Almost forty years ago, Lyudmila Sovik from Minsk witnessed the Basketball Games of the main sports forum of the world.
The interior exposition of the BBF office has a new exhibit – a tournament ticket of the Games of the XXII Olympiad in Moscow in 1980. Competitions in this discipline were held from 20 to 30 July in the Olympic Stadium and CSKA sports complexes. The finals (both women's and men's) were held on July 30 at the Olympic Stadium. 12 teams took part in the competitions among men and 6 teams among women.
The United States men's team boycotted the Games, so Soviet basketball players were the main contenders for gold medals. However, they failed. The USSR men's team lost only two points to the Italians in the final group and could not take part in the gold medal match. The teams of Italy and Yugoslavia met in the finals. The Yugoslavs won a confident victory with a score of 86:77. The USSR men's national team beat Spain in the third-place match (117: 94).
The Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament was held for the second time. The USSR national team celebrated the victory for the second time in a row. The Belarusian athlete Tatyana Beloshapko (Ivinskaya) was among those who made it to the highest step of the podium. The national team of Bulgaria won the silver and Yugoslavia took the bronze.
The ticket, which is now in the Belarusian Basketball Federation – is for the game between the women’s national teams of the USSR and Hungary, which took place on July 28 at 18.00. The host team celebrated the victory with a score of 120:62. Tatyana Beloshapko scored 2 points in that meeting.
The ticket cost was 6 Soviet rubles. The dollar exchange rate at that time was 76 kopecks. With this money, one could buy 2 enamel pans or 4 liters of sour cream, or 2 pairs of slippers, or two pairs of women's tights, or almost three kilograms of doctor sausage. However, trade union members were given a 70% discount on tickets.
Lyudmila Sovik share the memories about tournament:
– I was graduating from State financial Academy in Moscow in the ‘80s. At that time, all nonresidents were asked to leave the capital; however, we as third-year students were allowed to stay. Our group was multinational: there was a Georgian, a Latvian, a German, a Ukrainian, and I, a Belarusian. The guys and I have decided that it was time to start doing business, because we were studying at the financial academy. We were sold discounted tickets through the trade unions. We thought that there would be a lot of excitement around the competition and we could sell these tickets at a higher price. We have spent our entire scholarship to buy them. Our plan failed, because many countries did not come and nonresidents were not allowed to come to Moscow. And we had to attend all the competitions. The idea to buy tickets for basketball belonged to a Latvian, who himself played in the professional team. It was a great pleasure to attend all the competitions. We stayed there until late at night. The basketball tournament was spectacular and colorful – everything seemed unusual for Soviet fans. There was a real Olympic spirit all around. Now I recall this with great nostalgia and, although it has been almost 40 years, these Games brought us together in friendship, so that we still contact each other.
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