Friday, March 2, 2018

XI Olympic Winter Games, Sapporo 1972

The Internet Is Amazing™, really. I don't know how it took me this long, but I just came across Sports-Reference.com's Olympic Sports site. And I am disappointed to discover the following:


We are sorry to inform you that due to a change to our data licensing agreement we are shutting down our Olympic site sometime in the future..  
The providers of our dataset are working with another publisher to create an extensive site chronicling the history of the Olympic Movement. We will provide information here when that site is available. 

But I am heartened to read that was posted Dec. 16, 2016, so I'm hopeful plans changed or something.

In any event, for however long it is available, this site looks very good. I ran across it after being charmed by the floppy plastic "FINISH" sign and nearby traffic in the background of the following YouTube discovery:



Our new rings-head friends at Sports-Reference.com have an excellent and detailed report on this race, which begins thusly: "The cross-country relay was expected to be a close duel between defending Olympic Champion Norway and the reigning 1970 World Champion, the Soviet Union ..." Spoiler alert: Americans Tim Caldwell of Brattleboro, Vermont; Mike Gallagher of Yonkers, New York; Larry Martin of Glennallen, Alaska, and Mike Elliott of Durango, Colorado, finished 12th.

Here’s how the overall medal standings came out at Sapporo 1972:

1. Soviet Union 8 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze
2. East Germany 4, 3, 7
3. Switzerland 4, 3, 3
4. Netherlands 4, 3, 2
5. United States 3, 2, 3
6. West Germany 3, 1, 1
7. Norway 2, 5, 5
8. Italy 2, 2, 1

9. Austria 1, 2, 2
10. Sweden 1, 1, 2
11. Japan 1, 1, 1
12. Czechoslovakia 1, 0, 2
13. Poland 1, 0, 0
14. Spain 1, 0, 0
15. Finland 0, 4, 1
16. France 0, 1, 2
17. Canada 0, 1, 0

And by the same sorting (golds, then silvers, then bronzes), here were the winners by sport at these games: alpine skiing, Switzerland; biathlon, Norway and Soviet Union; bobsleigh, West Germany; cross-country skiing, Soviet Union; figure skating, Soviet Union; ice hockey, Soviet Union; luge, East Germany; Nordic combined, East Germany; ski jumping, Japan, and speed skating, Netherlands.

But, of course, our old friends at Wikipedia note:


#SMH ... upon further review, congratulations, Switzerland.

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