From WikiRun
| 1980 Summer Olympics
|
| Olympiad
| XXII
|
| Host City
| Moscow, USSR
|
| # Nations
| 81
|
| Events
| 203
|
| Sports
| 21
|
| Males
| 4,320
|
| Females
| 1,192
|
| Total Athletes
| 5,512
|
| Stadium
| Central Lenin Stadium
|
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held 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 (soccer) tournament were held in Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk. The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe. They were boycotted by the United States and its allies in protest of Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.
Highlights
- Although approximately half of the 24 countries which boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics participated in these, the 1980 Games were disrupted by another, even larger, boycott led by the United States followed by 60 other countries in protest of the 1979 Soviet war in Afghanistan}. Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the "Freedom Games" in Philadelphia.
- Eighty-one nations participated — the lowest number since 1956, however, the nations that did compete had won 71% of the medals, including 71% of the gold medals, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
- As a form of protest against the USSR 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. One country — New Zealand — competed under their association flag (the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association). Some of the teams who marched under other than their national flags were depleted by boycotts by individual athletes (see, for example, http://www.olympic.org.nz/GamesProfile.aspx?Print=&function=2&GamesID=27); and others didn't march.
- The Italians won four times as many gold medals as they had in Montreal and the French multiplied their gold medal results by three. Romania won more gold medals than it had at any previous Olympics. In terms of total medals, this was Ireland's most successful Olympics since Melbourne 1956. The same was true for Great Britain. "Third World" athletes qualified for more events and took more medals than at any previous Olympics.
- 21% of the competitors were female — 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 is 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.
- Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium, Chairman of the IOC Medical Commission stated: "There were 9,292 drug tests. None positive".
- Four Olympic records set in 1980 still stand as of 2008 — East German women 4×100 metre relay 41.6 seconds; Shot Put Ilona Slupianek of East Germany 22.41 metres; Soviet Nadezhda Olizarenko 800 metres, 1.53.43; Modern Pentathlon Soviet Anatoli Starostin 5568 points.
- The impact of the boycott was mixed. Some events like field hockey and equestrian sports were hard hit. Others like boxing, judo, rowing, swimming, track and field and weightlifting actually had more participants than in 1976.
- 8 nations appeared for the first time at an Olympics — Angola, Vietnam, Botswana, Laos, Nicaragua, Seychelles, Mozambique and Cyprus. Zimbabwe also made its first appearance under that name. It had previously competed as Rhodesia.
- Athletes from 25 countries won Olympic gold (the same total as in the 1984 Games and one less than in the 1976 Games) and competitors from 36 countries became Olympic medalists.
- 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).[1] Asahi TV with 68 cards provided coverage for Japan, while OTI representing the Spanish-speaking world received 59 cards and the Channel Seven provided coverage for Australia (48 cards).[1] 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,[1] although the network did air highlights and recaps of the games on a regular basis. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation almost canceled their plans for coverage after Canada took part in the boycott and was represented by nine cards.[1]
- The television centre 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.[2]
- 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.
- Athletes reported that some Soviet fans at the track and field events were excessively jingoistic, even booing athletes of close USSR allies such as East Germany and Poland. In contrast the crowds at the women's gymnastic events were reported "to be better behaved than many we have seen in recent years".
- The Games attracted five million spectators, an increase of 1.5 million from the Montreal Games.
- There were 1,245 referees from 78 countries.
- At the closing ceremony, the Los Angeles city flag, rather than the United States flag, was raised to symbolize the next host of the Olympic Games, and the Olympic flag was handed over to the IOC President rather than the mayor of Los Angeles.
- Ethiopian Miruts Yifter won the 5000 metre and 10000 metre athletics double, emulating Lasse Viren's 1972 and 1976 performances.
- "I have a 90% chance of winning the 1,500 metres" wrote Steve Ovett in an article he did for one of Britain's Sunday papers just before the start of the Olympics. After he won the 800 metre Olympic gold, beating world-record holder Sebastian Coe, Ovett stated that he would not only win the 1,500 metres, but would beat the world record by as much as four seconds. Ovett had won 45 straight 1,500 meter races since May 1977. In contrast Coe had competed in only 8 1,500 meter races between 1976-1980. Coe won, however, holding off Ovett in the final lap. Ovett finished third.
- Scotsman Allan Wells beat Cuban Silvio Leonard to become the first Briton since 1924 to win the Olympic 100 meters. It was the closest 100 m race at the Olympics in 28 years, ending in a photo finish in which both runners timed at 10.25 seconds.
- Gerd Wessig — who had made the East German team only 2 weeks before the Games — easily won the gold medal with a 2.36m (7'9") high jump. This was 9 cm higher than he had ever jumped before. For the first time in history the world record in high jump was broken at the Olympic Games.
- The 1980 Olympic women's long jump competition produced a surprise when the 3rd string Soviet jumper, Tatiana Kolpakova, bested her compatriots and other competitors by setting a new Olympic record of 7.06m (23'2").
- Poland's Władysław Kozakiewicz won the pole vault with a jump of 5.78m (18'11.5") — only the 2nd pole vaulting world record to be established during an Olympics. The previous time had been at the Antwerp Olympics 1920.
- In the pole vault competition, despite pleas for silence in three languages, jeers, chants and whistles among the different factions in the crowd supporting French, Soviet and Polish pole vaulters could be heard. Immediately after Kozakiewicz secured his gold medal, he responded to the jeering Soviet crowds with an obscene bent elbow gesture. This gesture is now referred to in Polish as "Kozakiewicz's gesture".
- In the pole vault an athlete topped the Olympic record by 15 cm (6"), yet finished fourth. Similarly, athletes who broke the Olympic record in men's high jump by 5 cm (2"), the women's long jump by 13 cm (5"),and the women's javelin by 60cm (2'), wound up no better than fourth. A total of 12 track and field athletes performed so well that their scores would have won any previous Olympics, yet failed to win a medal at Moscow.
- In the long jump competition, three women beat 23 feet for the first time ever in one competition.
- Waldemar Cierpinski of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) won his second consecutive marathon gold.
- Bärbel Wöckel, also of the GDR, winner of the 200 metres in Montreal, became the first woman to retain the title.
- Tatiana Kazankina (USSR) retained the 1,500m title that she had won in Montreal.
- Soviet walker Anatoly Solomin was leading the 20km walk with 1 lap to go when he was disqualified. The race was won by a hitherto little known Italian, Maurizio Damilano, in an Olympic record time.
- For the first time in the history of the Olympics all 8 male participants in the long jump final beat the mark of 8 metres.
- Spain and Bulgaria earned their first ever medals in Men's track.
- Lutz Dombrowski (GDR) won the long jump gold. His was the longest jump recorded at sea level and he became only the 2nd human to jump further than 28 feet.
- In the triple jump final Viktor Saneyev who won gold at Mexico, Munich and Montreal won silver behind Jaak Uudmäe an Estonian representing the Soviet Union.
- Yuriy Sedykh (USSR) won gold in the hammer throw event. 4 of his 6 throws broke the world record of 80m.No hammer thrower in the world had ever achieved this before. As in Montreal the USSR win gold, silver and bronze in this event.
- Evelin Jahl (GDR) the 1976 Olympic champion won discus gold again. She won with a new Olympic record - 69.96m. She had been undefeated since Montreal.
- Cuba's Maria Colon won the women's javelin setting a new Olympic record and beating the favored Soviet throwers.
- Sara Simeoni of Italy won the women's high jump, setting a new Olympic record. She had won a silver in the 1976 Games and would go on to win a silver in the 1984 Games.
- In track-and-field, six world records, 18 Olympic records and nine best results of the year were registered.
- In women's track and field events alone either a world or Olympic record was broken in almost every event.
- Daley Thompson of Great Britain won the gold in the Decathlon. He won gold again at the L.A. Olympics.
- Latvian Dainis Kula (competing for USSR) won gold in the men's javelin. He also had the best sum total of throws, showing his consistency. He finished ahead of his teammate Alexander Makarov.
- IAAF President Adrian Paulen of Holland said "Whereas at the 1976 Games in Montreal the Jury of Appeal had to deal with 16 protests, the fact remains that in Moscow there were only two. This was the smallest number of protests at any Olympic Games since Tokyo 1964".
Medal summary
Men's events
Women's events
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://www.la84foundation.org/5va/reports_frmst.htm 1980 Summer Olympics Official Report from the Organizing Committee], vol. 2, p. 379
- ↑ ru: History — Moscow-1980
