Word: olympiades
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...instruction and awards. Designed for the masses, the Soviet sports machine has nonetheless produced an athletic elite of awesome proportions, with all the international political benefits that implies. Just as do many other countries, the U.S.S.R. views sport as a useful political weapon. Since participating in its first modern Olympiad in 1952 in Helsinki, the Soviet Union has won 685 medals in the Summer Games-more than any other nation during those years (the U.S., in second place, has collected 603). The Kremlin considered this year's Games in Moscow-the first ever held in a Communist nation...
...Olympic gold could be mined from handball-a sport not seriously pursued in the Soviet Union. Word went out to the local sports schools to set up crash training programs for gandbolisty. "We are proud of such 'interference,' " said Sergei Pavlov, Minister of Sports. At the first Olympiad after that decision, in Montreal in 1976, Soviet players entered both the men's and women's handball matches and walked away with gold medals...
...Olympic Committee has charged companies $50,000 for the right to become official suppliers to the U.S. team and use the Olympiad symbol in advertising. It also charges an additional $250,000 or more for permission to run consumer-sales promotions tied to the Games. None of the payment is refundable even if American athletes boycott Moscow. The Chicago firm VPI, Inc., for example, has stockpiled 28,000 mugs and 15,000 key rings emblazoned with the Olympic design or drawings of Misha the bear, the Games' official mascot...
After several years experimenting--often unsuccessfully--with the lucrative acting and endorsement opportunities awaiting him upon return from Munich in 1972, Mark Spitz, the celebrated swim star of the 20th Olympiad, decided to try his hand in business. While not yet approaching a par with his swimming achievements, the Californian is doing just fine as head of his own SUMARK Corporation...
...four-man bobsled pair the world's best racers and the world's fastest, toughest course in duels of icy nerve at speeds of up to 95 m.p.h. A fortnight of competition concludes (7 p.m.-10:30 p.m.) with ceremonies marking the end of the 13th Winter Olympiad...