Sports74 Gold: International Sports

As the Olympics in Paris begin now, let's take a look at sports around the world 50 years ago.

Dorothy Hamill of Riverside, Conn., wins her first of three U.S. figure skating championships. She finishes second at worlds to 17-year-old East German Christine Errath.

Another East German, Jan Hoffmann, wins the men's world title. The U.S. men's champion, for the second of what will be three times, is Gordon McKellen of Lake Placid, N.Y.

Melissa Militano (Skating Club of New York) and new partner Johnny Johns (Detroit Skating Club) win their first of two U.S. titles in pairs figure skating. Militano had won a title with her brother (Mark Militano) the previous year.

At the world figure skating championships, Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaytsev win their second of six pairs titles together; this is the sixth of ten for Rodnina. At those same championships, fellow Soviets Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov win their fifth consecutive ice-dancing crown.

In speed skating, Soviet Tatyana Averina sets a women's world record in the 1500 meters. In the women's sprint race world championships, Leah Poulos of Northbrook, Ill., is the overall winner.

Eddy Merckx of Belgium wins the Tour de France for the fifth time, tying the record held by French cyclist Jacques Anquetil. He finishes the 4098-kilometer route (about 2,546 miles) in 116 hours 16 minutes 58 seconds. Merkcx has also won five Tours of Italy and a Tour of Spain, giving him a total of eleven victories among those three events, a record not equaled. Merckx has worn the yellow jersey for a record 111 days, also not equaled.

Merckx wins the Tour of Italy for the fifth time this year and joins a club whose membership otherwise consists of only Italians Alfredo Binda and Alfredo Coppi.

Merckx is also the third three-time winner of the UCI Road World Championship (held in Montreal this year), the other two being Binda and Belgian Rik van Steenbergen.

In rugby, Ireland has sole possession of the Five Nations championship for the first time since 1951. All five nations tied for the championship in '73.

Romania wins the men's team handball world championship for the fourth time, a record no one else will reach until 1999.

In Mexico City, Poland wins the men's volleyball world championship, defeating the Soviet Union in the final, while reigning Olympic champion Japan finishes third. In Guadalajara, Japan's women defeat those of the Soviet Union, also reigning Olympic champions, for the world title.

France wins its seventh freshwater fishing championship.

Toshimitsu Ogata, going by the ring name Kitanoumi, reaches the highest rank in sumo at the age of 21 years and 61 days. For decades, he is the youngest yokozuna.

With Ted Hood as skipper, Courageous defeats the Australian yacht Southern Cross 4-0 for the America's Cup. That boat will win the Cup again in 1977 with Ted Turner as skipper. In '74, the two Teds compete in the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit, with Hood's Robin Too II being the champion yacht of Florida and the Bahamas and Turner's Lightnin' being second-best.

In an International Olympic Committee meeting, Lake Placid is named the host of the 1980 Winter Games and Moscow host of the 1980 summer games. It's also decided that the best skiers and skaters will spend two weeks of 1976 not in Denver, but in Innsbruck, Austria.

Mexico City is named to take over as host of the 1975 Pan American Games, Sao Paulo having withdrawn.

At the world gymnastics championships, the all-around winners are Japanese Shigeru Kasamatsu (also the winner for floor exercise and vault) and Soviet Lyudmila Turischeva (also the winner for floor exercise and balance beam). Between Olympic triumphs, Soviet Olga Korbut wins the vault at the world championships.

In international swimming, some men's world records and almost all women's are broken in August. Tim Shaw of Long Beach, Calif., is the one who beats three of the men's, and fellow Californian Shirley Babashoff of Mission Viejo is solely responsible for two of the women's. Many distaff records are set by the masculine swimmers from East Germany, whom physicians think might be on steroids.

At the quadrennial world championships of alpine skiing at St. Moritz, Switzerland, Gustavo Thoeni of Italy wins the men's slalom and giant slalom. He reaches nine events won in his Alpine Skiing World Cup career, which is a record at the time. Fellow Italian Piero Gros wins the 1973-74 Alpine World Cup title, which Thoeni won in the three seasons before and will win in '75.

Swede Ingemar Stenmark wins his first of what will be 86 slalom and giant slalom races, and Austrian Franz Klammer wins his first of what will be 25 World Cup downhill races.

The women's Alpine World Cup winner for the fourth of five times in a row is Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell (previously Annemarie Proell). The downhill gold medalist at St. Moritz, she also wins her eleventh consecutive downhill race in January. Finishing fourth in downhill is Cindy Nelson of Lutsen, Minn., the downhill winner at the International SDS ladies' ski races.

In professional skiing, Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy is unable to defend his championship because of stomach trouble. Austrian Hugo Nindl wins the title, with fourth place belonging to Hank Kashiwa of Bellingham, Wash., and fifth to Spider Sabich of Snowmass, Colo.

In cricket, Australia wins three matches against New Zealand and loses one, with two draws between the Antipodean countries.

England sweeps the year's cricket matches against India but ties in all three of its matches with Pakistan. The team wins one and loses one against the West Indies, with three ties.

In bullfighting, Spain's leading matador is Pedro Gutierrez, "Nino de la Capea," with 84 bullfights, 112 ears, and 15 tails. Ruling the Mexico City bullring is Curro Rivera, with 12 kills in six bullfights, but no ears or tails.

Two of the world motorcycling championships are won on Yamaha bikes: by Sweden's Kent Anderson in 100cc and by Italy's Giacomo Agostini in 350cc. Agostini equals his 500cc streak by winning his seventh consecutive 350cc world championship. Walter Villa, a fellow Italian, wins his first of three straight 250cc crowns.

East Germany wins all but two of the competitions at the quadrennial world rowing championships, with the Soviet Union taking pairs with coxswain and the United States eights with coxswain.

In the two English universities' annual regatta, Oxford defeats Cambridge by 5 1/2 lengths.

Among the best shooters in the country and the world are Lanny Bassham of Dallas (or Fort Worth, depending on the source), Margaret T. Murdock of Topeka, Kan., and Carter, Mont.'s own Maj. Lones Wigger (yes, that was his name).

Bud Somerville and his fellow residents of Superior, Wis., win the world curling title. The Canadian entry loses in the semifinals.

Superior also wins its fourth national curling championship under Somerville. The skip has won three times in the '60s and will win again in 1981.

In fencing, Italian Aldo Montano wins the individual saber at worlds in Grenoble, France, with Paul Apostol of New York making the semifinals. Viktor Romankov wins at least one of the Soviets' four titles at Grenoble, as individual foil champion.

In weightlifting, the heavyweight champion of the world for the fifth time in a row is Soviet Vasily Alekseyev, with 407 3/4 pounds in the snatch and 529 in the clean and jerk. He sets records for each within the calendar year: 413 for the snatch, 536 3/4 for the clean and jerk.

One of the four Americans who makes the top eight in any weight class at the world Greco-Roman wrestling championships is Koroly Kancser of Lincoln, Neb., who finishes sixth in the 105 1/2-pound class.

In chess, Viktor Korchnoi begins to seek asylum. He's been censured by the Soviet Chess Federation for saying bad things about Anatoly Karpov.

Italian contract bridge players will in time be suspected of having cheated last year and this year (Italy wins the world championship in 1974).

Twenty-six countries compete in the Stoke Mandeville International Games, where the U.S.'s wheelchair athletes win 103 medals and Great Britain's 91.

There are winners and losers. From a famous university blowing a big rivalry game to an obscure school that never expects to win, the college football season of '74 is headed your way Aug. 16.