Goodwill Games

In the shadows of the beautiful Adirondack mountains, legends rose at the first-ever Winter Goodwill Games. From February 17-20, 442 athletes from 22 countries converged on the winter enclave of Lake Placid, New York, to put their greatness to the test. From Whiteface Mountain to Mt. Van Hoevenberg, and McKenzie-Intervale Ski Jump Complex to the Olympic Arena, athletes made their mark on the snow and the ice as they slid, skied, jumped and skated their way to Goodwill Games gold and glory.

The Games in historic Lake Placid, New York were the first to present a strictly winter sports schedule. The program included 11 winter sports: alpine skiing, bobsled, cross country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, nordic combined, short track speedskating, skeleton, ski jumping and snowboarding. Athletes competed for a substantial prize purse in Lake Placid. Locally, the Games worked with the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). ORDA manages the facilities used during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid. TNT, the Games host network, televised 16 hours of exclusive coverage of the event.

Eleven sponsors, in addition to promotional partner America Online, supported the first-ever winter edition of the Goodwill Games. Sponsors embraced the new winter concept and realized the potential exposure opportunities, both on site and prior to the Games.

All in all, the 2000 Winter Goodwill Games set new hallmarks for winter sports competition. Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. and AOL Time Warner again combined world-class athletics and entertainment, this time to create a winter wonderland in Lake Placid, New York and a first-rate broadcast for TNT. Competition highlights included:

Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria set a world record in short track speedskating - twice. Radanova first broke the 500m record in the semifinal and then again in the final (43.873 sec).
In an exciting sprint to the finish, Marcus Nash and Justin Wadsworth of Team USA just barely edged out Ola Rygg and Brynjar Sjaerli of Team Norway to win the cross country team competition by a mere two-tenths of a second.
Surya Bonaly secured her spot at the top of ladies figure skating when she captured the gold medal after a stunning performance.
Chris Puckett of the USA managed two solid finishes to garner second place in both downhill races.
Team USA was dominant in the snowboard halfpipe, taking first and second places in the women's competition and sweeping all three positions in the men's.
Canada's Francois-Louis Tremblay carved a short track success story, becoming the first triple gold medalist by winning the men's 1000 and 500 meters, and as a member of the Canadian 5,000 meter relay team.
Kari Traa of Norway edged out rival Ann Battelle for the gold in moguls, only to have their roles reversed in dual moguls when Battelle took the gold and Traa captured the bronze behind Aiko Uemura of Japan.
The brand new combined bobsled/luge/skeleton track proved taxing for many sliders, but Armin Zoeggeler of Italy managed to capture the gold in men's luge.
Lake Placid native Jim Shea slid away with the gold in an exciting skeleton competition. Shea's friends and family, anxious to congratulate their hometown hero, surrounded the track on all sides.
Sandis Prusis and Janis Ozols of Latvia captured the gold in Bobsled, after harrowing rides by many of bobsled's best sliding teams.
Brian Boitano, Brian Orser and Victor Petrenko experienced déjà vu as they took one, two and three, respectively, in the men's figure skating competition, a repeat of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.
More than 5,000 fans flocked to watch the freestyle aerials competition, which featured the dominant USA team capturing a 1-2-3 finish in the men's, led by gold medalist Eric Bergoust. Canada's Veronica Brenner captured the gold in the women's competition.
The Austrians dominated in Nordic Combined. Felix Gottwald won the gold in the individual with Mario Stecher taking the silver, and in the team competition the two combined forces to take the gold.
Ski Jumping featured unmatched performances by Norway's Morten Aagheim, who garnered the individual and team gold.
The Russian pairs team of Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, 1998 Olympic Champions and 1998 Goodwill Games silver medalists, skated away with the gold medal in pairs.
Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow of the US captured the gold in the dance competition, after a flawless routine to Umbrellas of Cherbourg.