Cross-country skiing at the 1980 Winter Olympics – Men's 15 kilometre

The men's 15 kilometre cross-country skiing competition at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, United States, was held on Sunday 17 February at the Mount Van Hoevenberg in Essex County, New York.[1]

Men's 15 kilometre
at the XIII Olympic Winter Games
VenueMount Van Hoevenberg
Dates17 February
Competitors63 from 22 nations
Winning time41:57.63
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Thomas Wassberg
 Sweden
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Juha Mieto
 Finland
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Ove Aunli
 Norway
← 1976
1984 →

Favourites edit

Józef Łuszczek of Poland was the 1978 World champion and Nikolay Bazhukov of the Soviet Union was the defending champion from the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.[2]

The Race edit

Each skier started at half a minute intervals, skiing the entire 15 kilometre course. The race developed into the closest duel in the history of cross-country skiing.[2] Thomas Wassberg of Sweden and Finnish veteran Juha Mieto fought a tight battle for the gold medal. Wassberg started last of the 63 participants, half a minute behind Norwegian Ove Aunli. Mieto, wearing bib 54, started half a minute behind the reigning world champion at the distance, Polish skier Józef Łuszczek.

Wassberg started fast, and at the 5 km mark he had caught Aunli by 30 seconds and was in the lead, three seconds ahead of Mieto.[2] Łuszczek also had a strong opener, only ten seconds behind the leader, closely followed by the 19-year old West German Jochen Behle and the 30 km winner Nikolay Zimyatov. At 10 km Wassberg had increased his lead to 4.8 seconds. Mieto, still in second place, had almost caught Łuszczek, starting half a minute in front of him, but the Pole was still in third place, now 30 seconds behind Wassberg. Aunli had been able to adjust his speed by following Wassberg and advanced from 13th to fifth place. Only two seconds separated the four fastest skiers behind Wassberg and Mieto 5 km from home. Behle had dropped down to ninth at 10 km and was out of contention for the medals.

Juha Mieto passed Łuszczek and left him behind before crossing the finish line in 41:57.64, beating Zimyatov's time by 36 seconds.[2] Thomas Wassberg, still skiing together with Aunli, was told 500 m from home that he had a one second lead over Mieto, and, fighting desperately, crossed the finish line in 41:57.63. He won the race by the closest possible margin, one hundredth of a second.[3] Aunli secured the bronze medal for Norway, beating Zimyatov by 5 seconds.

Aftermath edit

Wassberg proposed to Mieto that they could cut their medals in two parts and then melt them together as a mixed gold-silver medal. Mieto politely thanked him, but said no to the idea, and ended the 1980 season by winning the unofficial Cross-Country World Cup for the second consecutive time. The International Ski Federation (FIS) decided shortly after the 1980 Olympics that all times in cross-country races would henceforth be rounded to the nearest tenth of a second.[3]

Results edit

Sources:[4][1]

Rank Bib Name Country Time Deficit
  63 Thomas Wassberg   Sweden 41:57.63
  54 Juha Mieto   Finland 41:57.64 +0.01
  62 Ove Aunli   Norway 42:28.62 +30.99
4 41 Nikolay Zimyatov   Soviet Union 42:33.96 +36.33
5 14 Yevgeny Belyayev   Soviet Union 42:46.02 +48.39
6 53 Józef Łuszczek   Poland 42:59.03 +1:01.40
7 2 Alexander Zavyalov   Soviet Union 43:00.81 +1:03.18
8 33 Harri Kirvesniemi   Finland 43:02.01 +1:04.38
9 30 Oddvar Brå   Norway 43:05.64 +1:08.01
10 5 Lars Erik Eriksen   Norway 43:11.51 +1:13.88
11 29 Thomas Eriksson   Sweden 43:11.88 +1:14.25
12 40 Jochen Behle   West Germany 43:16.05 +1:18.42
13 58 Vasily Rochev   Soviet Union 43:16.86 +1:19.23
14 51 Jean-Paul Pierrat   France 43:32.53 +1:34.90
15 59 Ivan Lebanov   Bulgaria 43:37.32 +1:39.69
16 49 Bill Koch   United States 43:38.56 +1:40.93
17 44 Benny Kohlberg   Sweden 43:39.22 +1:41.59
18 10 Sven-Eric Danielsson   Sweden 43:41.21 +1:43.58
19 11 Kari Härkönen   Finland 43:50.31 +1:52.68
20 27 Pertti Teurajärvi   Finland 43:59.08 +2:01.45
21 31 Wolfgang Müller   West Germany 44:02.54 +2:04.91
22 36 Stan Dunklee   United States 44:03.84 +2:06.21
23 39 Jiří Švub   Czechoslovakia 44:20.15 +2:22.52
24 50 Jiří Beran   Czechoslovakia 44:27.78 +2:30.15
25 22 Tim Caldwell   United States 44:30.41 +2:32.78
26 7 Peter Zipfel   West Germany 44:38.23 +2:40.60
27 55 Franz Renggli   Switzerland 44:38.66 +2:41.03
28 47 Paul Fargeix   France 44:39.94 +2:42.31
29 38 Konrad Hallenbarter   Switzerland 44:42.12 +2:44.49
30 48 Tore Gullen   Norway 44:42.73 +2:45.10
31 60 Maurilio De Zolt   Italy 44:43.19 +2:45.56
32 15 Hansüli Kreuzer   Switzerland 44:44.66 +2:47.03
33 12 Jim Galanes   United States 44:46.48 +2:48.85
34 3 Giorgio Vanzetta   Italy 44:52.18 +2:54.55
35 4 Alfred Schindler   Switzerland 44:52.93 +2:55.30
36 52 Dieter Notz   West Germany 44:54.11 +2:56.48
37 56 Alf-Gerd Deckert   East Germany 45:00.40 +3:02.77
38 45 Khristo Barzanov   Bulgaria 45:05.21 +3:07.58
39 37 Giulio Capitanio   Italy 45:10.40 +3:12.77
40 1 František Šimon   Czechoslovakia 45:12.09 +3:14.46
41 43 Ivo Čarman   Yugoslavia 45:14.32 +3:16.69
42 17 Gerard Durand-Poudret   France 45:47.26 +3:49.63
43 42 Shiro Sato   Japan 46:15.29 +4:17.66
44 20 Miloš Bečvář   Czechoslovakia 46:18.13 +4:20.50
45 8 Dominique Locatelli   France 47:06.72 +5:09.09
46 25 Tone Ðuričič   Yugoslavia 47:38.45 +5:40.82
47 21 Haukur Sigurðsson   Iceland 47:44.00 +5:46.37
48 19 Luvsandashiin Dorj   Mongolia 48:05.78 +6:08.15
49 35 Charles MacIvor   Great Britain 48:37.57 +6:39.94
50 23 Lin Guangho   China 48:38.36 +6:40.73
51 13 Þröstur Jóhannesson   Iceland 49:37.75 +7:40.12
52 9 Michael Goode   Great Britain 49:47.20 +7:49.57
53 28 Emiliano Morlans   Spain 50:42.33 +8:44.70
54 32 Ingólfur Jónsson   Iceland 50:51.50 +8:53.87
55 6 José Giro   Spain 51:30.06 +9:32.43
56 34 Marcos Luis Jerman   Argentina 52:02.42 +10:04.79
57 24 Philip Jacklin   Great Britain 52:14.17 +10:16.54
58 46 Kim Nam-young   South Korea 53:05.55 +11:07.92
59 18 Hwang Byung-dae   South Korea 53:05.60 +11:07.97
60 26 Martín Tomás Jerman   Argentina 53:38.47 +11:40.84
61 61 Matías José Jerman   Argentina 55:50.61 +13:52.98
16 Giampaolo Rupil   Italy DNF
57 Kim Dong-hwan   South Korea DNF

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Lake Placid 15 km Men". www.skisport365.com. skisport365. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d "Cross Country Skiing at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games: Men's 15 kilometres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b "CROSS COUNTRY STAR WASSBERG OPENS HIS OLYMPIC GOLD ACCOUNT". olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  4. ^ "15 km Men". www.olympic.org. IOC. Retrieved 7 October 2023.

External links edit