1980 in athletics (track and field)
This page contains an overview of the year 1980 in athletics.
International Events
World records
Men
Women
World Best Year Performance
Births
January
- January 1 — Masumi Aya, Japanese hammer thrower
- January 2 — Yusuke Yachi, Japanese race walker
- January 7 — Lívia Tóth, Hungarian distance runner
- January 8 — Mitsuhiro Sato, Japanese sprinter
- January 11 — Li Xiaoxue, Chinese hammer thrower
- January 19 — Matic Osovnikar, Slovenian sprinter
- January 21 — Elva Goulbourne, Jamaican long jumper
- January 25 — Christian Olsson, Swedish athlete
- January 27 — Naleya Downer, Jamaican sprinter
- January 31 — Joel Brown, American hurdler
- January 31 — Adriana Pirtea, Romanian long-distance runner
February
- February 3 — Markus Esser, German hammer thrower
- February 3 — Sini Pöyry, Finnish hammer thrower
- February 4 — Yared Asmerom, Eritrean long-distance runner
- February 4 — Gary Kikaya, Congolese sprinter
- February 7 — Emma Ania, British sprinter
- February 11 — Karin Ruckstuhl, Dutch heptathlete
- February 13 — Tetyana Holovchenko, Ukrainian distance runner
- February 13 — Irina Naumenko, Kazakhstani heptathlete
- February 20 — Bram Som, Dutch track and field athlete
- February 21 — Takayuki Matsumiya, Japanese long-distance runner
- February 24 — Aki Heikkinen, Finnish decathlete
- February 25 — Marisa Barros, Portuguese long-distance runner
- February 26 — Irina Butor, Belarusian heptathlete
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
- October 7 — Clarissa Claretti, Italian hammer thrower
- October 7 — Olesya Zykina, Russian track and field athlete
- October 16 — Maureen Griffin, American hammer thrower
- October 26 — Deriba Merga, Ethiopian long-distance runner
November
December
Deaths
- February 11 — Paavo Yrjölä (77), Finnish decathlete (b. 1902)
- February 21 — Mario Lanzi (63), Italian middle distance runner (b. 1914)
- March 31 — Jesse Owens (66), American sprinter (b. 1913)
- May 9 — Rolf Hansen (73), Norwegian long-distance runner (b. 1906)
- December 24 — Heikki Liimatainen (86), Finnish long-distance runner (b. 1894)
References