1737 athletes from 67 countries took part in the XVII Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer (Norway). They competed for 61 sets of awards in 12 sports. The International Olympic Committee organized these games two years after the previous ones in order to separate the timing of the summer and winter Olympics.
For the first time in Lillehammer, athletes from the former USSR played as separate teams, while the Russian team showed excellent results, having won the most gold medals - 11. As a result, it took the first team place, however, losing in the total number of won medals to the Norwegians - 26 versus 23.
The Russians took almost all the gold in figure skating: Alexey Urmanov in men's single skating, Oksana Grischuk and Evgeny Platov in the dance pairs competition, another triumph of the games was the pair Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov. A representative of the Soviet school of figure skating, Ukrainian Oksana Baiul, also won in women.
The Russian biathlon team performed excellently, in which Sergey Chepikov shone, who won the sprint. The women's team, led by Anfisa Reztsova, won the relay, the men let the German national team go ahead and won silver. Another gold medal was brought to our team by the winner of the men's 20 km race Sergey Tarasov.
The women's ski team consisting of Lyubvi Egorova, Elena Vyalbe, Larisa Lazutina and Nina Gavrylyuk left no chance for anyone. Lyubov Egorova became the three-time champion of the games in Lillehammer, who also won the five-kilometer race with the classic stroke and the 15 km race according to the Gundersen system. In men in this sport, the Norwegian Bjorn Daly was magnificent, who won two gold and silver. Uzbekistan won the first Olympic gold medal. Lina Cheryazova was the best in freestyle acrobatics, first presented at the White Olympics.
Unfortunately, Russian hockey players were left without medals. In the semifinals, our squad could not pass the Swedes, and in the match for the third place lost to the Finns. The final match Sweden-Canada for the first time in the history of the Olympics ended with a shootout, in which the Swedes were more precise. Other heroes of Lillehammer include the Norwegian skater Johan-Olaf Koss, who won at three distances.
