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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.
The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe, and remain the only Summer Olympics held there.
Led by the United States at the insistence of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 65 countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag.[2] This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
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.[3]
Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. Six nations made their first Olympic appearance in 1980: Angola, Botswana, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique, and Seychelles. Cyprus made its debut at the Summer Olympics, but had appeared earlier at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Sri Lanka competed for the first time under its new name (previously as Ceylon), Benin had competed previously as Dahomey and Zimbabwe competed for the first time under that name (previously as Rhodesia).
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 war in Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on January 20, 1980 that the US would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month.[5] 65 countries and regions invited did not take part in the 1980 Olympics. Many of these followed the United States’ boycott initiative, while others cited economic reasons for not coming.[5][6] Iran, under Ayatollah Khomeini hostile to both superpowers, boycotted when the Islamic Conference condemned the invasion.[7]
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. 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,[8] 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.
The impact of the boycott was mixed. Some events, such as field hockey and equestrian sports, were hard hit. Others such as boxing, judo, rowing, swimming, track and field and weightlifting had more participants than in 1976. Athletes from 25 countries won Olympic gold (the same total as in the 1984 Games and one fewer than in the 1976 Games) and competitors from 36 countries became Olympic medalists. Italy won four times more gold medals than they won in Montreal and France multiplied its gold medal talley by three. Romania won more gold medals than it had at any previous Olympics. In terms of total medals, the Moscow Olympics was Ireland’s most successful games since Melbourne 1956. The same was true for Great Britain. “Third World” athletes qualified for more events and took more medals than they did at any previous Olympics. 21 percent of the competitors were women – a higher percentage than at any previous Olympics.
There were 203 events – more than at any previous Olympics.
36 World records, 39 European records and 74 Olympic records were set. 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. Three Olympic records set in 1980 still stood as of 2008 – East German women 4×100 meter relay 41.6 seconds (broken by Jamaica in 2012); Soviet Nadezhda Olizarenko 800 meters, 1:53.43; Modern Pentathlon Soviet Anatoli Starostin 5568 points.
Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium, Chairman of the IOC Medical Commission, stated: "There were 9,292 drug tests. None positive".
Major broadcasters of the Games were OTI representing the Latin America received 59 cards and the Seven Network provided coverage for Australia (48 cards).[9] 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,[9] 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.[9] 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.
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.[10]
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 862.7 million rubles, total revenues being 744.8 million rubles.
At the closing ceremony, the flag of the city of Los Angeles rather than the United States flag, was raised to symbolise the next host of the Olympic Games. This followed the raising of the Greek flag to symbolize the past and that of the Soviet Union to represent the present. It was the first time that a future host city had refused to allow their national flag to be used. The ceremonial Olympic flag had been handed over to Moscow at the opening ceremony and was kept by the city authorities until 1984.
Both the opening and closing ceremonies were shown in Yuri Ozerov’s 1981 film Oh, Sport – You Are Peace! (Russian: О спорт, ты - мир!).
¹ New facilities constructed in preparation for the Olympic Games. ² Existing facilities modified or refurbished in preparation for the Olympic Games.
This is a list of all nations that won medals at the 1980 Games.
To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.
* Host nation (Soviet Union)
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):
World War II, Russia, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian language, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
Cold War, Germany, Berlin Wall, Communism, East Berlin
Moscow International Business Center, Moscow Oblast, Russian language, Soviet Union, Red Square
Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada, Paris, France
Montreal, Canada, 2010 Winter Olympics, Calgary, Elizabeth II
1980 Summer Olympics, Russian America, Vladimir Lenin, 1992 Summer Olympics, Bolshoi Theatre
1980 Summer Olympics, Gymnastics at the 1980 Summer Olympics, 1979 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 1978 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Soviet Union
Los Angeles, 1988 Summer Olympics, International Olympic Committee, Soviet Union, 1932 Summer Olympics
Spain, United Kingdom, 1992 Summer Olympics, United States, Canada
United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Australia, 2012 Summer Olympics