of
Turner Broadcasting created and funded the inaugural Goodwill Games A total of 3000 athletes from 79 nations took part in events in eighteen different
sports. The Goodwill Games was the first time in ten years that elite athletes from Soviet Union and United States competed against each other in a major summer multi-sport event. In contrast to the selection methods of other major competitions, the Games was an invitation-only event. The event was broadcast over 129 hours on
TBS in the United States. The Goodwill Games, although commercial in nature, were not successful financially and
Turner Broadcasting suffered millions of dollars of losses through its support of the event. A number of sporting
world records were set over the course of the Games. In the
athletics competition,
Sergey Bubka broke the
pole vault record with a mark of 6.01 m,
Jackie Joyner-Kersee broke the
heptathlon record with a score of 7148 points, while
Ben Johnson defeated
Carl Lewis in the
100 metres to win his first major international title.
Vladimir Salnikov broke the 800 m freestyle world record in the
swimming competition with a time of 7:50.64. In the cycling events,
Michael Hübner and
Erika Salumäe set world records in the men's and women's 200 m flying start race, respectively. The
1986 FIBA World Basketball Championship in
Madrid was broadcast on Ted Turner's network and were thus classified as the official Goodwill Games event for the men's sport. In the
women's basketball competition, the United States team broke the Soviets' undefeated international run, which had grown to 152 victories. The 1986 Games also saw the first ever international motorcycle polo, or
motoball, competition. ==Sports==