1986 Goodwill Games
Encyclopedia
The 1986 Goodwill Games
was the inaugural edition of the international multi-sport event
created by Ted Turner
, which was held from 5 – 20 July 1986. The main stadium was the Olympic Stadium
in Moscow
, Soviet Union
. The Games were a response to the Olympic boycotts of the period, which saw the United States
refuse to attend the 1980 Olympic Games
in Moscow
, and the Soviet Union refusing to attend the 1984 Summer Olympics
in Los Angeles
. The Soviet athletes dominated the competition, winning 118 gold medal
s and 241 medals overall. The United States finished a clear second place, with 42 golds and 142 medals in total.
A total of 3000 athletes from 79 nations took part in events in eighteen different sports. The Goodwill Games was the first time in eleven years that elite athletes from Soviet Union and United States competed against each other in a major summer multi-sport event. In contrast to the selection methods of other major competitions, the Games was an invitation-only event. The event was broadcast over 129 hours on TBS
in the United States.
The Games themselves were subject to political issues, as the United States Defense Department banned 12 American athletes from competing as they were serving military personnel. The USSR also banned teams from Israel
and South Korea
(two close allies of the US) from the competition. The Goodwill Games, although commercial in nature, were not successful financially and Turner Broadcasting suffered millions of dollars of losses through its support of the event.
A number of sporting world record
s were set over the course of the Games. In the athletics competition, Sergey Bubka broke the pole vault
record with a mark of 6.01 m, Jackie Joyner-Kersee
broke the heptathlon
record with a score of 7148 points, while Ben Johnson
defeated Carl Lewis
in the 100 metres
to win his first major international title. Vladimir Salnikov
broke the 800 m freestyle world record in the swimming
competition with a time of 7:50.64. In the cycling events, Michael Hübner
and Erika Salumäe
set world records in the men's and women's 200 m flying start race, respectively.
The 1986 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Madrid
was broadcast on Ted Turner's network and were thus classified as the official Goodwill Games event for the men's sport. In the women's basketball
competition, the United States team broke the Russian's undefeated international run, which had grown to 152 victories. The 1986 Games also saw the first ever international motorcycle polo, or motoball, competition.
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games was an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s...
was the inaugural edition of the international multi-sport event
Multi-sport event
A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports between organized teams of athletes from nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of international significance was the modern Olympic Games.Many...
created by Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
, which was held from 5 – 20 July 1986. The main stadium was the Olympic Stadium
Olympic Stadium (Moscow arena)
Olympic Stadium, known locally as the Olimpiyskiy or Olimpiski, is a large indoor arena, located in Moscow, Russia. It was built for the 1980 Summer Olympics and hosted the basketball and boxing events. A part of the Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex, it makes up one architectural ensemble with another...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The Games were a response to the Olympic boycotts of the period, which saw the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
refuse to attend the 1980 Olympic Games
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, and the Soviet Union refusing to attend the 1984 Summer Olympics
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The Soviet athletes dominated the competition, winning 118 gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
s and 241 medals overall. The United States finished a clear second place, with 42 golds and 142 medals in total.
A total of 3000 athletes from 79 nations took part in events in eighteen different sports. The Goodwill Games was the first time in eleven years that elite athletes from Soviet Union and United States competed against each other in a major summer multi-sport event. In contrast to the selection methods of other major competitions, the Games was an invitation-only event. The event was broadcast over 129 hours on TBS
TBS (TV channel)
TBS , stylized in the logo as tbs, is an American cable television channel owned by Time Warner that shows a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy. TBS was originally known as WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s...
in the United States.
The Games themselves were subject to political issues, as the United States Defense Department banned 12 American athletes from competing as they were serving military personnel. The USSR also banned teams from Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
(two close allies of the US) from the competition. The Goodwill Games, although commercial in nature, were not successful financially and Turner Broadcasting suffered millions of dollars of losses through its support of the event.
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...
s were set over the course of the Games. In the athletics competition, Sergey Bubka broke the pole vault
Pole vault
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...
record with a mark of 6.01 m, Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jacqueline "Jackie" Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those four different events...
broke the heptathlon
Heptathlon
A heptathlon is a track and field athletics combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek hepta and athlon . A competitor in a heptathlon is referred to as a heptathlete.-Women's Heptathlon:...
record with a score of 7148 points, while Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson (athlete)
Benjamin Sinclair "Ben" Johnson, CM , is a former sprinter from Canada, who enjoyed a high-profile career during most of the 1980s, winning two Olympic bronze medals and an Olympic gold, which was subsequently rescinded...
defeated Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis
Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were gold. His career spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and...
in the 100 metres
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
to win his first major international title. Vladimir Salnikov
Vladimir Salnikov
Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov is a Russian former swimmer who competed for the USSR and set 12 world records in the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1,500-meter freestyle. Nicknamed a "monster in the waves", he was the first man to swim under fifteen minutes in the 1500-meter freestyle...
broke the 800 m freestyle world record in the swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
competition with a time of 7:50.64. In the cycling events, Michael Hübner
Michael Hübner
Michael Hübner is a German former professional sprint track cyclist, who became world champion in sprint, Keirin and team sprint.- External links :...
and Erika Salumäe
Erika Salumäe
Erika Salumäe is an Estonian track bicycle racer who won the first Olympic gold medal for Estonia after the country regained its independence in 1991.She was born in Pärnu. She trained at VSS Kalev in Tallinn...
set world records in the men's and women's 200 m flying start race, respectively.
The 1986 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
was broadcast on Ted Turner's network and were thus classified as the official Goodwill Games event for the men's sport. In the women's basketball
Women's basketball
Women's basketball is one of the few women's sports that developed in tandem with its men's counterpart. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast , in large part via women's colleges...
competition, the United States team broke the Russian's undefeated international run, which had grown to 152 victories. The 1986 Games also saw the first ever international motorcycle polo, or motoball, competition.
Sports
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Motoball
Medal table
| 1 | 118 | 80 | 43 | 241 | |
| 2 | 42 | 49 | 51 | 142 | |
| 3 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 28 | |
| 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | |
| 5 | 4 | 7 | 20 | 31 | |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | |
| 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| 8 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | |
| 9 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | |
| 10= | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 10= | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 12= | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 12= | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 14 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 10 | |
| 15 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 | |
| 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 17= | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | |
| 17= | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | |
| 19 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 20= | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 20= | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 22= | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 22= | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 24 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | |
| 25 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | |
| 26 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 27= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 27= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 27= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 27= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 27= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 27= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 187 | 178 | 186 | 561 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|