1980 Summer Olympics

Games of the XXII Olympiad
Host city Moscow, Soviet Union
Nations participating 80[1]
Athletes participating 5,179
(4,064 men, 1,115 women)[1]
Events 203 in 21 sports
Opening ceremony 19 July
Closing ceremony 3 August
Officially opened by General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev
Athlete's Oath Nikolay Andrianov
Judge's Oath Aleksandr Medved
Olympic Torch Sergei Belov
Stadium Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium

The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament were held in Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk. The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe.

The United States and a number of other countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag. This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Some of the later events of the games were also nearly mired by the death and unauthorized mass funeral of the immensely popular and beloved singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky[2]

Contents

Host city selection

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]

1980 Summer Olympics bidding result[4]
City Country Round 1
Moscow  Soviet Union 39
Los Angeles  United States 20

Overview

Highlights

Opening ceremony

Archery

Athletics

Basketball

Boxing

Canoeing

Cycling

Diving

Equestrian

Fencing

Football

Gymnastics

Handball

Hockey

Judo

Modern Pentathlon

Rowing

Sailing

Shooting

Swimming

Volleyball

Water polo

Weightlifting

Wrestling

Closing ceremony

Venues

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

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Medal count

These are the top medal-collecting nations for the 1980 Games. (Host country is highlighted).

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Soviet Union (URS) (host nation) 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) 7 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
Total 204 204 223 631

Participating nations

A total of 81 nations were represented at the Moscow Games, but Liberia withdrew after marching in the Opening Ceremony, so a total of 80 nations actually competed.

Despite the large boycott, 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. 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).

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.

Non-participating countries and regions

65 countries and regions invited didn't take part in the 1980 Olympic Games. Many of these followed the United States' boycott initiative, while others (such as Zaire) cited economic reasons for not coming.[5][10]

*Qatar did not attend the Games because they were not invited by the International Olympic Committee.[10]
**Chinese Taipei / Taiwan did not attend because of the 1979 Nagoya Resolution, in which the People's Republic of China agreed to participate in the IOC if the Republic of China/Taiwan were referred to as "Chinese Taipei".

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Preceded by
Montreal
Summer Olympic Games
Host City

XXII Olympiad (1980)
Succeeded by
Los Angeles