History

Sapporo had been chosen to host the 1940 Winter Olympics, which were cancelled because of World War II. It finally happened in 1972; up until then, the Winter Games had always been staged in Europe or North America.

Avery Brundage, the crusty 84-year-old who was in his last year as president of the Interational Olympic Committee, had long crusaded against commercialization of Olympic sports. As the 1972 Winter Games approached, he decided to make an example of Alpine skiing, which had become highly commercialized in Europe.

Brundage threatened to ban virtually every world-class skier from competition for taking money from equipment manufacturers, an accepted practice for "amateurs."

The International Ski Federation and the Japanese organizers naturally protested, and Brundage finally backed down. However, Karl Schranz of Austria, probably the wealthiest of the European skiers, was declared ineligible.

Meanwhile, Hockey Canada had petitioned the International Ice Hockey Federation to allow National Hockey League players to take part in international competition, including the Olympics. Canada argued that Soviet athletes were actually professionals, since they were paid by their government to practice and play; therefore, Canada's professional hockey players should also be allowed to compete. When the IIHF and IOC both rejected the petition, Canada declined to send a team to the Olympic hockey tournament.

Once they got started, the Sapporo Games went off without a hitch. The major European stars were Ard Schenk of the Netherlands, who won three speed skating events, and 17-year-old Marie-Therese Nadig of Switzerland, who scored major upsets in both the downhill and the giant slalom. Nadig later told reporters that she won by imagining that she was "Herbie the Love Bug" from the Disney movie about a Volkswagen Beetle that becomes a winning race car. "Inside me, I always heard a voice crying out, 'Go, Herbie, go,'" she said.

The host country had surprising success in the 70-meter ski jump, where Japanese athletes won all three medals. Wojciech Fortuna of Poland was the surprise champion in the 90-meter ski jump. And Francisco Fernandez Ochoa became Spain's first winter gold medalist with his victory in the men's slalom.

American men managed only one medal, a silver in ice hockey, but the women produced six medals, including three gold. Barbara Ann Cochran won the slalom to give the U. S. its first skiing victory since 1952. Speed skaters Dianne Holum and Anne Henning were the other champions.

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