the French out, although a few minutes earlier German athletes had entered the stadium.

During the ensuing argument, Paul Mericamp pushed the watchman, who responded by hitting the Frenchman in the face with a bunch of keys. The athletes beat the guard. As a result, we spent several hours in the police station.

The next day the same watchman again refused to let the French into the stadium. The French team regarded what was happening as a provocation. To resolve the situation, the intervention of the Dutch Foreign Ministry was required. After which the organizing committee of the Games made an official apology to the French team.

History of the Winter Games (IZG) - the “Sports Day by Day” project before the Olympics in Pyeongchang. We write only about the most interesting and important things - without fluff, pathos or cliches.

St. Moritz-1928

Organizing country: Switzerland

464 athlete

25 countries

14 sets of medals

Key facts about St. Moritz 1928

Summer and winter games were held in the same year. Holland had the right to hold the winter games before the summer ones (Amsterdam 1928), but refused.

In hockey, Canada again tore everyone apart, beating their opponents and not conceding a single goal (38:0). The Americans did not participate. Returning home, the Canadians lost their first ever international match to the Boston University team - 0:1.

11 accredited Spanish journalists came to St. Moritz. Not a single athlete from Spain competed at the Olympics.

Ski racing on horses (skering) was demonstrated to the public for the first time in St. Moritz

For the first time, skeleton appeared in the Games program. In bobsleigh, teams competed in fives - the last time in Olympic history

Barrel jumping on skates is another demonstration entertainment of the Olympics

Ski jumping in St. Moritz

Canada - Switzerland - 13:0 - immediately after this match the closing ceremony of the Games took place

Speed ​​skating at the 1928 Olympics

Hot, winter, your Switzerland

The slogan “Hot. Winter. Yours." Before the speed skaters' 10,000-meter race, the sun melted the ice. The athlete had to run through the mess. American Irving Jaffee and Norwegian Bernt Evensen were the first. The remaining ice continued to melt, and the results noticeably worsened from race to race. The fifth pair simply left the race. The favorites didn’t even have time to get to the start line, and the organizers decided to recognize the competition as valid. Jeffy won gold, Evensen won silver. Finns and Norwegians filed a protest.

The organizers panicked. They canceled the results. The Americans, who won gold, threatened the entire delegation to leave Switzerland. It was decided to hold the competition again, but it turned out that the Norwegians had already gone home. The weather conditions did not improve - as a result, the medals were never officially awarded, and Irving Jaffee flew to the USA without gold - it was taken away.

In the 500-meter races, the chronometer determined two winners and four bronze medalists. Few medals were produced; they had to be removed from those sports that had not yet been completed, and then additional ones had to be minted.

Medal standings St. Moritz 1928

1. Norway 6+4+5=15

2. USA 2+2+2=6

3. Sweden 2+2+1=5

4. Finland 2+1+1=4

5-6. France 1+0+0=1

5-6. Canada 1+0+0=1

…8. Switzerland 0+0+1=1

St. Moritz (Switzerland)

The Games in St. Moritz became the first Olympics for the new IOC President Henri de Bayeux-Latour, who in 1925 replaced the retired Pierre de Coubertin. The Belgian was known as a less subtle politician than his predecessor, but he was a tough administrator and a talented organizer - these qualities helped him save the White Olympics project, which from its first steps was on the verge of collapse.

To begin with, Bayeux-Latour had to suffer quite a bit in finding a place to host the first official Winter Games (remember that the 1924 sports week in Chamonix was recognized by the IOC only retroactively). And then the competition program was half disrupted due to abnormally warm weather in the Engadin Valley.

Venue: St. Moritz, Switzerland
February 11 - 19, 1928
Number of participating countries - 25
Number of participating athletes - 463 (28 women, 435 men)
Sets of medals - 14
Overall winner – Norway

Three main characters of the Games according to SE

Sonja Henie (Norway),
figure skating
William Fiske (USA),
bobsled
Johan Grettumsbroten (Norway),
ski race

LOSSES AGAIN

ANNOUNCEMENT TEAM

After the 1928 Olympics, many newspapers wrote that the unpredictability of the weather put an end to the very idea of ​​holding the Winter Games. But the IOC took a more optimistic position on this issue. First of all, because the competition, despite all the organizational complications, was a great success with the public. Especially the performances of figure skaters.

The only event in which women were represented was won by 15-year-old Norwegian Sonja Henie: she later became the main star of pre-war figure skating, and then made a career in show business. In the men's figure skating tournament, another Norwegian celebrated success - Gillis Grafström, who competed with a swollen injured knee, but still became a three-time Olympic champion in St. Moritz.

Another top discipline was hockey matches. The Canadian team, represented by a university team from Toronto, scored more than ten goals against their opponents in each match. True, the main competitors of the Canadians, the US team, did not arrive in St. Moritz.

When the Maple Leafs returned home with Olympic gold, they were challenged and beaten by American hockey players from Boston University. This was Canada's first defeat on the international hockey stage.

In hindsight, the Olympic tournament in St. Moritz received the status of a world championship, so the players from Toronto inadvertently brought their homeland the title of world champions.

One of the features of the 1928 Winter Games was the format of the bobsled competition - crews were allowed to include up to five people. Starts on the bobsleigh track were the main hope for medals for the hosts of the Olympics, the Swiss. However, American bobsledders and skeleton athletes left no chance for the hosts. The crew led by 16-year-old William Fiske became the Olympic champion in bobsleigh, and the young pilot found three members of his team by advertising in the newspaper. None of this trio had the slightest idea about bobsleigh before the trip to St. Moritz. 12 years later, Fiske would become a military pilot and die at the beginning of World War II.

The same fate will await another participant in the bobsleigh competitions in Switzerland - the French Marquis Jean d'Olan. This restless aristocrat was the champion of his country in diving and bobsleigh, and competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race and various air shows. In 1944, his fighter caught fire during a battle with German Messerschmitts, and d’Aulant was unable to leave the blazing cockpit.

EXPERIENCE TAKES THE TOP

Warm weather and the associated inconveniences did not prevent athletes from the northern countries - Norway, Sweden and Finland - from taking all the medals in the skiing and speed skating disciplines of the 1928 Games, with the exception of one bronze. At the same time, two-time champions of the second White Olympiad were athletes who had experience competing in Chamonix four years earlier. Finnish speed skater Claes Thurnberg added two more golds from St. Moritz to his five medals at the 1924 Games. And three-time Chamonix medalist Johan Grettumsbroten from Norway won the 18 km race and the combined event in Switzerland.

The most amazing competitions of the 1928 Olympics were the demonstration performances of equestrian skiers. Athletes skied across the ice of the lake, grasping long horse reins, and had to cover a distance of 1900 meters in this way. Eight athletes took to the start line, all of them representing Switzerland. This was the first and last appearance of this sport at the Winter Games, although similar competitions are still held in different variations (with dogs, deer and other animals).

Oleg SHAMONAYEV

FIGURES AND FACTS

Since 1928, the Winter Olympics were officially separated from the Summer Olympics for the first time, and thus it was in St. Moritz that the first White Olympics actually took place.

Skeleton, then known as toboggan, made its debut in the Games program. The first gold medal in the history of the discipline was won by American Jennison Heaton, who also became one of five medalists from the United States in bobsled competitions.

For the first time, the geography of the Winter Olympics went beyond Europe and North America: Argentina, Mexico and Japan were among the participants. The Latin Americans fielded bobsleigh teams (the Argentines had two), and the Japanese were represented by skiers. However, none of these countries won any awards.

Norway won the medal standings for the second time in a row. Although this time her application was only the 8th largest (25 people). Nevertheless, the Norwegians won 6 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals. In total, awards went to representatives of 12 teams - two more than in Chamonix 1924.

More than half of the medals - 24 out of 41 (58.5 percent) - went to the Northern European teams - Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is worth noting that the Olympic Games appeared as an alternative to the internal Scandinavian Nordic Games, and for a long time the Norwegians, Swedes and Finns were on the verge of boycotting the Winter Olympics.

Clas Thunberg (Finland) and Johan Grettumsbrotten (Norway) each won two gold medals in St. Moritz. At the same time, Thunberg became the record holder of the Winter Olympics - including the Games in Chamonix, he has 5 championship titles.

Speed ​​skater Bernd Evensen (Norway) turned out to be the first athlete in the history of the White Olympics who managed to win awards of all merits (one at a time) at one Games.

France won the first gold at the Winter Olympics in its history (it is now in 13th place in the overall 2018 Olympic Games medal table with 27 awards). The winners were figure skaters Pierre Brunet and Andre Joly.

In figure skating, Sonya Henie won by a large margin, winning her first Olympic gold. The Norwegian turned 15 years and 316 days old on the day the Games started. Only in 1998 this record was broken: American Tara Lipinski became the champion in the same figure skating at 15 years and 242 days (on the opening day of the Olympics).

The Swiss team, which had the most impressive delegation (44 athletes), won only one bronze out of 41 Olympic medals - in hockey. This result still remains the worst in history for the country that hosts the Games.

The hockey tournament was again won by the Canadian team, represented by a team from the University of Toronto. The Canadians did not miss a single goal in 3 matches, winning them with a total score of 38:0.

The best scorer of the hockey tournament was Canadian David Trottier, who scored 15 (12+3) points.