Friendship Games
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The Friendship Games or Druzhba Games or Druzhba-84 Competition was an international multisport event that was held in 1984 in nine different countries under the motto: "Sport, Friendship, Peace".
An alternative to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, it was organized by the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries (constitutionally socialist states) which had boycotted that event. Some 2,300 athletes from almost 50 countries took part in the competition.[1] The opening ceremony was held at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, as at the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which the flame in the cauldron was lit.
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[edit] Venues
The Games were held in nine countries:
USSR
- Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium at Luzhniki, Moscow (men's athletics: August 17–18)
- Sports Palace of the Central Sports Club of the Army and Dynamo Sports Palace, both in Moscow (basketball: August 22–30)
- Minor Arena of the Central Dynamo Stadium in Moscow (men's field hockey: August 19–21)
- Man-made Basin in Krylatskoe, Moscow (rowing: August 23–25)
- Pirita Yachting Centre in Tallinn Bay, Tallinn (sailing: August 18–25)
- Dynamo Shooting Range in Mytischi, Moscow (shooting: August 19–25; trap and skeet: August 19–21)
- Swimming Pool of the Olympiski Sports Complex in Moscow (swimming: August 19–25)
- Velodrome of the Trade Unions Olympic Sports Centre in Krylatskoe, Moscow (track cycling: August 18–22)
Bulgaria
- Varna (women's volleyball: July 5–15; weightlifting: September 12–16)
- Sofia (freestyle wrestling: July 20–22; rhythmic gymnastics: August 17–19)
Cuba
- Havana (boxing: August 19–24; water polo and men's volleyball: August 19–26)
Czechoslovakia
DPR Korea
- Pyongyang (table tennis: July 2–10)
German Democratic Republic
Hungary
- Budapest (diving: August 16–18; fencing: July 15–20; Greco-Roman wrestling: July 13–15)
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Mongolia
- Ulan Bator (sambo wrestling: September 1–2)
Poland
- Sopot (equestrianism — three-day event, jumping event: June 6–10)
- Książ (Wałbrzych), Drzonków (equestrianism — dressage event: August 17–26)
- Poznań (women's field hockey: August 28–30)
- Warsaw (judo: August 24–26; modern pentathlon: September 5–9)
- Katowice (tennis: August 20–26)
[edit] Competition
The competition was held in July-September. There were 24 Olympic sports in the programme, as well as tennis, table tennis, sambo wrestling, women's shooting. Friendship Games saw athlete performances that often exceeded the standards set during the Los Angeles Games. In twenty-eight of forty-one track events, the performance of the winning Eastern-bloc athlete was superior to that of his or her Olympic counterpart. For example, Marlies Gohr of East Germany won the 100 meter dash in 10.95 seconds, slightly faster than American Evelyn Ashford's winning time of 10.97 at the Olympics. Ashford did beat Gohr in their next face-to-face competition and set a new world record. 48 World Records were set at Druzhba-84, as compared to 11 ones set in Los Angeles. 22 of them were set by athletes from the USSR. One of the new world records in Druzhba-84, was set by the East German discus thrower Irina Meszynski with 73.36 [1]
The artistic gymnastics competition was held in Czechoslovakia and is usually called 'ČSSR Spartakiade' or simply 'Olomouc' after the host city. In the women's all-around Olga Mostepanova became the first and only gymnast in history to earn 10.0 scores on all four events in a major international competition, finishing the session with a perfect mark of 40.0. Men's events saw the introduction of the long-swing with full pirouette on parallel bars, or Long-swing Diamidov.
The Soviet Union proposed that CNN televise the Friendship Games, an offer rejected by Ted Turner. Turner said that the network would simply give spot coverage to the Friendship Games, "as we would any other sporting event."
[edit] References
- ^ Infosport ("1984" section). Retrieved on March 28, 2006.
- (1985) Druzhba-84 (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport.
- (1985) Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Enciklopediya, 549-555.
- (1985) Panorama of the 1984 Sports Year (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport, pp. 72-98.
