Speed Skating Competition

The U.S.S.R., which had dominated the speed skating competition in the 1956 Games at Cortina, continued to display great power in the events at Squaw Valley. Russia's two greatest stars in speed skating were Lidija Skoblikova and Eugeni Grishin.

Miss Skoblikova won gold medals in both the 1500 and 3000 meter races and finished fourth in the 1000 meter event. She set a world record of 2:25.2 in the 1500 meter race. In winning the latter race, Miss Skoblikova finished only five-tenths of a second faster than Elwira Seroczynska of Poland.

The Russian girls were particularly dominant, winning three first places in the four ladies' speed skating races They also captured six of the 12 Olympic medals in the four races.
Grishin successfully defended the 500 meter title he won at Cortina in 1956. He tied the world record of 40.2 at Squaw Valley, barely edging William D Disney of the United States. Disney had a 40.3 clocking Grishin also tied for first in the 1500 meter race. He was clocked in 2:10.4, the same as Roald Edgar Aas of Norway, who shared the Olympic 1500 meter crown.
Another U.S.S.R. representative who skated brilliantly at Squaw Valley was Viktor Kosichkin, who placed first in the 5000 meter race and second in the 10,000 meter event.

Speed Skating 1,500m women

Perhaps the greatest speed skating star of the Games was Knut Johannesen of Norway, who finished second to Kosichkin at 5000 meters and set an unbelievable new world record in the 10,000 meter race. He was clocked in 15:46.6 in winning the 10,000 to become the first skater in history to break 16 minutes for the distance. At that, Kosichkin finished a close second with a 15:49.2 clocking.

The Norwegian men skaters performed excellently at Squaw Valley, actually threatening the U.S.S.R. domination The Russians won three gold medals to Norway's two, and captured six medals totally to Norway's three.

The competitions were run off excellently, with Sven Laftman of Sweden serving as referee. He was assisted by Del Lamb of the United States. Dick McCarter and Gilbert Van Willigen, both of the United States, were chief starter and assistant starter, respectively. Bill Keith, the Organizing Committee's director of skating events, and his staff also deserve considerable credit.

Figure Skating Competition

As was the case at Cortina in 1956, American athletes were most prominent in the figure skating competition. Closest rivals to the Americans were representatives from Canada.

Barbara A. Wagner and Robert Paul

On the first day of competition, the Canadian pairs team of Barbara A. Wagner and Robert Paul gave an almost flawless performance to earn a gold medal. Very few Americans had ever seen such stylish skating, and Miss Wagner and Paul were extremely popular winners. Marika Kilius and Hans J. Baumler of Germany placed second in pairs figure skating, and Nancy and Ronald Ludington of the United States captured third place honors and bronze medals.

McKinney Creek Stadium

Work on the McKinney Creek Stadium began in August, 1959.

It was rectangular, 250 meters long and 45 meters wide, although in some spots it was only 34 meters wide.

The stadium area contained a Timing Building, which housed the communications room, calculation room and Race Secretary's office in addition to the timing staff and equipment. The public address announcer and his staff were located on top of the Timing Building. Sixteen radio booths also were located on the roof.

There were two 20' x 48' quonset huts for competitors. Each was divided into eight rooms for changing, waxing, and resting. Showers were not located in this area because of lack of water, and this worked a definite hardship on the athletes.

One quonset hut, 20' x 64', contained working space for the press, with tables, typewriters, teletype machines, telephones, and a darkroom for developing of film.
Another 20' x 48' quonset was one-fourth for administrative personnel and three-fourths for course preparation workers. Still another hut was used by the ski patrol and course workers. One other was used for equipment storage and oversnow vehicle maintenance.

The scoreboard was 54' long and 13' high, with the base 12' off the ground. Each racer's time was shown on the left side. The ten best times were always shown for two interval time points. In back of the scoreboard flew the Olympic Flag, the American Flag, and the Organizing Committee Flag. Flags of each nation competing in the Games were flown down the east and west sides of the stadium. There were bleachers for 200 press and 1,000 spectators.

Skating Facilities

The Blyth Memorial Arena

Hub of all skating activity at the VIII Olympic Winter Games was, of course, the Blyth Memorial Arena. The theme building of the Games which had won a national award for progressive architecture in 1958, proved extremely functional as well as beautiful.

The arena complex, which included all ice surfaces outside the arena as well as that under the main roof, was easily accessible to all athletes, officials and spectators by foot. Included were three hockey-sized rinks (85' x 190'), and a 400-meter speed skating oval. A fifth practice rink — a portable one — was located near the Village.

All figure skating competition and all but a few of the exciting ice hockey games were played in the main arena, marking the first time in Olympic history such competition was held under a roof. Another first occurred in speed skating at Squaw Valley, where the competition was staged on an artificial surface for the first time in Olympic annals.

The roof of the main arena was built on the suspension principle, which eliminated all supports that would have blocked the vision of some spectators. The steel in the roof beams weighs 900 tons, and the roof decking weighs an additional 300 tons. The roof is designed to withhold a snow load of 80 pounds per square foot.

One End Open

One end of the arena was covered by the crests of many of the competing nations, while the other end was opened during the opening and closing ceremonies and was closed by swinging bleachers during the competitions. The rink in the main area has a monolithic floor; thus, it can be used for non-skating activities.

The ice surface for the five rinks is 11,200 square feet or 2.9 acres, and the pipes, if stretched out, would cover 72 miles. A large, complex refrigeration unit is required to freeze such a large amount of ice. The refrigerant was Freon 12, and 22% Calcium Chloride was used for brine.

By using the principle of reverse cycle, the system not only froze the ice surfaces but also heated the internal areas of the building and the bleacher sections. The hot air also helped remove snow from the roof.

Over 700 tons of refrigeration could be developed by the unit. Forty-eight hundred household refrigerators could have been serviced by the equipment, and the air evaporator could air-condition 233 average homes with its 350,000 cubic foot per minute total. The electric load of the arena was 4,234 kilowatts.

The refrigeration plant required a complex control system to provide separately controlled temperatures at the various rinks, and to distribute the heat to the various areas.
Longines-Wittnauer donated two large scoreboards, which provided information for the hockey events and displayed electrically all the judges' markings for the figure skating. A crystal oscillator frequency standard was used for producing timing pulses to operate the scoreboards, making the system accurate to 1/1000 of a second.

Forty-two clusters of 750-watt projection reflectors were hung from the roof to provide the arena ice surface with a unique and powerful lighting system. Each light had its own independent cable system, and it could be lowered to the floor for quick, easy repairs.

THE BIATHLON

The biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship, was included in the Squaw Valley program, marking the first time the event had ever been held in an Olympic Winter Games. Biathlon is most popular in the Scandinavian countries, and is held in other European nations as well.

Capt. Rolf Gerlofson, technical delegate appointed by the U.I.P.M., first surveyed for a suitable location as early as March, 1957. The biathlon ranges were completed in the summer of 1958, and final refinements were made the following summer.

The biathlon course was part of the network of courses used for all cross-country races at McKinney Creek. The firing ranges were located at the following points on the 20-kilometer course: 6.5 km—200 meter range; 9.5 km 250 meter range; 12.5 km 150 meter range; and 15 km 100 meter range. Each range had 15 pull-type targets with five relays, which permitted up to 75 competitors to fire.

Since there was no record of pull targets being used in previous biathlon competition, it was necessary to design and construct a workable system. A simple "sleeve and plunger" system was devised, enabling Chief of Race Birger Torrissen and his crews to raise and lower targets when changing them. Thus, the target could be changed and the results relayed to the scorekeeper immediately after each competitor completed his five rounds of firing.

Results Reach Spectators Quickly

Each range had communications lines between the pits and firing line, as well as into the Timing Building in the stadium area. During the competition, the hits of each competitor were phoned to the stadium area, where it was announced to the spectators and posted on the scoreboard.

A practice firing range was available in the Squaw Valley-Deer Park area. Also, the 250-meter range that was used in actual competition was made available for practice. The four-man crew that built the ranges was retained as preparation crew during and prior to the competition.

This was advantageous, as they were familiar with the design and construction of the ranges and trails. This facilitated preparation of the ranges. The permanent crew was supplemented by military personnel for the competition. Actually, the military personnel, consisting of four 20-man teams, began conditioning the shooting stations three weeks prior to the competition.

Cross-country events

The cross-country ski races were held at McKinney Creek, approximately 12 miles south of Squaw Valley on Highway 89. The start and finish area was only about 1000 feet off the highway and easily accessible. These events and the biathlon were the only ones not held at Squaw Valley.

McKinney Creek

It was the Organizing Committee's original intention to hold most of the cross-country competitions at Squaw Valley, with only the less popular events to be staged at McKinney Creek. However, by the summer of 1958 it became apparent that real estate developments in Squaw Valley would make it impossible to hold any of the crosscountry races there, and the entire cross-country program was moved to McKinney Creek.

After the proposed courses were inspected by Knut Korsvold, technical delegate for the F.LS., and Sigge Bergman, chairman of the F.I.S. cross-country committee, preparation of the trails began. The trails were completed by the summer of 1959.

Preparation of the courses began as soon as there was 18 inches of snow, so that mechanical equipment could be used. It was discovered during the Trial Events of 1959 that mechanical equipment greatly expedited course preparation.

The mechanical course preparation and the setting of a track was done the night before each cross-country event. About two and one-half hours before the starting time of each race, manual crews skied the courses and raked all downhill sections. Each crew assigned a certain section of the course remained there during the race to act as course police. Immediately following a race the course crews removed all marking flags, kilometer signs, and other such equipment, and moved them to the course to be used for the next race.