1980 Summer Olympics

The Games of the XXII Olympiad were held in 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union. Another candidate in the bid to organise the Olympics was Los Angeles. The choice between them was made on October 23, 1974 on the 75th IOC session. Moscow defeated Los Angeles 39 votes to 20. It was the first time the Olympics were held in a Communist country. The yachting events were held in Tallinn; preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament were held, besides Moscow, at the stadiums of Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk. This marked only the second time in which some Olympic events were held in a city other than the official host; the first time occurred in the 1956 Summer Olympics, when Melbourne, Australia hosted all events except the equestrian events, which were hosted by Stockholm, Sweden.

Highlights

• Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin won a medal in each of the eight gymnastics events, including three titles.
• Vladimir Salnikov (USSR) won three gold medals in the swimming pool. His time in the 1500 m freestyle was the first below 15 minutes.
• Belarusian Uladzimir Parfianovich of the USSR won 3 gold medals in canoeing.
• Ethiopian Muruse Yefter won the 5000 m and 10000 m double, emulating Lasse Viren's 1976 performance.
• Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany won his second consecutive marathon gold.
• Women's field hockey was an Olympic sport for the first time. Six countries competed in it: Austria, India, Poland, Czechoslovakia, USSR, Zimbabwe. The golden medal was won by the team of Zimbabwe.
• East Germany dominated rowing: they won eleven of the fourteen available titles.
• Teófilo Stevenson of Cuba became the first boxer to win three consecutive Olympic titles.

American-led boycott

Though the Games have aimed to be an arena free of politics, the 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan spurred United States President Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum, the terms of which being that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops had not quit the country by 12:01 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1980; the official announcement confirming the boycott was made on March 21.

Carter engaged in extensive lobbying to gain support from other nations. Some governments, such as those of Great Britain and Australia, supported the boycott but allowed their athletes to decide for themselves whether to go to Moscow. No such freedom of choice was allowed U.S. athletes, as Carter threatened to revoke the passport of any athlete who tried to travel to the USSR. In the end, 65 nations turned down their invitations to the Olympics; an estimated 45 to 50 did so because of the U.S.-led boycott. 80 nations did participate – the lowest number since 1956. [1]

The United States were joined in the boycott by some other populous countries – including Japan, West Germany and Canada. Notably, Great Britain, France and Greece did not boycott the games, but Great Britain and France sent a much smaller delegation of athletes than usual. Because of this, Italy became the principal nation representing western Europe. The boycott severely affected many events.

In the Opening Ceremony, 16 nations (among those Great Britain and Australia) chose to march under the Olympic Flag – rather than their national flags and the Olympic Anthem replaced their national anthems at medal ceremonies. New Zealand's team marched under their Games Association flag. There were a few ceremonies where three Olympic Flags were raised as a result.

Another victim of the boycott was NBC, which had paid $87 million for the U.S. broadcast rights to the games, almost four times the amount paid four years earlier. It had to cut back on the planned 150 hours of coverage. [2]

But even though only 80 nations participated, the Games were very well-organized and there were more world records set in Moscow than in 1976 in Montreal.

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Medal count

Top medal-collecting nations:
(for the full table, see 1980 Summer Olympics medal count)

(host nation in bold.)

Nations

Articles about Moscow Summer Olympics by nation:

See also

• 1980 Summer Paralympics
• International Olympic Committee
• WikiProject Sports Olympics
• IOC country codes

External links

• IOC Site on 1980 Summer Olympics
• Bear Cub Misha Lover's Association, 1980 Summer Olympics mascot Misha's fan page (in Japanese)