The Winter Olympics are a real treat for winter sports enthusiasts. Sports competitions of 1960 were no exception, which brought many pleasant minutes to the fans of the national teams.
The 8th Winter Olympics took place in the United States in Squaw Valley, the second time that North America hosted the Winter Olympics. 665 athletes from 30 countries took part in these games. The peculiarity of this Winter Olympics was that for the first time the games were held so high in the mountains - the Squaw Valley is located at an altitude of 1889 meters above sea level.
The opening ceremony of the 1960 Winter Olympics took place on February 18 at the Ice Stadium and was attended by 15,000 spectators. It is interesting that the opening program was personally prepared by Walt Disney.
According to the results of the Olympics, the first place in the team event was taken by athletes from the USSR, who won 7 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze medals. The second place went to the united team of Germany, which included athletes from the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and West Berlin - they won 4 gold medals, 3 silver and 1 bronze medals. The USA team took the third place - 3 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals.
At the 1960 games, biathlon was included in the competition program for the first time, which later became one of the most spectacular sports disciplines of the Winter Olympics. The first Olympic gold medal was won by the Swede Klas Lestander, the Finn Antti Tyrväinen took the silver, the Soviet Olympian Alexander Privalov took the bronze.
Soviet athletes had a very great advantage in skating, taking six gold medals out of eight, three silver and three bronze. The cross-country skiing was unsuccessful; only one award of the highest standard (Maria Gusakova, 10 km), two silver and four bronze medals, fell into the assets of the USSR. In this discipline, the main part of the awards was played between the Swedes, Finns and Norwegians.
The performance of the Soviet national hockey team, which took only third place, was also considered a failure. The first place was won by the US team, the second - by Canada. The Soviet ice squad lost to the Americans with a score of 2: 3, while the Canadians suffered the biggest defeat - 5: 8.
Figure skating was dominated by the Americans at the time. As in the last Olympics, figure skaters from the United States won two gold medals, one went to the Canadians. Soviet skaters were not among the prize-winners, their finest hour was still ahead.
In ski jumping, there was no equal to the athlete from the GDR Helmut Recknagel. The second place went to Finland, the third to Austria.
After the closure of the Eighth Winter Olympic Games in the USSR, a series of stamps dedicated to the Squaw Valley Games were issued.
