The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles, which later hosted the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games, respectively.
Bidding
The vote count results here are compliments of the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page. One blank vote was cast in the second and final round.
Highlights
- The Games were opened by Queen Elizabeth II, as head of state of Canada, and the several members of the Royal Family attended the opening ceremonies.
- The Olympic Flame was "electronically" transmitted via satellite from Athens to Ottawa, by means of an electronic pulse derived from the actual burning flame. From Ottawa, it was carried by hand to Montreal. After a rainstorm doused the Olympic flame a few days after the games had opened, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.
- Canada, the host country, left with only five silver and six bronze medals. It was the first and only time to date in Olympic history that the host country of the Summer Games won no gold medals. This feat had occurred previously only in the Winter Games — 1924 in Chamonix, France and 1928 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. This later occurred at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and again at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, giving Canada the dubious distinction of never having won a gold medal on its home soil despite holding a summer and winter Olympics.
- The Republic of China (Taiwan) team withdrew after Canada informed it that it could not compete under the name "Republic of China". This was done because Canada officially recognized the People's Republic of China. Canada did try to compromise by saying that the people of the Republic of China could retain their national flag and anthem, but they refused.
- In protest at a tour of South Africa by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby union team early in the year, Congo's official Jean Claude Ganga led a boycott of 28 African nations as the IOC refused to bar the New Zealand team. Some of the nations (including Morocco, Cameroon and Egypt) had already participated, however, as the teams withdrew only after the first day. From Southern and Central Africa, only Senegal and Ivory Coast took part. Both Iraq and Guyana also opted to join the Congolese-led boycott.
- Because of the Munich massacre, security at these games was visible, as it had been earlier in the year at the Winter games in Innsbruck, Austria.
- 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci of Romania scored seven perfect 10s and won three gold medals, including the prestigious All Around. The score board could hold only 3 digits and the score was shown as 1.00. In women's gymnastics three gold medals were also won by Nellie Kim of the Soviet Union. Nikolai Andrianov of the USSR won four gold medals, including All Around, in men's gymnastics.
- Viktor Saneyev of the Soviet Union won his third consecutive triple jump gold medal, while Klaus Dibiasi of Italy did the same in the platform diving event.
- Alberto Juantorena of Cuba became the first man to win both the 400 m and 800 m at the same Olympics. Finland's Lasse Virén also achieved a double in the 5000 and 10,000 m and finished 5th in the marathon, thereby failing to equal Emil Zátopek's 1952 achievements.
- Boris Onischenko, a member of the Soviet Union's modern pentathlon team, was disqualified after it was discovered that he had rigged his épée to register a hit when there wasn't one. Because of this, the USSR modern pentathlon team was disqualified. Onischenko earned the enmity of other Soviet Olympic team members: for example, USSR volleyball team members threatened to throw him out of the hotel's window if they met him.
- Women's events were introduced in basketball, handball and rowing.
- Five American boxers - Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, Leo Randolph and Howard Davis Jr. won gold medals in boxing. This has been often called the greatest Olympic boxing team the United States ever had, and, out of the five American gold medalists in boxing, all but Davis went on to become professional world champions.
- Princess Anne of the United Kingdom was the only female competitor not to have to submit to a sex test. She was a member of her country's equestrian team.
- Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto performed on a broken right knee, and helped the Japanese team win the gold medal for the team championship. Fujimoto broke his leg on the floor exercise, and due to the closeness in the overall standings with the USSR, he hid the extent of the injury. With a broken knee, Fujimoto was able to complete his event on the rings, performing a perfect triple somersault dismount, maintaining perfect posture. He scored a 9.7 thus securing gold for Japan. Years later, when asked if he would do it again, he stated bluntly "No, I would not."[1]
- The East German women's swim team won all but two gold medals, though it was later learned that most of these women had been subject to testosterone injections by their own coaches and superiors. (See Doping.)
- Luann Ryan won the women's Archery gold for the USA; Ryan had never before competed at international level.
Venues
The Olympic Village as it appears January 2008.
Montreal Olympic Park
Venues in Greater Montreal
Venues outside Montreal
- Olympic Shooting Range, L'Acadie, Quebec - shooting
- Olympic Archery Field, Joliette, Quebec - archery
- Olympic Equestrian Centre, Bromont, Quebec - equestrian
- Le pavillon d'éducation physique et des sports de l'Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec - handball preliminaries
- Sherbrooke Stadium, Sherbrooke, Quebec - football/soccer preliminaries
- Sherbrooke Sports Palace, Sherbrooke, Quebec - handball preliminaries
- Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, Kingston, Ontario - yachting
- Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Ontario - football/soccer preliminaries
- Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, Ontario - football/soccer preliminaries
Medals awarded
Velodrome (foreground) and Olympic Stadium (its tower completed after the Games), Montreal
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
Medal count
These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games. Host country of Canada placed 27th with 11 medals total.
- Further information: 1976 Summer Olympics medal count
Participating nations
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of athletes from each nation that competed at the Games.
^ WD: Athletes from Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia competed on July 18-20 before these nations withdrew from the Games.
Boycotting countries
The following 28 countries boycotted the Games.[2] The boycott was due to the refusal of the IOC to ban New Zealand. New Zealand's national rugby union team (the All Blacks) had toured South Africa that year.[3] (South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 due to its apartheid policies).
Boycotting countries shown in yellow, green and orange
Zaire did not compete, but claimed financial causes rather than political.
Both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China boycotted the games over issues concerning the legitimacy of each other. In November 1976, the International Olympic Committee recognized the People's Republic of China as the sole legal representative. In 1979, the IOC began referring to the Republic of China as Chinese Taipei as a result of the Nagoya Resolution; this led to the Republic of China boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics outside of the US-led boycott that year.
Legacy
The Olympics were a financial disaster for Montreal, as the city faced debts for 30 years after the Games had finished. The Olympic Stadium, a daring design of French architect Roger Taillibert, remains a lasting monument to the huge deficit and as such is known as the Big Owe; it never had an effective retractable roof, and the tower was completed only after the Olympics. In December 2006 the stadium's costs were finally paid in full.[4] The total expenditure (including repairs, renovations, construction, interest, and inflation) amounted to C$1.61 billion. Today, despite its huge cost, the stadium is devoid of a major tenant, after the Montreal Expos moved in 2005.
See also
Other Olympics with significant boycotts
Notes and references
External links
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