Three athletes from three countries of the former Soviet Union on the Olympic podium in artistic gymnastics. Three flags are raised: Belarusian, Ukrainian and Azerbaijani. But the victory belongs to only one team, the so-called United Team. Here in Barcelona in 1992, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet athletes performed together for the last time. Six months earlier, this united team made its debut at the Albertville Winter Games, just six weeks after the Soviet Union – and with it its state organs – ceased to exist. New state structures such as Olympic committees were only formed.
The “united team” as the only option for participating in the Olympics
“The united team was necessary for the athletes,” says Russian sports journalist Alexandr Schmurnov. “Otherwise, if they wanted to represent Ukraine or Kyrgyzstan, for example, they would have missed the games. It was not possible in this short time to get documents for admission to prepare for a national team in good time.” The United Team played neutral in Albertville. Instead of the red Soviet flag, the white Olympic flag was shown. Instead of a hammer and sickle – five colorful rings. Things got a little more colorful in Barcelona: the anthems of their home countries played and their national flags were used at the award ceremonies of the athletes in the individual competition.
Darius Kasparaitis: “In December 1991 at the World Junior Championships in Germany we still played in shirts that said USSR – and after New Year’s Eve we wore neutral shirts,” remembers Darius Kasparaitis, who was an ice hockey player in the United Team at the time and became Olympic champion in Albertville at the age of 19. Kasparaitis wasn’t the only United to see the Olympics as their first major competition. Late 1980s – early 1990s, the former empire experienced not only political but also economic turbulence. Money was tight, funding cut, talented athletes traveled abroad in search of a better life. “Our team was very young, I ended up there unexpectedly,” says Kasparaitis: “The average age was probably 23 years. The team was not made up of celebrities, by that time they were all gone.”
Great challenges in preparation for the 1992 Olympics
The preparation for the summer games was also difficult for the united team. Boxing team coach Konstantin Koptsev even had to dig into his own pocket to prepare his athletes for the games. In addition, there was competition within the team between the newly formed states, says Koptsev: “After the independence of the states was declared and the united team was formed, each representative of the individual countries tried to get their athletes into one team. In my case it even happened to threats.”
However, three post-Soviet countries did not want to compete for places in the United Team. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia became independent nations in 1992. These countries had previously been part of the IOC in the 1920s to 1930s. But with the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939, they lost their independence to the Soviet Union. “Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had been waiting for the end of the Soviet occupation for over 40 years. It was obvious that they would seize the opportunity as soon as it presented itself,” says journalist Alexandr Schmurnov.
Sport in the Baltic States as a sign of independence and sovereignty
At the end of the 1980s, demands for independence in the Baltics became louder and louder, protests – bigger and bigger. In sport, too, people strived for sovereignty. As early as late 1988 and early 1999, Latvia, Estand and Lithuania had reestablished their Olympic Committees. But the IOC only recognized them two years later, when it became clear that the Soviet Union was about to fall. The early struggle for sovereignty paid off for Baltic athletes, says Alexandr Schmurnov, because: “It was not for nothing that they were prepared for the Albertville Games while most states were still waiting. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, we didn’t really know what to do next still happened”.
However, the athletes from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were allowed to decide whether to perform in their national teams or in the United Team. Two Latvians played in the unified basketball team. And Lithuanian Darius Kasparaitis was a defender in the ice hockey team: “I chose the united team because the best ice hockey was always played in Russia. But I felt that I would still represent Lithuania because everyone knows that I come from there. After that I played for Russia in three more Olympic Games, but the Lithuanians were not very happy with it.”
The United Team side won gold in Albertville 1992 by beating Canada 3-1 in the final – despite the very young team and the political and economic chaos. In the medal table, the former Soviet players took second place in Albertville and first in Barcelona. The result would not have been so good if the nations had started individually, Konstantin Koptsev thinks: “Everyone trained in a team for so long, according to a certain method, everyone knew the special features. That’s why it was good that we still performed together”.