Games of the XXII Olympiad, held in Moscow in 1980

The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (Russian: И́гры XXII Олимпиа́ды, tr. Igry XXII Olimpiady), was an international multi-sport event held in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russia.[2][3]

The 1980 Games were the first Olympic Games to be staged in Eastern Europe, and remain the only Summer Olympics held there, as well as the first Olympic Games to be held in a Slavic language-speaking country. They were also the only Summer Olympic Games to be held in a communist country until 2008 in China. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC Presidency of Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin.[4]

Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. Led by the United States, 66 countries boycotted the games entirely because of the Soviet–Afghan War. Some athletes from some of the boycotting countries (they are not included in the list of 66 countries that boycotted the games entirely) participated in the games under the Olympic Flag.[5] The Soviet Union would later boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals, with the USSR and East Germany winning 127 out of 203 available golds.

Host city selection [ edit ]

A Soviet stamp sheet showing the logo of the games (left) and its mascot Misha (right) holding the 1980 Olympic light. The map shows the torch relay route running from Olympia Greece , the site of the ancient Olympic Games to Moscow, Russian SFSR . It also depicts the number of gold, silver and bronze medals (80, 69, 46) won by the Soviet athletes at the Games.

The only two cities to bid for the 1980 Summer Olympics were Moscow and Los Angeles. The choice between them was made on 23 October 1974 in the 75th IOC Session in Vienna, Austria. Los Angeles would eventually host the 1984 Summer Olympics.[6]

1980 Summer Olympics bidding result City Country Votes Moscow Soviet Union 39 Los Angeles United States 20 Abstentions 2

Participation overview and boycott [ edit ]

Participating nations

Countries boycotting the 1980 Games are shaded blue

Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. Of the eighty participating nations,[7] seven nations made their first appearance at this Games – Angola, Botswana, Cyprus, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique and Seychelles.[8] None of these nations won a medal.

Although approximately half of the 24 countries that boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics (in protest against the IOC not expelling New Zealand who sanctioned a rugby tour of apartheid South Africa) participated in the Moscow Games, the 1980 Summer Olympics were disrupted by another, even larger, boycott led by the United States in protest at the 1979 Soviet–Afghan War. The Soviet invasion spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on 20 January 1980, that the US would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month.[9] 65 countries and regions invited did not take part in the 1980 Olympics. Many of these followed the United States' boycott initiative, while others[who?] cited economic reasons for not going.[9][10] Iran, under Ayatollah Khomeini hostile to both superpowers, boycotted when the Islamic Conference condemned the invasion.[11]

Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the Liberty Bell Classic, also known as the "Olympic Boycott Games", in Philadelphia. However, the nations that did compete had won 71 percent of all medals, and similarly 71 percent of the gold medals, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. This was in part because of state-run doping programs that had been developed in the Eastern Bloc countries.[12] As a form of protest against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, fifteen countries marched in the Opening Ceremony with the Olympic Flag instead of their national flags, and the Olympic Flag and Olympic Hymn were used at medal ceremonies when athletes from these countries won medals. Competitors from three countries – New Zealand,[13] Portugal, and Spain – competed under the flags of their respective National Olympic Committees. Some of these teams that marched under flags other than their national flags were depleted by boycotts by individual athletes, while some athletes did not participate in the march.[citation needed]

The impact of the boycott was mixed. Some events, such as swimming, track and field, boxing, basketball, diving, field hockey and equestrian sports, were hard hit. Whilst competitors from 36 countries became Olympic medalists, the great majority of the medals were taken by the host country and East Germany in what was the most skewed medal tally since 1904.[14]

Events, records and drug tests overview [ edit ]

There were 203 events – more than at any previous Olympics.

36 World records, 39 European records and 74 Olympic records were set at the games. In total, this was more records than were set at Montreal. New Olympic records were set 241 times over the course of the competitions and world records were beaten 97 times.

A 1989 report by a committee of the Australian Senate claimed that "there is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow Games, certainly not a gold medal winner...who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The Moscow Games might well have been called the Chemists' Games".[15]

A member of the IOC Medical Commission, Manfred Donike, privately ran additional tests with a new technique for identifying abnormal levels of testosterone by measuring its ratio to epitestosterone in urine. Twenty percent of the specimens he tested, including those from sixteen gold medalists would have resulted in disciplinary proceedings had the tests been official. The results of Donike's unofficial tests later convinced the IOC to add his new technique to their testing protocols.[16] The first documented case of "blood doping" occurred at the 1980 Summer Olympics as a runner was transfused with two pints of blood before winning medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m.[17]

Media and broadcasting [ edit ]

Major broadcasters of the Games were USSR State TV and Radio (1,370 accreditation cards), Eurovision (31 countries, 818 cards) and Intervision (11 countries, 342 cards).[18] TV Asahi with 68 cards provided coverage for Japan, while OTI representing Latin America received 59 cards and the Seven Network provided coverage for Australia (48 cards).[18] NBC, which had intended to be another major broadcaster, canceled its coverage in response to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, and became a minor broadcaster with 56 accreditation cards,[18] although the network did air highlights and recaps of the games on a regular basis. (ABC aired scenes of the opening ceremony during its Nightline program, and promised highlights each night, but the next night, the show announced that they could not air any highlights as NBC still had exclusive broadcast rights in the USA). The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation almost canceled their plans for coverage after Canada took part in the boycott and was represented by nine cards.[18] The television center used 20 television channels, compared to 16 for the Montreal Games, 12 for the Munich Games, and seven for the Mexico City Games. This was also the first time North Korea was watching, as KCTV (Korea Central Television) broadcast it as their first satellite program.

During the opening ceremony, Salyut 6 crew Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin sent their greetings to the Olympians and wished them happy starts in the live communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium. They appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were translated via loud speakers.[19]

Spectators and commemoration [ edit ]

150-rubles platinum coin (reverse)

The Games attracted five million spectators, an increase of 1.5 million from the Montreal Games. There were 1,245 referees from 78 countries.[citation needed] A series of commemorative coins was released in the USSR in 1977–1980 to commemorate the event. It consisted of five platinum coins, six gold coins, 28 silver coins and six copper-nickel coins.[citation needed]

Budget [ edit ]

According to the Official Report, submitted to the IOC by the NOC of the USSR, total expenditures for the preparations for and staging of the Games were US$1,350,000,000,[20] total revenues being US$231,000,000.[20]

Cost [ edit ]

The Oxford Olympics Study established the outturn cost of the Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics at US$6.3 billion in 2015 dollars.[21] This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost for Moscow 1980 compares with costs of US$4.6 billion for Rio 2016 (projected), US$40–44 billion for Beijing 2008 and US$51 billion for Sochi 2014, the most expensive Olympics in history. Average cost for the Summer Games since 1960 is US$5.2 billion.

Opening ceremony [ edit ]

Highlights of the different events [ edit ]

Archery [ edit ]

Tomi Poikolainen of Finland, who had not finished any of the previous three days' shooting higher than fourth, came from fourth on the last day to win the men's archery competition, scoring 2455 points. He won gold just three points ahead of a Soviet.

The women's archery gold was won by Ketevan Losaberidze (USSR) who was also the world, European and Soviet champion.

The women's archery silver was won by Natalia Butuzova (USSR). In 1979, she had set nine national records and three world records.

The U.S. archery team was one of the strongest ever fielded but due to the boycott the team never had a chance to prove itself. This team held every record and featured 1976 Olympic Champion Darrell O. Pace, who was averaging 100 points more than the winning score in Moscow at the time.

Athletics [ edit ]

Basketball [ edit ]

Basketball was one of the hardest hit sports due to the boycott. Though replacements were found, five men's teams including the defending Olympic Champion United States withdrew from the competition in addition to the US Women's team.

In the Women's competition, the host Soviet Union won the competition beating Bulgaria for gold, Yugoslavia won bronze.

The Men's competition featured only the second instance of the US Men's Basketball team not winning gold with the first one being in Munich. Yugoslavia took home the gold beating Italy in the final. The hosts, Soviet Union, winners in 1972, won the bronze.

Boxing [ edit ]

Teófilo Stevenson of Cuba became the first boxer to win three consecutive Olympic titles in heavyweight, and indeed the only boxer to win the same event in three Games. (László Papp from Hungary was the first boxer to win three titles). In boxing Cuba won six gold, two silvers and two bronzes.

The Val Barker Trophy is presented by the AIBA to the competitor adjudged to be the best stylist at the Games. The winner was Patrizio Oliva of Italy who won gold at light-welterweight.

Canoeing [ edit ]

Uladzimir Parfianovich of the USSR won three gold medals in canoeing.

Apart from the boycotted Los Angeles Olympics Birgit Fischer of East Germany won medals in each Olympics from 1980 to 2004. In the 500 metres kayak singles she won gold in Moscow, silver in Seoul, gold in Barcelona.

Cycling [ edit ]

Lothar Thoms of East Germany won the 1,000-metre individual pursuit cycling gold, breaking the world record by nearly four seconds.

The winner of the bronze in that race was Jamaica's David Weller who also broke the sixteen-year-old world record.

In the 4,000-metre team pursuit qualifying heats new world indoor records were set eight times.

The 189-kilometer individual road race gold was won by Sergei Sukhoruchenkov (USSR).

The cycling team road race was won by the Soviet team as they had done in Munich and Montreal.

In cycling world records were toppled 21 times.

Diving [ edit ]

As Aleksandr Portnov waited to do a 2 and 1/2 reverse somersault in the springboard final, cheers broke out in three adjoining swimming pool during the closing stages of Salnikov's world record breaking 1,500m swim. The diver delayed his start until the noise had subsided but, as he took his first steps along the board, even greater cheers broke out as Salnikov touched in under 15 minutes. Under the rules Portnov, having started, could not stop before take-off. On protest to the Swedish referee G.Olander he was allowed to repeat the dive and went ahead again of Mexico's Carlos Girón. Later protests by Mexico against the re-dive and by East Germany that their Falk Hoffmann wanted to re-dive after allegedly being disturbed by photographic flashlights were both turned down by FINA. FINA President Javier Ostas stated that the decision taken by the Swedish referee was the "correct one". FINA assessed all the Olympic diving events and considers the judging to have been objective". Portnov remained the winner with Giron taking silver and Cagnatto of Italy bronze.

Martina Jaschke (East Germany) was fourth after the preliminary high dives, but came back to win gold on the second day of competition.

Irina Kalinina (USSR) won gold in the springboard final. As a result of her ten dives in the preliminaries she amassed a unique number of points: 478.86. In the previous four years no diver had scored so many.

In this final the Mexican judge A. Marsikal allowed Karin Guthke (East Germany) to re-take a dive.

Equestrian [ edit ]

In the individual show jumping event Poland's Jan Kowalczyk and the USSR's Nikolai Korolkov each had 8 faults, but Kowalczyk won gold as his horse completed the course the quicker. So Poland won the last of the 203 gold medals contested.

The oldest medalist at the Moscow Olympics was Petre Rosca (Romania) in the dressage at 57 years 283 days.

Fencing [ edit ]

France took four gold medals in fencing.

In the team sabre fencing final, for the fifth Olympics in a row, Italy and the USSR met. The USSR won as they did in Tokyo, Mexico and Montreal, while Italy's bronze was its only medal in fencing.

Pins released by the USSR for the football event of the Olympics (with a British 50 pence coin for size comparison)

The USSR won bronze. Czechoslovakia won the gold medal beating German Democratic Republic (East Germany) 1:0 in the final.

The matches were played in Moscow and Leningrad, and in Kiev and Minsk, in the Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR respectively.

Gymnastics [ edit ]

Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin won a medal in each of the eight gymnastics events, including three titles. He was the first athlete to win eight medals at an Olympics. He scored several 10s, the first perfect scores in men's gymnastics since the 1924 Paris Olympics.

Nikolai Andrianov who had won gold on floor at both Munich and Montreal was pipped this time by Roland Bruckner of East Germany. Andrianov retained the vault title he had won in Montreal.

Zoltán Magyar (Hungary) retained the Olympic title on pommel horse that he had won in Montreal. He was also 3 times World champion and 3 times European champion on this piece of apparatus.

In the Team Competition the USSR won the gold medal for the eighth consecutive time, continuing the "gold" series that started in 1952.

In the women's gymnastics event finals, a Romanian gymnast medals on each piece of apparatus for the first time: Balance Beam – Nadia Comăneci (gold) Floor – Nadia Comăneci (gold) Uneven Bar – Emilia Eberle (silver) & Melita Ruhn (bronze) Vault – Melita Ruhn (bronze)

Before the Los Angeles Olympics, the United States gymnastics federation proposed a change in the rules so that a head judge cannot interfere and meddle in the scoring of competitors.

Handball [ edit ]

Soviet Union handball men's team celebrating their victory over Yugoslavia. RIAN photo.

In the men's event East Germany beat the USSR 23–22 in the handball final.

In the women's tournament USSR won all its matches and retain the Olympic handball title. Yugoslavia and East Germany gain silver and bronze medal respectively.

Field hockey [ edit ]

Six countries competed in the women's field hockey: Austria, India, Poland, Czechoslovakia, USSR, and Zimbabwe. The gold medal was won by the team of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe did not learn it would get a place in the tournament until 35 days before the Games began and chose its team only the weekend before the opening ceremony. None of their players had prior playing experience on an artificial surface. Soviet Union won bronze.

India won a record eighth title in men's field hockey. The Soviet Union won bronze.

Judo [ edit ]

In Japan's absence, the USSR won five medals.

Modern Pentathlon [ edit ]

In the modern pentathlon George Horvath (Sweden) recorded a perfect score in the pistol shoot. It had been achieved only once before, at the 1936 Olympics.

Rowing [ edit ]

East Germany dominated rowing, winning eleven of the fourteen titles. The East German men won seven out of eight events, foiled from achieving a clean sweep by Pertti Karppinen of Finland (who defended his Olympic title from Montreal). East German women won four of their six events.

In the rowing eights with coxswain the British team win silver just 0.74 seconds behind East Germany.

Sailing [ edit ]

Sailing event was held in Tallinn, Soviet-occupied Estonia

Soviet sailor Valentyn Mankin won a gold medal in "Star" class. He won Olympic champion titles in "Finn" and "Tempest" classes before, and as of 2007 remains the only sailor in Olympic history to win gold medals in three different classes.

Shooting [ edit ]

The three-day skeet shooting marathon was won by Hans Kjeld Rasmussen of Denmark.

In the smallbore rifle, prone event, Hungarian Károly Varga captured the gold and equalled the world record.

Swimming [ edit ]

Vladimir Salnikov (USSR) won three gold medals in swimming. He became the first man in history to break the 15-minute barrier in the 1500 metre freestyle, swimming's equivalent of breaking the four-minute mile. He missed the 1984 Games because of the boycott but won gold again in this event at Seoul 1988.

Salnikov also won gold in the 4 × 200 m relay and the 400m freestyle. In the 400m freestyle he set a new Olympic record which was just eleven-hundredths of a second outside his own world record.

In the Montreal final of the 400m freestyle the seventh and eighth place finalists finished in over four minutes. In Moscow sixteen swimmers finished in under four minutes and eight of them did not make the final.

Duncan Goodhew of Great Britain won the 100 metres breaststroke.

Sweden's Bengt Baron won gold in the 100 meter backstroke.

In the men's 4 × 100 metres medley relay each of the eight teams taking part in the final broke its country's national record.

The first Australian gold since 1972 came in the 4 × 100 men's medley relay, [30] with Neil Brooks swimming the final leg, the Australians swam the second-fastest time in history.

with Neil Brooks swimming the final leg, the Australians swam the second-fastest time in history. East German women dominated the swimming events, winning nine of eleven individual titles, both the relays and setting 6 world records. They also won all three medals in six different races. In total they won 26 of the available 35 medals. As it was revealed later, their results were aided by the state-sponsored doping system.

Barbara Krause (East Germany) became the first woman to go under 55 seconds for the 100 m freestyle.

Backstroker Rica Reinisch (East Germany) was 20th in the world rankings for 100m in 1979 and not in the top 100 for the 200 m. At the Olympics she broke the world records in both distances winning golds.

In the 100m butterfly Caren Metschuk (East Germany) beats her more experienced teammate Andrea Pollack to win gold.

Petra Schneider (East Germany) shaved three seconds off the world record in the 400m medley.

As in Montreal the Soviet women made a clean sweep of the medals in the 200m breaststroke. The title in this event was won by Lina Kačiušytė.

Michelle Ford (Australia) won the 800m freestyle more than four seconds ahead of her East German rivals.

In swimming 230 national, 22 Olympic and ten World records were set.

The youngest male gold medallist of these Olympics was Hungarian backstroke swimmer Sándor Wladár, 17 years and 1 week old.

Volleyball [ edit ]

The prominent nation in both volleyball competitions was the USSR; its teams won both golds.

Water polo [ edit ]

Hungary won a bronze medal in water polo. This continued their run of always winning a medal in this event since 1928.

Weightlifting [ edit ]

The standard of weightlifting was the highest in the history of the Olympics. There were eighteen senior world records, two junior world records, more than 100 Olympic records and 108 national records set.

The oldest of weightlifting's Olympic records – the snatch in the lightweight class set in 1964 – was bettered thirteen times.

Yurik Vardanyan (USSR) became the first middleweight to total more than 400 kg, he won gold.

In the super heavyweight class Vasily Alexeyev (USSR) Olympic champion at Munich and Montreal, eight-time world champion, who in his career set 80 world records, failed to medal.

Soviet weightlifters won 5 golds.

The new category in weightlifting – up to 100 kg – was won by Ota Zaremba of Czechoslovakia.

Wrestling [ edit ]

In Greco-Roman wrestling Ferenc Kocsis of Hungary was declared the winner of the 163 pound class when the defending champion Anatoly Bykov was disqualified for passivity.

Soviet wrestlers won 12 golds.

Closing ceremony [ edit ]

Misha, the mascot, formed in a mosaic at the moment when a tear runs down his face during the iconic scene part of the closing ceremony. , the mascot, formed in a mosaic at the moment when a tear runs down his face during the iconic scene part of the closing ceremony.

One of the most memorable moments of the closing ceremony: Misha carried by balloons into the sky, commemorated by a 2000 postage stamp issued by Russia

Because of the U.S. boycott, changes were made to the traditional elements of the closing ceremony that represent the handover to the host city of the next Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Among them, the flag of the city of Los Angeles instead of the United States flag was raised, and the Olympic Anthem instead of the national anthem of the United States was played. There was also no "Antwerp Ceremony", where the ceremonial Olympic flag was transferred from the Mayor of Moscow to the Mayor of Los Angeles; instead the flag was kept by the Moscow city authorities until 1984. Furthermore, there was no next host city presentation.

Both the opening and closing ceremonies were shown in Yuri Ozerov's 1981 film Oh, Sport – You Are the World! (Russian: О спорт, ты – мир!).

Venues [ edit ]

¹ New facilities constructed in preparation for the Olympic Games. ² Existing facilities modified or refurbished in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Medals awarded [ edit ]

The 1980 Summer Olympic programme featured 203 events in the following 21 sports:

Calendar [ edit ]

All times are in Moscow Time (UTC+3)

● Opening ceremony Event competitions ● Event finals ● Closing ceremony

Medal count [ edit ]

This is a list of all nations that won medals at the 1980 Games.

A "bronze" medal – actually tombac – from the 1980 Summer Olympics

* Host nation (Soviet Union)

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 Soviet Union (URS) * 80 69 46 195 2 East Germany (GDR) 47 37 42 126 3 Bulgaria (BUL) 8 16 17 41 4 Cuba (CUB) 8 7 5 20 5 Italy (ITA) 8 3 4 15 6 Hungary (HUN) 7 10 15 32 7 Romania (ROU) 6 6 13 25 8 France (FRA) 6 5 3 14 9 Great Britain (GBR) 5 7 9 21 10 Poland (POL) 3 14 15 32 11 Sweden (SWE) 3 3 6 12 12 Finland (FIN) 3 1 4 8 13 Czechoslovakia (TCH) 2 3 9 14 14 Yugoslavia (YUG) 2 3 4 9 15 Australia (AUS) 2 2 5 9 16 Denmark (DEN) 2 1 2 5 17 Brazil (BRA) 2 0 2 4 Ethiopia (ETH) 2 0 2 4 19 Switzerland (SUI) 2 0 0 2 20 Spain (ESP) 1 3 2 6 21 Austria (AUT) 1 2 1 4 22 Greece (GRE) 1 0 2 3 23 Belgium (BEL) 1 0 0 1 India (IND) 1 0 0 1 Zimbabwe (ZIM) 1 0 0 1 26 North Korea (PRK) 0 3 2 5 27 Mongolia (MGL) 0 2 2 4 28 Tanzania (TAN) 0 2 0 2 29 Mexico (MEX) 0 1 3 4 30 Netherlands (NED) 0 1 2 3 31 Ireland (IRL) 0 1 1 2 32 Uganda (UGA) 0 1 0 1 Venezuela (VEN) 0 1 0 1 34 Jamaica (JAM) 0 0 3 3 35 Guyana (GUY) 0 0 1 1 Lebanon (LIB) 0 0 1 1 Totals (36 nations) 204 204 223 631

List of participating countries and regions [ edit ]

In the following list, the number in parentheses indicates the number of athletes from each nation that competed in Moscow. Nations in italics competed under the Olympic flag (or, in the cases of New Zealand, Portugal and Spain, under the flags of their respective National Olympic Committees):

Number of athletes sent per nation

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Further reading [ edit ]

John Goodbody, The Illustrated History of Gymnastics , 1982, ISBN 0-09-143350-9.

, 1982, ISBN 0-09-143350-9. Bill Henry, An Approved History of the Olympic Games , ISBN 0-88284-243-9.

, ISBN 0-88284-243-9. The Olympic Games , 1984, Lord Killanin and John Rodda, ISBN 0-00-218062-6.

, 1984, Lord Killanin and John Rodda, ISBN 0-00-218062-6. Stan Greenberg, Whitakers Olympic Almanack, 2004 ISBN 0-7136-6724-9.

ISBN 0-7136-6724-9. Olympics 1984 , produced by Philips International B.V.

, produced by Philips International B.V. Chronicle of the Olympics , ISBN 0-7894-2312-X.

, ISBN 0-7894-2312-X. Peter Arnold, The Olympic Games , ISBN 0-603-03068-8

, ISBN 0-603-03068-8 Official British Olympic Association Report of the 1980 Games, published 1981, ISSN 0143-4799

Boycott [ edit ]

Corthorn, Paul (2013). "The Cold War and British debates over the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics". Cold War History . 13 (1): 43–66. doi:10.1080/14682745.2012.727799.

Evelyn Mertin, The Soviet Union and the Olympic Games of 1980 and 1984: Explaining Boycotts to their Own People. In: S. Wagg/D. Andrews (Eds.) East plays West. Sport and the Cold War, 2007, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 235–252, ISBN 978-0-415-35927-6.