Home > Olympics > Winter Olympics > Sapporo 1972

Sapporo 1972

The Olympic Games, or Olympics, are an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C, the modern games started from 1896.The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent atleast one color of the participating country’s national flag.

Sapporo 1972 Opening ceremony on 03 February 1972 and Closing date on 13 February 1972. Sapporo 1972 arranged in the Country of the host city Japan for 1972. Sapporo 1972 was included 35 Nations, 1,006 athletes, 205 women, 801 men, and 35 events. Candidate cities were Banff, Lahti/Are and Salt Lake City. In these Olympic sports contains Bobsleigh, Ice Hockey, Skating, Skiing, Biathlon, and Luge.

Sapporo 1972 official opening of the Games by His Majesty Emperor Hiro-Hito, Lighting the Olympic Flame by Hideki Takada. Olympic Oath by Keiichi Suzuki with speed skating, official Oath by Fumio Asaki. The 1972 Sapporo Games in Japan were the first to be held outside Europe or the United States. The subject of amateurism stirred controversy when skier Karl Schranz was banned for receiving payment from ski product manufacturers, but full-time ice hockey players from Communist nations were allowed to compete. Galina Kulakova of the USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics won all three cross country skiing events for women. Ard Schenk of the Netherlands took three golds in speed skating.

In Alpine skiing, little known Marie-Theres Nadig of Switzerland won both the downhill and the giant slalom. Norway’s Magnar Solberg won the 20km race to become the first repeat winner in an individual biathlon event. Before the Sapporo Games, Japan had never won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, but in the normal hill ski jumping event, three Japanese jumpers, led by Yukio Kasaya, swept the medals.

The biggest surprise of the Games was the victory of 21 year old Paquito Fernandez Ochoa, who won the slalom by a full second. His gold medal was the first ever to be won by a Spanish athlete in the Winter Olympics. In that Sapporo 1972 year USSR achieved good position with hard working. They got 8, 5, 3 medals respectively Gold, Silver, Bronze in that specific year.

Back to Winter Olympics