History
Fast Facts
Host City: Moscow, RussiaOpening date: July 19, 1980
Closing date: Aug. 3, 1980
Nations: 80
Athletes: 5,217 athletes (1,124 women, 4,093 men)
203 events in 21 sports
In 1980, the Olympics were held in a Communist bloc country for the first time. They also faced the first genuinely major boycott in Olympic history.
After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979, President Jimmy Carter threatened to boycott the Games if the invasion continued. The Soviets didn't back down. Led by the United States, 65 nations refused to send teams to Moscow.
The governments of Great Britain and Italy supported the boycott but allowed their athletes to compete if they wanted to. Two of those who did were British middle distance runners Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. Though they were countrymen, they hadn't raced against one another since 1978. Coe had set new world records in the 800-meter, 1500-meter, and 1-mile runs in 1979, but Ovett broke Coe's 1-mile record and tied his 1500-meter mark less than a month before the Olympics.
The 800-meter final was anti-climactic, as Ovett won easily but in a very slow time, nearly three seconds slower than Coe's world record, though he finished well ahead of Coe. The 1500-meter was an exciting, three-man race. Jurgen Straub of East Germany held the lead with 200 meters to go, but Coe and Ovett then turned on their finishing sprints. Straub held off Ovett, but Coe passed him to win by 4 meters, thanks to a remarkable 52.2 seconds in the final lap.
Despite the fact that only 80 nations competed, the lowest number since 1956, the Moscow Olympics produced 74 Olympic records and 36 world records, more than had been set in Montreal four years earlier.
Cuba's Teófilo Stevenson breezed through the super-heavyweight division with ease, becoming the first boxer to win three gold medals in the same weight class. (Laslo Papp of Hungary had previously won three boxing gold medals, but in two different divisions.)
The swimming field was seriously depleted by the absence of U. S. competitors, but Vladimir Salnikov of the Soviet Union not only won gold in the 1500-meter freestyle, he became the first to break the 15-minute mark in the event. Salnikov also won two other gold medals.
Another Soviet, gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin, became the first athlete to win eight medals at a single Olympics.
