Lake Placid 1980 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

13 Feb 1980

End:

24 Feb 1980

Countries:

Athletes:

1072

Sports:

Events:

City:

Lake Placid, USA

In the summer of 1974, four candidate cities for the Winter Olympics 1980: Banff, Canada; Chamonix, France; Oslo, Norway and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, FRG had withdrawn their bids.
In October 1974, at the 74th IOC session in Vienna, Lake Placid, USA, the only contender was awarded the right to host the 13th Winter Olympic Games.

Vice President of the USA, Walter Mondale, officially opened the 13th Winter Olympic Games in 1980.
The first time artificial snow was used at the Olympics was because there was a lack of natural snow that winter.
China and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) sent two different teams to Lake Placid under the same flag, anthem and uniforms. The IOC did not allow Taiwan to compete under the name "China", and Taiwan withdrew from the 1980 Winter Olympics in protest.
For the first time in Olympic history, American speedskater Eric HEIDEN won all five gold medals in individual events at a single Olympics.
Soviet athlete Nikolai ZIMYATOV won three gold medals in Cross-country.
In Figure skating, Irina RODNINA from USSR won a gold medal in her event for the third time, and Ulrich WEHLING of GDR did the same in Nordic combined.