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

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Men's 15 kilometre
at the XIII Olympic Winter Games
Cross country skiing pictogram.svg
Venue Mount Van Hoevenberg
Dates17 February 1980
Competitors63 from 22 nations
Winning time41:57.63
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Thomas Wassberg
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Silver medal icon.svg Juha Mieto
Flag of Finland.svg  Finland
Bronze medal icon.svg Ove Aunli
Flag of Norway.svg  Norway
  1976
1984  

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]

Favourites

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

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

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

Sources: [4] [1]

RankBibNameCountryTimeDeficit
Gold medal icon.svg63 Thomas Wassberg Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 41:57.63
Silver medal icon.svg54 Juha Mieto Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 41:57.64+0.01
Bronze medal icon.svg62 Ove Aunli Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 42:28.62+30.99
441 Nikolay Zimyatov Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 42:33.96+36.33
514 Yevgeny Belyayev Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 42:46.02+48.39
653 Józef Łuszczek Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 42:59.03+1:01.40
72 Alexander Zavyalov Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 43:00.81+1:03.18
833 Harri Kirvesniemi Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 43:02.01+1:04.38
930 Oddvar Brå Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 43:05.64+1:08.01
105 Lars Erik Eriksen Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 43:11.51+1:13.88
1129 Thomas Eriksson Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 43:11.88+1:14.25
1240 Jochen Behle Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany 43:16.05+1:18.42
1358 Vasily Rochev Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 43:16.86+1:19.23
1451 Jean-Paul Pierrat Flag of France.svg  France 43:32.53+1:34.90
1559 Ivan Lebanov Flag of Bulgaria (1971-1990).svg  Bulgaria 43:37.32+1:39.69
1649 Bill Koch Flag of the United States.svg  United States 43:38.56+1:40.93
1744 Benny Kohlberg Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 43:39.22+1:41.59
1810 Sven-Erik Danielsson Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 43:41.21+1:43.58
1911 Kari Härkönen Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 43:50.31+1:52.68
2027 Pertti Teurajärvi Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 43:59.08+2:01.45
2131 Wolfgang Müller Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany 44:02.54+2:04.91
2236 Stan Dunklee Flag of the United States.svg  United States 44:03.84+2:06.21
2339 Jiří Švub Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 44:20.15+2:22.52
2450 Jiří Beran Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 44:27.78+2:30.15
2522 Tim Caldwell Flag of the United States.svg  United States 44:30.41+2:32.78
267 Peter Zipfel Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany 44:38.23+2:40.60
2755 Franz Renggli Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 44:38.66+2:41.03
2847 Paul Fargeix Flag of France.svg  France 44:39.94+2:42.31
2938 Konrad Hallenbarter Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 44:42.12+2:44.49
3048 Tore Gullen Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 44:42.73+2:45.10
3160 Maurilio De Zolt Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 44:43.19+2:45.56
3215 Hansüli Kreuzer Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 44:44.66+2:47.03
3312 Jim Galanes Flag of the United States.svg  United States 44:46.48+2:48.85
343 Giorgio Vanzetta Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 44:52.18+2:54.55
354 Alfred Schindler Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 44:52.93+2:55.30
3652 Dieter Notz Flag of Germany.svg  West Germany 44:54.11+2:56.48
3756 Alf-Gerd Deckert Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 45:00.40+3:02.77
3845 Khristo Barzanov Flag of Bulgaria (1971-1990).svg  Bulgaria 45:05.21+3:07.58
3937 Giulio Capitanio Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 45:10.40+3:12.77
401 František Šimon Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 45:12.09+3:14.46
4143 Ivo Čarman Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg  Yugoslavia 45:14.32+3:16.69
4217 Gerard Durand-Poudret Flag of France.svg  France 45:47.26+3:49.63
4342 Shiro Sato Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg  Japan 46:15.29+4:17.66
4420 Miloš Bečvář Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 46:18.13+4:20.50
458 Dominique Locatelli Flag of France.svg  France 47:06.72+5:09.09
4625 Tone Ðuričič Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg  Yugoslavia 47:38.45+5:40.82
4721 Haukur Sigurðsson Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 47:44.00+5:46.37
4819 Luvsandashiin Dorj Flag of the Mongolian People's Republic (1945-1992).svg  Mongolia 48:05.78+6:08.15
4935 Charles MacIvor Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 48:37.57+6:39.94
5023 Lin Guangho Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 48:38.36+6:40.73
5113 Þröstur Jóhannesson Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 49:37.75+7:40.12
529 Michael Goode Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 49:47.20+7:49.57
5328 Emiliano Morlans Flag of Spain (1977-1981).svg  Spain 50:42.33+8:44.70
5432 Ingólfur Jónsson Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 50:51.50+8:53.87
556 José Giro Flag of Spain (1977-1981).svg  Spain 51:30.06+9:32.43
5634 Marcos Luis Jerman Flag of Argentina (1861-2010).svg  Argentina 52:02.42+10:04.79
5724 Philip Jacklin Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 52:14.17+10:16.54
5846 Kim Nam-young Flag of South Korea (1949-1984).svg  South Korea 53:05.55+11:07.92
5918 Hwang Byung-dae Flag of South Korea (1949-1984).svg  South Korea 53:05.60+11:07.97
6026 Martín Tomás Jerman Flag of Argentina (1861-2010).svg  Argentina 53:38.47+11:40.84
6161 Matías José Jerman Flag of Argentina (1861-2010).svg  Argentina 55:50.61+13:52.98
16 Giampaolo Rupil Flag of Italy.svg  Italy DNF
57Kim Dong-hwanFlag of South Korea (1949-1984).svg  South Korea DNF

References

  1. 1 2 "Lake Placid 15 km Men". www.skisport365.com. skisport365. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "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. 1 2 "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.