Word: spartakiad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Through this gleaning process the Soviet Union eventually selects its Olympic athletes. The best in team sports are selected through regional and national championships, while the finest in individual sports are determined in the quadrennial Spartakiad, a sort of dress-rehearsal Olympics held in Moscow the summer before the Games. In 1979, 90 million Soviet athletes tried out in local and regional contests, and 10,000 eventually took part in Spartakiad...
...British Olympic Committee, defying its own government, voted in March to participate and insisted last week that it will not change. When the Games open in Moscow on July 19, they will be considerably less than a true Olympics, but apparently a lot more than a mere Communist-bloc Spartakiad...