The Winter Olympic Games of the 1960s

1960 Winter Olympic Games

Squaw Valley, California

1960 Games - Squaw Valley, CA - Medals Won

COUNTRY	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
Soviet Union	7	5	9	21
Germany	4	3	1	8
United States	3	4	3	10
Norway	3	3	0	6
Sweden	3	2	2	7

FIGURE SKATING 1960 Winter Olympics

David Jenkins took the gold in the Men's competition
his brother had won the same medal in 1956
Czechoslovakia won the Silver and Canada received the Bronze
The United States also won Gold in the Women's event when Carol Heiss took a unanimous decision
she went on to marry Hayes Jenkins who had won a gold figure skating medal in the 1956 Olympic Games
The Canadian pair of Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul easily won the pairs competition
they had won the last three world championships
A German couple won the Silver while the U.S. placed third with the Bronze

ICE HOCKEY
1960 Olympic Games

It was alleged that the Soviet hockey team were not truly amateurs
but were in fact full time professional hockey players
Despite the controversy the U.S. pulled off a huge upset defeating both
the highly favored Canadian team who won Silver and the USSR who won the Bronze
This was the last time that the Soviets don't win a Gold medal in Ice Hockey
until 1980 when the United States again pulls off a huge upset victory

SKI JUMP 1960s olympic history

The event was called the Men's Normal Hill Ski Jump,
the Large Hill event would not be included in the Olympics until the 1964 Games
Germany won it's first Gold medal in this event when Helmut Recknagel soared to victory
Finland won the Silver with Austrian Otto Leodolter taking the Bronze

SPEED SKATING 1960s sports history

Artificial ice was used in the outdoor skating rink for the first time
this allowed for much faster times and one world record being smashed
Women's Speed Skating was featured at the Olympics for the first time and
the Soviet Union's Lidiya Skoblikova won Gold in both the 1500 and 3000 meter races
Knut Johannesen broke the world record winning Gold in the 10,000 meter race
Yevgeny Grishin of the Soviet Union won both the 500 and 1,500 meter Men's events

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING 1960 Gold medal Winners

Finnish skier Veikko Hakulinen won a Gold in the 10km relay, a Silver in the 50km and a Bronze in the 15km
Hakulinen also had won a Gold in 1952 and 2 Golds and a Silver in the 1956 Games
The Soviet Union got its first Olympic sweep in the 10km winning all three top spots
Sweden did well taking Gold in the 30km and the Women's 5km relay they
also won two Silver medals in the 30km and 15 km as well as a Bronze in the 50km
Swedish Sixten Jernberg who won one of their Golds and one Silver
adding these to the two of each he had won in 1956 making his personal total, six

BIATHLON
Winter Olympic Medal Winners

The Biathlon consisted of a 20km cross country race with four shooting stations of varying distances scattered along the way
1960 was the first games that had this competition it was previously called Military Patrol
Sweden's Klas Lestander won the Gold with Finland and the Soviet Union finishing second and third

ALPINE SKIING 60s sports history

The Men's Downhill was won by Frenchman Jean Vuarnet on metal skis,an Olympic first
metal skis would become the norm until the manufacture of fiberglass obsoleted the metal
Austria was the Slalom Champion while Swiss skier Yvonne Rüegg won the Giant Slalom
In the Women's Alpine events Germany won the Downhill event, Switzerland took the Gold
in the Giant Slalom and Canada won the Slalom
The only multiple medal winner was Penny Pitou of the U.S. winning two Silver Medals

1964 Winter Olympic Games

Innsbruck, Austria

1964 Games - Innsbruck, Austria - Medals Won

COUNTRY	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
Soviet Union	11	8	6	25
Austria	4	5	3	12
Norway	3	6	6	15
Finland	3	4	3	10
France	3	4	0	7

Before the Games

The entire United States Figure Skating team along with their coaches and family members were killed in a tragic plane crash in Brussels.
They were traveling to compete in a World Championship which is a prelude to qualifying for the Olympic Games.
This set the U.S. program back for many years and forced the cancellation of the Championship that they were headed to.

In two other pre-games tragedies, Australian alpine skier Ross Milne fatally hit a tree while practicing and luge slider Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski died in a crash during training.

ALPINE SKIING

Austria took the Gold in both the men's Downhill and Slalom events while France won the Giant Slalom
In the Women's events Austria again won the Downhill but French sisters Marielle and Christine Goitschel
split both Gold and Silver medals in the Slalom and Giant Slalom events winning four medals between them.
The Goitschel sisters pulled off an Olympic first by winning four medals in just two events by siblings
Bill "Billy" Kidd made his Olympic debut capturing a Silver in the Slalom and a 7th place finish in the Giant Slalom

FIGURE SKATING 1968 Winter Olympic Games

Germany again appeared at the Games as United Germany with athletes from both East & West competing on the same team
they won two medals, a Gold in Men's Singles and a Silver in the Pairs competition by Marika Kilius & Hans-Jürgen Bäumler.
The USSR won their only Figure Skating medal in the Pairs by Liudmila Belousova & Oleg Protopopov.
France's Alain Calmat won a Silver in Men's Singles, Regine Heitzer won the Silver for Austria in the Women's Single
while Canada's Petra Burka took the Women's Bronze.
Sjoukje Dijkstra took the Gold in the Women's marking the first ever Gold medal for the Netherlands
The fairy tale story of the Games was 15 year old Scott Allen from the U.S. winning a Bronze medal in the Men's Single
after the whole starting U.S. team was killed, the junior members were quickly trained to compete at Olympic levels,
another junior member of that team, 15 year old Peggy Fleming, placed sixth in the Women's, she would win Gold in 1968.

ICE HOCKEY 1964 Olympic Winter Games

The USSR revenged it's loss to the U.S. in the last Olympics by defeating them 5-1 in an early match up.
The Soviet team went on to win the Gold by going undefeated throughout the playoffs.
Sweden won the Silver and Czechoslovakia placed third receiving a Bronze Medal.
Canada skates to a Bronze but then has it taken away because of a scoring rule change.

SPEED SKATING
Winter Olympics

Lidia Skoblikova of the USSR again proved her absolute dominance in the sport by winning
the Gold medal in a sweep of all four events, 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 3000 meters.
Combined with the two she won at the 1960 Olympics she holds more skating medals (6) then any other athlete
In the Men's competition Terry McDermott of the U.S. won the 500 meter
The Soviet Union's Ants Antson took the Gold in the 1000 meter
Knut Johannesen of Norway won the 1500m while Sweden's Jonny Nilsson took the long 10,000 meter race

BOBSLEIGH
1960s Olympic Sports

There was no Bobsleigh event in the 1960 Winter Games because Squaw Valley didn't have a course built for it
The British team of Anthony Nash, Robin Thomas Dixon took Gold in the Two-man race
The Canadian's Peter Kirby, Doug Anakin, John Emery, Vic Emery won the Four-man competition

LUGE Olympic Records

This was the first Games where Luge was an official Olympic event
The combined Germany (East & West) dominated all the Luge events that they entered
sweeping the Men's Singles and almost sweeping (Gold & Silver) the Women's Singles
In the Men's doubles Austria took the Gold and Silver Medals while Italy won the Bronze

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

In the women's events the USSR swept the field when Klavdiya Boyarskikh won 3 Gold medals
winning all of the contests that she entered (5km, 10km and 5km relay).
In the men's events Eero Mäntyranta of Finland won Gold in both the 15km and 30km giving the Fin's 2 of their 3 Gold medals.
Sixten Jernberg of Sweden anchored the relay team and took the Gold,
he also won cross country Gold medals in both the 1965 and 1960 Winter games.

SKI JUMPING 1964 Winter Olympics

Veikko Kankkonen of Finland and Toralf Engan of Norway each won a Gold and a Silver in the 70m and 80m jumps respectively.
Torgeir Brandtzæg of Norway won the Bronze in both events giving Norway a total of 4 medals.

1968 Winter Olympic Games

Grenoble, France

1968 Games - Grenoble, France - Medals Won

COUNTRY	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
Norway	6	6	2	14
Soviet Union	5	5	3	13
France	4	3	2	9
Italy	4	0	0	4
Austria	3	4	4	11

ALPINE SKIING

Men's Alpine was dominated by Jean-Claude Killy, France's favorite boy
he won the Gold Medal in the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Downhill races.
Killy's downhill victory was contested by an Austrian skier who claimed a spectator crossed onto
his path during the event, however an Appeals Jury overturned the complaint and Killy kept the Gold Medal.
In the Women's Downhill Olga Pall won the Gold over Isabelle Mir of France who won a Silver Medal

Nancy Greene of Canada took the Giant Slalom competition while Marielle Goitschel of France won the Slalom event.

BOBSLEIGH

Italy won half of it's total Olympic medals in the Bobsleigh event
The team of Eugenio Monti & Luciano De Paolis took the Gold in the 2 Man and
then teamed up with fellow Italians Roberto Zandonella, Mario Armano to win the 4 Man event

FIGURE SKATING Peggy Fleming 1968 Peggy Fleming Olympics

The biggest story out of the 1968 Games was figure skater Peggy Fleming
she won the Gold medal in the Women's event and instantly became a media darling
Wolfgang Schwarz of Austria won the Men's competition in a bit of an upset
The USSR continued their dominance of the sport by taking the Gold in the Couples
Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov skated to victory for the Soviets

LUGE

Controversy clouded the Women's Luge event when the East German women's luge team
was disqualified for heating their sled runners shortly before the event
they had won gold, silver, and fourth virtually sweeping the event.
Erica Lechner the third place winner wound up receiving the Gold medal because of the disqualifications
In the Men's Single, Manfred Schmid won for Austria
In the 2 Seat, Klaus Bonsack & Thomas Kõhler took the Gold for E. Germany (this was the first Games where East & West Germany were represented by separate teams)

ICE HOCKEY 1960s Olympic Winter Sports

In a confusing calculation the USSR beat Canada in the final game to take the Gold Medal
however Czechoslovakia won the Silver Medal and Canada the Bronze
In a much anticipated game W. Germany prevailed over E. Germany
neither team made it to the finals of the tournament

SPEED SKATING 1968 winter sports

Grenoble's track proved to be very fast as 5 Olympic records and 1 world record were broken.
Carolina Geijssen of the Netherlands Finland's Kaija Mustonen, broke an Olympic record in the 1000 meter.
Finland's Kaija Mustonen, won the 1500m also breaking an Olympic record.
Johanna Schut broke the third Olympic record in the 3000m for the women skating for the Netherlands.
In the Men's races Kees Verkerk of the Netherlands broke an Olympic record in the 1500m.
Sweden's Johnny Höglin broke the Olympic record in the 10,000m.
Fred Maier of Norway set a new Worlds record winning the 5000 meter race.

Other Facts

This years Games was the first this decade that the Soviets didn't win the medal count.
Norway walked away the winner with 6 Gold, 6 Silver, and 2 Bronze partially because of their prowess in Speed Skating.
France being the host country had its best showing ever with its star Jean-Claude Killy winning 3 of its 4 Gold Medals.
The game were extensively covered by CBS and broadcast in color for the first time in the U.S.
Both the Bobsleigh and Luge events were cut short because the tracks were not properly insulated and the weather turned warmer

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1960s SPORTS / Winter Olympics

Highlights, Medals & Heroes

1960 Winter Olympic Games

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