Goodwill Games.html |
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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. In 1979, the 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 Sergey 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The 1994 Games were held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the first competition since the Soviet Union had been replaced by fifteen independent republics.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 Brisbane 2001 Games, 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
| Year | Host City, Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Moscow,  Soviet Union |
3,000 athletes and 79 countries |
| 1990 | Seattle, Washington,  United States |
2,300 athletes and 54 countries |
| 1994 | Saint Petersburg,  Russia |
2,000 athletes and 74 countries |
| 1998 | New York City, New York, United States |
|
| 2001 | Brisbane, Queensland,  Australia |
last games |
| 2005 | Phoenix, Arizona, United States |
did not host event as games were cancelled in 2001 |
Winter Goodwill Games
| Year | Host City, Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Lake Placid, United States |
Only Winter Goodwill Games held |
| 2005 | Calgary, Alberta,  Canada |
did not host event as games were cancelled |
Events
- Alpine Skiing
- Archery
- Artistic Gymnastics
- Athletics
- hurdles
- triple jump
- steeplechase
- discus
- Hammer
- Heptathlon
- Shot put
- Pole vault
- high jump
- triple jump
- mile
- 20km walk
- 100m
- 200m
- 5000m
- 800m
- 400m
- relay
- long jump
- 10,000m
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Beach Volleyball
- Boxing
- Canoe/Kayaking
- Cross Country
- Cycling
- Diving
- Figure Skating
- Freestyle Skiing
- Handball
- Judo
- Luge
- Nordic Combined
- Pentathlon
- Rhythmic Gymnastics
- Rowing
- Skeleton
- Ski Jumping
- Snowboarding
- Soccer
- Speedskating
- Surf Lifesaving
- Swimming
- Syncronized Swimmiing
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Trampoline
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Water Polo
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling
- Yachting
Participating countries
North America
Caribbean and Central America
Europe
Eastern Block
- Bulgaria
- Czechoslovakia - later as Czech Republic
- East Germany
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Kazakstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Poland
- Romania
- Soviet Union - later as Russia
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
- Yugoslavia
Africa and Middle East
- Algeria
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Cote d'Ivorie
- Ethiopia
- Kenya
- Morocco
- Namibia
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Tanzania
- Tunisia
- North Yemen - later as Yemen Arab Republic
- Zimbabwe
South America
Asia and Oceania
Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2007) |
- The 1986 Goodwill Games was the first use of a single hop (Moscow to Atlanta) video transmission via the original PanAmSat satellite. The receive dish was parked on a trailer in the back parking lot of the TBS facility for the duration of the games.
- Goodwill Games organizers lent its name and logo to the "Junior Goodwill Games" scenes in the Disney movie D2: The Mighty Ducks. 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 name, which lasted from 1993 to 2006. (That team is now called the Anaheim Ducks.)
- Larry King, the host of Larry King Live on sister network CNN and a huge sports fan, hosted TBS's coverage of the 1990 Games.