The organizers of any Olympics have always had a tendency to do things “for themselves” - for their athletes. The route of the group cycling race in Krylatskoye was designed in approximately the same way. And the most active participant in that project was an outstanding racer in the past, and then coach Viktor Kapitonov, who at one time twice became the Olympic champion, and then headed the USSR national team.
The structure of the track was very difficult. It is clear that the specialist planned it based on the potential capabilities of his riders and the tactics of building a struggle that was inherent in his own coaching views.
It was understood that the rate in the group race would be on Sergei Sukhoruchenkov. Viktor Arsenievich believed in him very much - he saw in him the realization of his coaching dream. He really was one of the strongest riders in the world, so it was important to select such a team so that, working for the leader, she could build her own fighting tactics on this track.
Cycling in general occupied a special place in the program of the Summer Olympics. The team race was the main event of the first day, one of two types (the second was bullet shooting), where the first sets of awards were played. That is, by winning medals, the cyclists created the mood for the competition of the entire Soviet national team. The first victory strengthened the team spirit among the people many times over. It is clear that in Moscow we prepared especially carefully for these competitions.
"The track in Krylatskoye is unique - the cover was made of Siberian larch"
By itself, the Olympics needed our country like air. I do not take into account the political side of the matter, although the big sport has always been highly politicized: the "flag" participation gives the event a special coloring. It is clear that the Games are just a segment of world sports, but this segment is very prominent. For political reasons as well. Therefore, the temptation is so great to use them as an instrument of political struggle.
This was the case in 1980, when the Americans made the decision to boycott the Olympics in Moscow, then history repeated itself in 1984. Something similar began to happen in relation to Russia and 30 years after the Games in Sochi. You need to understand a simple thing: no one is interested in a "weak" opponent. The more often we began to receive the right to host certain competitions, the better we conducted them and the more often we won, the more irritated everyone around us. This happens in any other area of human life. Therefore, as soon as there was a political attitude in the world about the isolation of our country, the question immediately arose: why not pull the appropriate strings in sports?
Well, in 1980, one of the global tasks of our state was precisely to show the world: Moscow is a beautiful civilized city, and not a dense taiga with bears, where some poor people live. That Olympics played an even more important role for people. First of all, it was a colossal joy to see such a grandiose sports event in your country. It is no coincidence that at the closing ceremony, even the hardened cynics had a lump in their throat when the Olympic bear flew into the sky. It was this spirit of universal unity, the consciousness that we are capable of surprising the world not only with flights into space, that aroused tremendous feelings among citizens.
We discussed for a long time where the bicycle track would be located, studied various sites. In modern international rules it is said that the track should be 250 m. At the stadium of Young Pioneers, it was exactly like this - very old, made of reinforced concrete structures. But in 1980, the requirements were prescribed to have a size of 333.3 m.
It is clear that everyone's first thought was to build a new track in place of the old one. This would require increasing the building area by only 100 m. But we were not allowed. How we fought back then ... We insisted that after the Games such a structure could be used for a variety of purposes, that its location would provide it with a load. One of the main specialists in the organizing committee, Alexei Kupriyanov, himself went to the authorities, tried to convince, but the Moscow authorities resisted: the stadium of the Young Pioneers is an architectural monument.
The track, which was built in Krylatskoye for the 1980 Olympics, turned out to be unique - also because the cover for it was made of a special type of wood - Siberian larch. He was very "fast", perhaps at that time the "fastest" in the world. During the Games, 13 world records were set on it.
I myself saw Robert Dill-Bundy, who became Olympic champion in the individual pursuit, kiss the canvas that was happy for him. Four years later, the famous Italian racer Francesco Moser came to Moscow to set a world record in an hour race.
Paradoxically, in the entire history of the track's existence, it was completely filled only twice: during the Games and that very Moser record. The problem of operating the Olympic facilities was quite topical even then: loading the facilities so that they did not stand idle and did not decay was a rather difficult task that required a special program of action. That is why we made so much effort to build a velodrome in the city center, not on the outskirts. It was clear, after all, that it would most likely never be possible to lure people into Krylatskoye en masse.
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"Martynov created a" dovetail ", which was inserted into the pedal from the side and clicked"
Every day our athletes won more and more medals. Then a lot of stories arose that during the Moscow Games the Russians came up with a bunch of all kinds of tricks. It's like with the gates at Luzhniki, which were opened at the right time so that the air flow would pick up the projectile of “its” athlete and carry it beyond the record mark.
I have never taken such reasoning seriously. In general, it is human nature to exaggerate many things. I remember at the very beginning of my managerial career I wrote a memo to the Central Committee. And then he told a comrade who held a fairly high post, they say, “above” they should not only understand that all this is important and necessary, but also solve the problem, since the smartest, most worthy and most responsible are gathered there. In those years it seemed to me that if not gods, then demigods, for sure, were in the Central Committee.
“You think too well of them. If you can’t find a solution on your own, it’s stupid to believe that it will be done “there,” the comrade laughed in response.
So it was in sports. If one country wins all, the losers are more likely to say that the winners are “eating something,” have invented something, rather than admit their own weakness.
Although, in relation to cycling, I have come across truly unique people. One of them is Gennady Martynov, who worked at the Institute of Physical Education at the Department of Cycling, the inventor of the metal pedal duplex. Before that, there was a belt that tightened the boot. The explosive force and, accordingly, the load on it was such that the skin was torn to shreds, and there was no question of any reliable grip.
Gena created a “dovetail” that was inserted into the pedal from the side and clicked into place. At first, the novelty seemed too traumatic, and many then looked at the inventor himself as a little crazy. He rode a bicycle all year round, and apart from that he seemed to be interested in nothing at all. And after a period of time, the idea was picked up by Adidas and began to massively produce metal duplexes for professional cycling.
Gena was the first to come up with a modification of a bicycle handlebar that allowed athletes to ride with their arms straight. But even then we only laughed at him, and later it was just such, but slightly improved steering wheels that some Japanese company began to produce.
"People who have a lot of weight in the scientific world worked in sports science"
I don’t think it’s worth taking stories about any special tricks seriously. It was rather different. Since the importance of successful performance was understood at all levels, we did everything possible to provide our athletes with the best conditions for training, accommodation, tried to provide them with the appropriate service in absolutely everything.
We bought the best equipment at that time - the same bicycles, since our country did not produce cars of the required quality. We pulled up related services - the same medicine - to provide people with the most effective rehabilitation. Then I was told that there was an oxygen tent on the track, into which the athletes entered before the start and breathed oxygen. Maybe she was. I myself have not seen this tent, but I do not exclude this at all. Moreover, such things did not contradict any existing rules at that time.
Our rowers - kayakers and canoeists - were preparing for that Olympics near Ryazan. A magnificent place, pine trees all around - clean Baltic states in terms of climate. Once I asked Viktor Gorelov, who headed this base for many years, and then was a member of the national team, why did the idea even arise to send the team there?
Gorelov explained to me that their "science" - and then entire teams of all kinds of specialists were attached to each team - discovered that in this place a completely different density of water and a different current. After all, at that time we did not yet have special water channels for rowing, so we had to look for certain natural conditions that would allow us to perform this or that work. Athletes came there for a training camp, then went out into the free water and ... There is such a term “rowing” or “not rowing”. So after those trainings near Ryazan our “rowing” was very cool.
Athletes even then used pressure chambers for rehabilitation, which later began to be used in many sports. One of the most famous physiologists Anatoly Korobkov, who headed the Research Institute of Physical Culture in the 60s, was engaged in this topic. I don't know if he was an athlete himself, but he worked a lot with this sport, then became a professor, wrote a large number of works on physiology. To a certain extent, such things also determined the level of the Moscow Olympics: people who had a lot of weight in the scientific world of the country and were recognized by this world worked everywhere in sports science.
Probably, this fact can also be considered an advantage that our Olympic team had over all others.
"Methods of analysis for doping were quite primitive"
Surprisingly, I do not remember at all that there were precedents of a doping nature at the Moscow Olympics, or that the issue of pharmacology, which is now put at the forefront at all the Games, was somehow especially closely fixed. Perhaps the requirements were different. And besides, there was not such a powerful network of inspection bodies as the one we have now. There was a medical commission of the International Olympic Committee. It was led by Prince De Merode, who was not even a medic.
The International Cycling Federation had its own commission. It was led by Dr. Slavik, a Czech by nationality. In his main specialization, he was an orthopedist, he headed a clinic in Prague, very actively working in his profession, he was in contact with the best doctors in Europe, including Professor Gabriel Elizarov, the famous Kurgan orthopedist, who was able to recover the legendary Valery Brumel after severe fractures. Dr. Slavik was a member of the IOC medical commission, and through him I learned about some trends.
Of course, doping tests were taken from all the winners and not only. But there are two factors to consider. Firstly, no one set the task at all costs to convict someone of something. Second, the control mechanisms were different. It was only later, when professionals were admitted to amateur sports and an active struggle against prohibited drugs began, super-modern laboratories appeared, and the resolution of the equipment rose sharply. And then the methods of analysis were quite primitive.
When I think about this, I often come to the conclusion that the IOC, while elevating the world Olympic movement to a superlative degree, has not yet realized the extent of its responsibility for the development of the doping system.
"There are five people at the gathering point for the delegation of athletes"
Towards the end of the Moscow Olympics, a situation occurred that allowed me to see the then chairman of the USSR Sports Committee, Sergei Pavlov, from a completely unexpected perspective. By the way, I don’t think that many of those who worked with him during the Games know about him.
Pavlov headed the headquarters of the Soviet delegation, which included me, as the head of the Dynamo group, especially since a fairly large number of competitions were held at the Dynamo facilities. This list included a shooting range in Mytishchi, a game room on Lavochkin Street and others. In the mornings, I had to get up a little light, at six or seven o'clock I was already holding a meeting of my own headquarters, where they reported to me a summary of the previous day, then the competition began, plus cycling. In the evening, we met without fail at Pavlov's in the Olympic village, solved some current problems, summed up the results. In general, there were enough everyday worries. In this regard, I went to bed at one, or even two in the morning, at best, in order to get up again at four or five in the morning.
On the one hand, it was an extremely interesting and "dense" life. On the other hand, fatigue had already accumulated to such an extent that everyone subconsciously waited for everything to end.
On the final day of the Games, my friend, pentathlete Oleg Chuvilin, who headed one of the departments in the Sports Committee, and I went to the closing ceremony of the Olympics - in official ceremonial suits, everything as it should be. There was probably an hour or an hour and a half left before the ceremony, and perhaps even less. Pavlov was already on the government platform, while our seats were located directly below it. And suddenly a man comes running from Pavlov: "Sergei Pavlovich asks you to get up to him urgently."
Naturally, I went up to the box. I look, there is literally no face on Pavlov. I ask him: "What happened?" And I hear in response: “There are five people at the meeting point of the delegation of our athletes at the Small Sports Arena. Guys, help out. Do what you want: get everyone out of the rostrum, but by all means you need to complete the "box".
Chuvilin and I rushed to the Small Sports Arena. When we got there, there was already a man, probably 15. It was humanly clear to everyone what was the matter: they won the Olympics triumphantly, relaxed. But it was absolutely impossible to allow the victorious country to appear at the stadium in such a pitiful form, in this respect I perfectly understood Pavlov, especially since members of the Politburo were to appear on the podium any minute.
We began to grab everyone who was heading to the stands in the costumes of the Soviet team. They explained briefly: "Guys, we urgently need your help." As a result, they nevertheless put together a "box" of 40 or 50 people, they themselves stood at the head.
My wife then sat on the podium and then said that she did not have time to understand anything at all: it seemed that I was just nearby, then I went somewhere, bam - and already I was walking through the stadium. But the embarrassment was avoided.