1990 Goodwill Games

The official logo of the 1990 Goodwill Games

The 1990 Goodwill Games was the second edition of the international multi-sport event created by Ted Turner, which was held between July 20 and August 5, 1990. Following an inaugural edition in Moscow, the second games took place in Seattle, United States, highlighting the competition's role in fostering good Soviet–U.S. relations. The games was opened at the Husky Stadium with a speech by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.[1] As well as an address by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a performance by the "Moody Blues" & "Gorky Park". The top three nations in the medal table remained the same as the previous edition: the Soviet Union won 66 gold medals and a total of 188 medals, the United States were a close runner-up with 60 gold medals and 161 medals overall, while East Germany were a distant third with 11 golds.

A renovated Husky Stadium hosted the opening ceremony of the second games

The games motto was "Uniting the World's Best", and a total of 2312 athletes from 54 countries engaged in the 17-day program of 21 sports. Each countries' contingent of athletes did not parade separately at the opening ceremony, but instead all athletes entered the stadium as one large mass (emphasizing the theme of international unity).[2] The size of the sporting program meant that some events were held in the cities surrounding Seattle, including: Tacoma, Spokane and others in the Tri-Cities area.[3] A number of venues in the region were built or renovated for the Games: Federal Way gained an aquatics venue (King County Aquatic Center) through the games while Seattle itself gained a new track for Husky Stadium and new flooring for the Edmundson Pavilion.[1] The Seattle Space Needle had a large purpose-built gold medal hung around the structure during the Games.[4]

The competition featured a significant cultural aspect compared to the previous edition. Around 1400 Soviet athletes came to the US and stayed with host families in Seattle.[3] Soviet cosmonauts also came to the city and visited schools, and the Moscow State Circus gave a number of performances.[2] A Goodwill Games Arts Festival was held in conjunction with the sporting event – 1300 artists took part in the festival, which featured a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet, a museum exhibition of Soviet history, and a 2 million-dollar stage production of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.[1][3] Similar to the 1986 Goodwill Games, the 1990 edition of the event was not financially successful and Ted Turner personally lost $44 million as a result.[1]

Two world records were broken during the Games: the 200-meter breaststroke mark was topped by all three medalists in the race, with American Mike Barrowman improving the record to two minutes and 11.53 seconds. Soviet athlete Nadezhda Ryashkina completed a world record of 41:56.21 in the women's 10 km race walk.[3]

Sports

Venues

Medal table

Key
  The host country is highlighted in lavender blue
American Kristi Yamaguchi won her first major international gold medal in figure skating at the Games.
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Soviet Union 66 68 54 188
2  United States 60 53 48 161
3  East Germany 11 8 24 43
4  Bulgaria 8 7 9 24
5  China 6 7 3 16
6  Cuba 6 4 3 13
7  West Germany 4 3 8 15
8  Canada 4 1 6 11
9  Poland 4 1 0 5
10=  South Korea 3 2 2 7
10=  Spain 3 2 2 7
12  Romania 2 4 2 8
13  Japan 2 3 10 15
14  Italy 2 2 1 5
15  Yugoslavia 2 1 0 3
16=  Hungary 1 1 5 7
16=  Netherlands 1 1 5 7
18  Jamaica 1 1 2 4
19  Denmark 1 1 1 3
20  Mongolia 1 1 0 2
21=  Czechoslovakia 1 0 0 1
21=  Mexico 1 0 0 1
21=  Morocco 1 0 0 1
21=  Suriname 1 0 0 1
25  Australia 0 4 3 7
26  Great Britain 0 2 2 4
27  Turkey 0 2 1 3
28=  Ethiopia 0 2 0 2
28=  New Zealand 0 2 0 2
30  Brazil 0 1 6 7
31  Kenya 0 1 1 2
32  Bahamas 0 1 0 1
33=  France 0 0 1 1
33=  Ireland 0 0 1 1
33=  Sweden 0 0 1 1
33=  United States Virgin Islands 0 0 1 1
Total 192 184 202 578

Participation

A total of 54 nations were represented at the 1990 Games with a total of 2312 athletes attending the games.[2] However, around 3500 athletes had received invitations to the games and the attendance was a marked decline from the inaugural edition.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ted Turner's Goodwill Games open in Seattle on July 20, 1990.. HistoryLink. Retrieved on 2010-06-23.
  2. 1 2 3 Bell, Daniel (2003). Encyclopedia of International Games (pgs. 164–168). McFarland and Company, Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina. ISBN 0-7864-1026-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Past Goodwill Games – 1990 and Seattle. Goodwill Games. Retrieved on 2010-06-23.
  4. ↑ Space Needle selling big Goodwill medal. Spokane Chronicle, pg. A5, (August 1, 1990). Retrieved on 2010-06-23.
  5. 1 2 3 "Traffic Impacts During the Goodwill Games" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "The 1990 Goodwill Games are Coming to Spokane". Spokesman-Review. June 21, 1990.
  7. ↑ "Local Athletes DOT Games Lineup, Some Coaches Have Area Ties". The Seattle Times. July 19, 1990.
  8. ↑ "Tri-Cities Coliseum Gets Ice Hockey, Skating". Spokesman-Review. March 16, 1989.

External links

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