GOODWILL GAMES

The 'Goodwill Games' were an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan caused the USA and other Western countries to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, an act reciprocated when the Soviet and other Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The first Games, held in Moscow in 1986, featured 182 events and attracted over 3,000 athletes representing 79 countries. World records were set by Sergei Bubka (pole vault), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (heptathlon), and both the men and women's 200m cycle racing, by East Germany's Michael Hübner and the Soviet Union's Erika Salumäe, respectively. World records also fell at the 1990 games in Seattle, to Mike Barrowman in the 200m breaststroke and Nadezhda Ryashkina in the 10km walk.
The 1994 Games were held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the first competition since the Soviet Union had been replaced by fifteen independent republics. Russians set five world records in the weightlifting section, and the games were the first major international event to feature beach volleyball, which would appear at the Olympics for the first time at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Ted Turner's last games were in 1998 in New York City, with memorable highlights including Joyner-Kersee winning her fourth straight heptathlon title, and the U.S. 4x400m relay team setting a world's best time.
The games were later bought from Turner by Time Warner Australia, who organised the 2001 event, before announcing that it would be the last. The 2001 edition witnessed Australia win the most medals with 75, but it received very low television ratings in the United States. Nevertheless, critics praised Turner Network Television for showing the games live, rather than on tape delay.

Contents

Summer Goodwill Games

Winter Goodwill Games

Trivia

External links

Summer Goodwill Games

★ 1986 - Moscow, USSR

★ 1990 - Seattle, Washington, USA

★ 1994 - St. Petersburg, Russia

★ 1998 - New York City, USA

★ 2001 - Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

★ 2005 - Phoenix, Arizona, USA (''cancelled'')

Winter Goodwill Games

★ 2000 - Lake Placid, USA

★ 2005 - Calgary, Canada (''cancelled'')

Trivia

★ Goodwill Games organizers lent its name and logo to the "Junior Goodwill Games" scenes in the Disney movie ''. That movie, in which a U.S. national team adopts the nickname of a team for which several of its stars play, was the "premiere" of the logo of the National Hockey League team of the same time, which lasted from 1993 to 2006. (That team is now called the Anaheim Ducks.)

★ Larry King, the famous talk-show host and a huge sports fan, hosted TBS' coverage of the 1990 Games.

External links

★ Goodwill Games