Founded in 1985 by then-
Turner Broadcasting System chairman Ted Turner, The Goodwill Games were created to foster athletic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the
Cold War. The first Goodwill Games, held in Moscow in
1986, featured 182 events and attracted over 3,000 athletes representing 79 countries. World records were set by
Sergey Bubka (
pole vault),
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (
heptathlon), and both the men and women's 200 m cycle racing, by East Germany's
Michael Hübner and the Soviet Union's
Erika Salumäe, respectively. World records also fell at the
1990 Games in
Seattle, to
Mike Barrowman in the 200 m breaststroke and
Nadezhda Ryashkina in the
10 km walk. The
1994 Games in
Saint Petersburg, Russia were the first competition held since the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russians set five world records in the
weightlifting section, and the games were the first major international event to feature
beach volleyball, which would appear at the Olympics for the first time at the
1996 Summer Olympics. In October 1996, Turner's company, the Turner Broadcasting System, merged with
Time Warner, thus bringing the Goodwill Games under the control of the latter. Ted Turner's last Games were in
1998 in
New York City, with memorable highlights including Joyner-Kersee winning her fourth straight heptathlon title, the U.S. 4 × 400 m relay team setting a world's best time, plus
Michelle Kwan and
Todd Eldredge winning the gold in figure skating, and
Dominique Moceanu capturing the women's gymnastics gold medal. Time Warner organized the
2001 Games in
Brisbane,
Australia, before announcing that this would be the last edition of the games. With the cancellation of the Games,
Phoenix and
Calgary lost their respective Summer and Winter Games, scheduled for 2005. The 2001 edition witnessed Australia winning the most medals with 75, but it received very low
television ratings in the United States. Nevertheless, critics praised
Turner Network Television for showing the games live, rather than on
tape delay. During a live interview at the 2009 Denver
SportAccord conference, Turner blamed the demise of the Games on the short-sighted management of Time Warner, and stated, "If I'd have stayed there the Goodwill Games would not have been canceled." Turner expressed hope that the games would return as a bridge to restore cultural contact between Russia and the U.S., stating that the relationship between the two had steadily disintegrated since the Cold War, which he called a dangerous situation because of both countries' massive nuclear arsenals. He also reiterated his belief in the power of international sporting competitions to prevent war, saying that "as long as the Olympics are taking place and not being boycotted, it's virtually impossible to have a world war", because the nations involved "wouldn't want a war to mess up their chances". ==Summer Goodwill Games==