or1980v2pt1

Sports and Technical
Facilities
From the very beginning of its
activity the OCOG-80 dealt with fitting
out the sports arenas with the most
up-to-date sports and technical
facilities, which included refereeing
and registering apparatus, as well as
other instruments, devices and technical
facilities for objective refereeing;
referee videorecording apparatus; information
scoreboards and other
facilities; sports gear and equipment,
and the floor covering at the sports
facilities.
The Main Department for Manufacturing
Sports Goods (Glavsportprom),
attached to the Sports Committee of
the USSR, (the General Supplier
to the 1980 Olympics), coordinated
the work of preparing the sports and
technical facilities. This decision was
based on the fact that Glavsportprom
and the All-Union Planning and Technical
and Experimental Design Institute
for Sports and Tourist Goods
(AUISTG), also drawn in on the work,
had accumulated a great deal of experience
in fitting out sports installations
with modern refereeing and information
apparatus and equipment,
as well as the experience in servicing
them at major competitions. Glavsportprom
and the AUISTG also have a
considerable amount of experience in
co-operating with foreign firms working
in the same field.
All questions connected with the
sports and technical facilities to be
used at the Games were tackled by
the Organising Committee on agreement
with the IFs.
The Organising Committee tried to
fit out the Olympic facilities and
arenas with the most up-to-date and
high-quality sports and technical
wares. Thus in choosing what to
install or developing a technical project,
it took into consideration the
development prospects of sports technology.
Moreover, the OCOG-80 selected
the most wide-spread gear and equipment
in the world for the Games. Thus
in the events and while training
sportsmen often came across "old
friends" side by side with new articles,
sports apparatus and other gear.
Two years before the Games, on
July 20, 1978, the OCOG-80 sent all
the NOCs and IFs letters informing
them of the kind of sports equipment,
gear and floor covering (mentioning
the firms involved) that would be used
at the Games. In this way equal
conditions were provided for
sportsmen of all countries in the
preparations for the Moscow Olympics.
The work of fitting out the various
sports installations began with draw-
200
ing up a list of the referee and
information apparatus and the equipment
to be used in every sport. Besides
the official accounts of the
organising committees of Munich and
Montreal, and of the world and continent-wide
championships held in various
sports in 1973-1975, the Organising
Committee made extensive use of
the experience accumulated in organising
major international and national
competitions in the USSR. The
list of referee and information apparatus
alone included over 130 systems
and a range of instruments.
Initial requirements were worked out
for every system, and for every kind of
apparatus, with due account taken of
the way particular technology was
developing and of changes in the
rules of competitions contemplated by
certain international sports federations.
At the next stage the developers
and manufacturers of these systems
and apparatus were determined.
In 1976, from lists and initial requirements,
AUISTG specialists worked
out the main documentation on installing
sports and technical facilities at
every sports installation. These included
detailed technological requirements
on the apparatus and the data
which had been taken into consideration
when these premises themselves
were planned. These documents made
it possible to resolve the problems of
fitting out sports installations with
sports and technical facilities on a
large scale.
In order to familiarise themselves
with the achievements of foreign firms
in developing new kinds of sports
equipment and technical facilities, as
well as with a view to selecting samples
of sports and technical facilities
which could be used at the Games,
the Organising Committee, together
with Glavsportprom and the USSR
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
held an international exhibition "Technology
for the Olympics" in Moscow
in September 1976. 230 foreign firms
and many Soviet organisations took
part.
In 1977 the OCOG-80 continued its
work on the list of sports and technical
facilities, taking due account of
talks with foreign firms and deliveries
from Soviet enterprises. As a result
lists of sports and technical facilities
necessary for the Games in 21 sports,
as well as for training, were drawn up
and agreed upon with the IFs. They
included 909 articles, 606 of which
were to be delivered by Soviet enterprises.
The OCOG-80 also determined
what, in terms of new models of