The history of Soviet sports has seen many great victories and outstanding achievements. 1956: The First Summer Olympics Win and Victory in the Olympic Football Tournament The Soviet team participated in the Summer Olympics for only the second time. Four years earlier in Helsinki, they placed second in the unofficial team ranking, significantly trailing behind the U.S. team. However, in Melbourne, the situation completely reversed: Soviet athletes were clearly superior to the U.S. team both in terms of gold medals (37 vs. 32) and total medals (98 vs. 74). Another source of pride was their victory in the Olympic football tournament. Although the strongest teams were mainly from socialist countries (since professional football players were banned from the Olympics at the time, many Western teams were composed of amateurs), the Soviet team's 1:0 win over the strong Yugoslav team, featuring Lev Yashin, Eduard Streltsov, and Igor Netto, was undoubtedly one of the brightest moments in Soviet sports. 1960: Victory in the First European Football Championship The first-ever European football championship ended in a victory for the Soviet team. In the Paris final, the USSR edged out Yugoslavia in overtime (final score 2:1), thanks to a goal by Rostov native Viktor Ponedelnik. To this day, it remains the grandest achievement in Russian football history. The Soviet team would reach the finals of this competition three more times. 1963–1971: Nine Consecutive World Ice Hockey Championship Wins Under the brilliant coaching duo of Anatoly Tarasov and Arkady Chernyshev, the USSR national team retained the world champion title for nine consecutive tournaments. This golden era featured players like Vyacheslav Starshinov, Alexander Almetov, Veniamin Alexandrov, Alexander Ragulin, brothers Yevgeny and Boris Mayorov, Viktor Yakushev, Anatoly Firsov, Alexander Maltsev, Vladimir Petrov, Boris Mikhailov, Vladislav Tretyak, and Valery Kharlamov – all stars in Soviet hockey. 1972: Winning the Olympic Basketball Tournament Much has been written and filmed about the basketball final at the Munich Olympics, where the USSR defeated the U.S. team with a last-second shot by Alexander Belov. Repetition seems unnecessary here. Opening Ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics For the first time, the Soviet Union hosted such a major international sports event. Leonid Brezhnev delivered a welcoming speech at the opening ceremony in Luzhniki Stadium, many world and Olympic records were set, and the unforgettable moment of the Olympic mascot, Mishka, flying into the sky made the Moscow Olympics one of the most memorable in history. However, the boycott by many Western countries, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan just a few months earlier, cast a shadow on the event.