Soviet sport

Soviet sport was mass-oriented, beloved, and highly successful. Most importantly, every sport in the USSR was accessible and popular.

The fashion for chess in Soviet Russia was set by Lenin — the game was one of his favorite pastimes. In a famous photograph, Vladimir Lenin plays a game with Alexander Bogdanov, who after the revolution became the director of the Institute of Blood Transfusion. In the background is Maxim Gorky. In 1925, an international chess tournament was held in Moscow with the participation of Jose Raul Capablanca, Emanuel Lasker, and other outstanding chess players.

All types of sports were popular in the USSR. The winner of the first-ever European Football Championship in 1960 was the USSR national team. In the final, the USSR team faced Yugoslavia. The very fact that two teams from socialist countries met in the final of the European Championship is telling. A combination involving Valentin Bubukhin, Yuri Voinov, Slava Metreveli, and Mikhail Meskhi was finished off with a goal by Viktor Ponedelnik. As the famous Soviet sports commentator Nikolai Ozerov said: "Ponedelnik scored on Monday" (a play on words, as "ponedelnik" means "Monday" in Russian).

At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, gymnast Olga Korbut performed a unique element on the uneven bars that went down in history as the "Korbut Flip". This element is now considered dangerous and banned by the rules. At the same Olympics, Soviet sprinter Valery Borzov became the fastest man on the planet.

The phenomenally intense and intriguing final basketball match between the USSR and the USA is still considered one of the most dramatic games in the history of basketball. Before this match, US basketball players had never lost a single game at the Olympics in their entire history. The victory was clinched in the final second of the game. The hero of the winning basket was Sergei Belov.

In the spring of 1973, the World Figure Skating Championship was held in Czechoslovakia, in Bratislava. The new Soviet pair Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev prepared thoroughly for their performance. Their coach Stanislav Zhuk paid particular attention to staying in sync with the music. For this purpose, he brought a metronome to training sessions. With its help, the skaters learned and memorized the rhythm of the routine. During the performance, the music suddenly disappeared. The skaters realized they were skating in silence. They were supported by the fans, who kept the rhythm of the musical composition with their applause. The referee blew his whistle, trying to stop the performance. Irina and Alexander continued the program. The athletes sang the melody while continuing to skate.

At the end of the performance, the pair looked at the stopwatch. It turned out that they had completed the program one second faster. The stadium erupted in applause. The chief judge offered the pair to either re-skate the entire program or leave everything as it was. The second option meant that the skaters would receive lower scores for violating the ban on skating without music. The chief judge turned to the panel of judges. Almost all judges awarded 5.9 out of a possible 6.0.

In 1952, the USSR national team debuted at the Olympic Games. The first Olympic champion of the USSR was Nina Romashkova-Ponomaryova (track and field, discus throw). The hero of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in running was Vladimir Kuts. The Olympics were even named after him — the Kuts Olympics.

Ice hockey. On December 22, 1946, the first matches of the USSR Ice Hockey Championship were played. Over the following 70 years, Soviet hockey players won all major tournaments — the Olympic Games, World Championships, Izvestia Prize tournaments, and Canada Cups. The Soviet hockey team earned the nickname "the Red Machine" in the 1980s. In 1954, the USSR team under the leadership of Arkady Chernyshev arrived at their debut World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, and sensationally won. At the helm of the Soviet hockey team at various times stood outstanding coaches Arkady Chernyshev, Anatoly Tarasov, Vsevolod Bobrov, Boris Kulagin, and Viktor Tikhonov. Every player on the USSR hockey team was a true star. The 8 matches of the USSR–Canada "Super Series" played in 1972 in Canada and Moscow became legendary. In 1974, a second similar tournament was held. In 1981, the Canada Cup was held, at which the USSR team crushed the tournament hosts 8:1. This victory was dedicated to an outstanding Soviet hockey player who passed away prematurely in August 1981 as a result of a car accident.

Alexander Dityatin was called "the gymnast with wings". The 1980 Moscow Olympics. Three golds, four silvers, one bronze — a medal in every event. Such a result had never been achieved in history. His technique was flawless, his style impeccable. He entered the Guinness Book of Records and became the absolute record holder of the Olympics. It was said of Larisa Latynina that she brought ballet to gymnastics. Only one woman has ever won nine Olympic gold medals — Larisa Latynina. In total, she earned 18 awards.

Yuri Vlasov, Yurik Vardanyan, and Vasily Alexeev were stars of weightlifting. Vardanyan lifted 405 kg in the total of the two-event competition (snatch + clean and jerk) at a body weight of 81 kg. Vasily Alexeev set 80 world records and 81 USSR records. Alexeev holds the "eternal" world record in the three-event total — 645 kg.

Soviet sport was mass-oriented, beloved, and highly successful. Most importantly, every sport in the USSR was accessible and popular.