In Sapporo 1972, men and women were still strictly separated in the Olympic village. Double Olympic champion Maite Nadig tells how a cross-country skier climbed over the barbed wire.
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- Maite Nadig was a surprise double Olympic champion in Sapporo in 1972.
- In the Olympic talk "Legends for eternity", she raves about the Olympic Village in Japan at the time, saying: "All the athletes were there. I've never experienced anything like it since."
- The athletes' accommodation was separated by a high barbed wire fence, says Nadig, revealing that a Swiss cross-country skier climbed over.
Marie-Theres Nadig loved life in the Olympic village - and not just because she took home two gold medals in Sapporo in 1972 at the age of just 17. "That was great. I never experienced anything like it again later." Because the Games were still moderate in size back then, all the athletes lived in a small village. "That would be unthinkable today," says Nadig.
However, there was a strict distinction between men and women. While the men lived in smaller houses with three or four floors, the women were accommodated in two high-rise buildings. Visiting men? Strictly forbidden!
Not everyone complied, says Nadig and tells an anecdote. "A Swiss cross-country skier wanted to see if he could get to us women and climbed over the high barbed wire. He made it."
And what did he want? "He probably just wanted to prove that he could get in." They then had to hide him and somehow smuggle him out again, says Nadig, "but I don't know exactly where he was or who he was with. I wasn't really involved."
In response to the comment that she was 17 at the time, Nadig counters with a smile: "We weren't as green behind the ears as some people thought."
