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1972 Olympics

Sapporo

The biggest controversy in the 48–year history of the Winter Games erupted just three days before the opening ceremonies were scheduled to get underway in northern Japan. That's when retiring IOC president Avery Brundage threatened to disqualify 40 Alpine skiers for professionalism.

At Grenoble in 1968, Brundage had demanded that all trademarks be removed from competitors' skis, but settled for having the offensive skis taken away from medal winners before they could be photographed. Now, the 84–year-old guardian of the Olympic flame wanted all the pros thrown out.

A compromise was reached when the IOC executive committee voted 28–14 to make an example of skiing's most commercialized star, 33-year-old Austrian World Cup champion Karl Schranz, who reportedly earned over $50,000 a year “testing” ski equipment.

All other offenders were allowed to participate.

Said Schranz after being banished: “This thing of amateur purity is something that dates back to the 19th century when amateur sportsmen were regarded as gentlemen and everyone else was an outcast. The Olympics should be a competition of skill and strength and speed—and no more.”

Schranz retired after the Games, having never won an Olympic gold medal.

The amateurism question caused controversy in the ice hockey event as well. Canada refused to send a team to Sapporo, having withdrawn from international amateur competition in 1969 to protest use of “professional amateurs” by Russia and other eastern bloc countries.

Top 10 Standings

National medal standings are not recognized by the IOC. The unofficial point totals are based on 3 points for a gold medal, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze. Total medals are in parentheses.

		Gold	Silver	Bronze	Pts
1	USSR (16)	8	5	3	37
2	East Germany (14)	4	3	7	25
3	Switzerland (10)	4	3	3	21
	Norway (12)	2	5	5	21
5	Holland (9)	4	3	2	20
6	USA (8)	3	2	3	16
7	West Germany (5)	3	1	1	12
8	Italy (5)	2	2	1	11
9	Austria (5)	1	2	2	9
	Finland (5)	0	4	1	9

Leading Medal Winners

Number of individual medals won on the left; gold, silver and bronze breakdown to the right.

Men

No		Sport	G-S-B
3	Ard Schenk, NED	Sp. Skate	3-0-0
3	Vyacheslav Vedenine, USSR	X-country	2-0-1
3	Pål Tyldum, NOR	X-country	1-2-0
2	Fedor Simashov, USSR	X-country	1-1-0
2	Gustav Thöni, ITA	Alpine	1-1-0
2	Wolfgang Zimmerer, W. Ger.	Bobsled	1-0-1
2	Peter Utzschneider, W. Ger.	Bobsled	1-0-1
2	Jean Wicki, SWI	Bobsled	1-0-1
2	Edy Hubacher, SWI	Bobsled	1-0-1
2	Roar Grönvold, NOR	Sp. Skate	0-2-0
2	Ivar Formo, NOR	X-country	0-1-1
2	Johs Harviken, NOR	X-country	0-1-1
2	Hansjorg Knauthe, E. Ger.	Biathlon	0-1-1
2	Wolfram Fiedler, E. Ger.	Luge	0-0-2
2	Sten Stensen, NOR	Sp. Skate	0-0-2

Women

No		Sport	G-S-B
3	Galina Kulakova, USSR	X-country	3-0-0
3	Marjatta Kajosmaa, FIN	X-country	0-2-1
2	Marie-Theres Nadig, SWI	Alpine	2-0-0
2	Dianne Holum, USA	Sp. Skate	1-1-0
2	Christina Baas-Kaiser, NED	Sp. Skate	1-1-0
2	Alevtina Olunina, USSR	X-country	1-1-0
2	Anne Henning, USA	Sp. Skate	1-0-1
2	Annemarie Pröll, FRA	Alpine	0-2-0
2	Atje Keulen-Deelstra, NED	Sp. Skate	0-1-1

Alpine Skiing

Men

Event		Time
Downhill	Bernhard Russi, SWI	1:51.43
Slalom	Francisco Ochoa, SPA	1:49.27
G.Slalom	Gustav Thöni, ITA	3:09.62

Women

Event		Time
Downhill	Marie-Theres Nadig, SWI	1:36.68
Slalom	Barbara Cochran, USA	1:31.24
G.Slalom	Marie-Theres Nadig, SWI	1:29.90

Biathlon

Event		MT	Adj.Time
20 km	Magnar Solberg, NOR	2	1:15:55.50
4x7.5km	USSR (Tikonov, Safine, Biakov, Mamatov)	3	1:51:44.92

Bobsled

Event		Time
2-Man	W. Ger. (Wolfgang Zimmerer & Peter Utzschneider)	4:57.07
4-Man	SWI (Jean Wicki, Edy Hubacher, Hans Leutenegger, Werner Camichel)	4:43.07

Figure Skating

Event		Points
Men	Ondrej Nepela, CZE	2739.1
Women	Trixi Schuba, AUT	2751.5
Pairs	Irina Rodnina & Aleksei Ulanov, USSR	420.4

Ice Hockey

Group A

(Overall records in parentheses)

		Gm	W-L-T	Pts	GF	GA
1	USSR (4-0-1)	5	4-0-1	9	33	13
2	USA (4-2-0)	5	3-2-0	6	18	15
3	Czechoslovakia (4-2-0)	5	3-2-0	6	26	13
4	Sweden (3-2-1)	5	2-2-1	5	17	13
5	Finland (3-3-0)	5	2-3-0	4	14	24
6	Poland (1-5-0)	5	0-5-0	0	9	39

Note: Pivotal game—USSR over Czech., 5–2, in final contest for both teams. The 5–1 U.S. victory over the Czechs gave the Americans second place. Also, the USSR received a bye to Group A while the other seven teams had to win a one-game elimination round to qualify.

Luge

Men

Event		Time
1-Seat	Wolfgang Scheidel, E. Ger.	3:27.58
2-Seat	(TIE) Horst Hörnlein & Reinhard Bredow, E. Ger.	1:28.35
	Paul Hildgartner & Walter Plaikner, ITA	1:28.35

Women

Event		Time
1-Seat	Anna-Maria Müller, E. Ger.	2:59.18

Nordic Skiing

Men

Cross Country

Event		Time
15km	Sven-Ake Lundbäck, SWE	45:28.24
30km	Vyachelav Vedenine, USSR	1:36:31.15
50km	Pål Tyldum, NOR	2:43:14.75
4x10km	USSR (Voronkov, Skobov, Simachev,
	Vedenine)	2:04:47.94