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The 1980 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXII Olympiad and also known as Moscow 1980) were an international multi-sport event held between 19 July and 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russia.

The United States of America and a number of other countries boycotted the 1980 Games due to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. This led to the USSR and its allies, in turn, boycotting the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Bidding[]

As happened four years earlier, Moscow and Los Angeles were again facing each other to host the Olympic Games, representing the then polarization that the world faced in that period. This time, Moscow was more favored, given the incidents that happened in Munich 1972 and the proximity of Montreal 1976, configured as a gigantic failure, due to the delays of the works, the interference in its Organizing Committee and several problems that led to the inflation of expenses. Another factor that tremendously helped Moscow was the holding of the Template:W in which the city's Olympic project was tested in part, and also that Lake Placid was the only candidate for the Winter Games that year and it would become unfeasible for the IOC to hold its main event twice in the same country in the same year. The choice between them was made at the 75th IOC session in Vienna, Austria on 23 October 1974. Los Angeles would eventually host the 1984 Summer Olympics.[1][2]

Voting[]

Voting results for the 1980 Summer Olympic Games
City Country Round 1
Moscow Soviet Union 39
Los Angeles United States 20

Participation overview and boycott[]

Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Olympics, the smallest number since Melbourne 1956. Among the eighty participating nations,[3] seven National Olympic Committees (NOCs) made their Olympic debut at these Games: Angola, Botswana, Cyprus, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique and the Seychelles.[4] None of these nations won a single medal.

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 Template:W 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 of the 1979 Template:W. The Soviet invasion spurred President Template:W to issue an ultimatum on 20 January 1980, stating that the U.S. would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month.[5] 65 countries and regions invited did not participate in the 1980 Olympics. Many of these followed the United States' boycott initiative, while others cited economic reasons for not participating.[5] Iran, under Template:W hostile to both superpowers, boycotted when the Template:W condemned the invasion. Neither the People's Republic of China nor Taiwan participated in the games.

Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the Template:W, also known as the "Olympic Boycott Games", in Philadelphia. However, the competing nations won 71 percent of all medals, and similarly 71 percent of the gold medals, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. This was in part due to state-run doping programs that had been developed in the Eastern Bloc countries.[6][7] 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 Template:W were used at medal ceremonies when athletes from these countries won medals. Athletes from 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 others refused to participate in the march.

The boycott impacted the competition of swimming, track and field, boxing, basketball, diving, field hockey and equestrian sports. Whilst athletes from 36 countries became Olympic medalists, the majority of the medals were awarded to the Soviet Union and East Germany, the most skewed medal tally since 1904.

Sports[]

← Winter 1980 Soviet Union 1980 Summer Olympic Games Soviet Union Winter 1984 →
← 1976 1984 →
Archery Athletics Basketball
Boxing Canoeing Cycling
Diving Equestrian Fencing
Field Hockey Football Gymnastics
Handball Judo Modern Pentathlon
Rowing Sailing Shooting
Swimming Volleyball Water Polo
Weightlifting Wrestling


Medal table[]

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Soviet Union 80 69 46 195
2 East Germany 47 37 42 126
3 Bulgaria 8 16 17 41
4 Cuba 8 7 5 20
5 Italy 8 3 4 15
6 Hungary 7 10 15 32
7 Romania 6 6 13 25
8 France 6 5 3 14
9 Great Britain 5 7 9 21
10 Poland 3 14 15 32
11 Sweden 3 3 6 12
12 Finland 3 1 4 8
13 Czechoslovakia 2 3 9 14
14 Yugoslavia 2 3 4 9
15 Australia 2 2 5 9
16 Denmark 2 1 2 5
17 Brazil 2 0 2 4
17 Ethiopia 2 0 2 4
19 Switzerland 2 0 0 2
20 Spain 1 3 2 6
21 Austria 1 2 1 4
22 Greece 1 0 2 3
23 Belgium 1 0 0 1
23 India 1 0 0 1
23 Zimbabwe 1 0 0 1
26 North Korea 0 3 2 5
27 Mongolia 0 2 2 4
28 Tanzania 0 2 0 2
29 Mexico 0 1 3 4
30 Netherlands 0 1 2 3
31 Ireland 0 1 1 2
32 Uganda 0 1 0 1
32 Venezuela 0 1 0 1
34 Jamaica 0 0 3 3
35 Guyana 0 0 1 1
35 Lebanon 0 0 1 1

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Miller, Geoffrey. "Lake Placid given unanimous approval", Schenectady Gazette, 24 October 1974, p. 33.
  2. "Face-saving mood give LA Games 'conditionally'", Eugene Register-Guard, 18 May 1978, p. 1C.
  3. Brian Murphy. Sting remains from boycotted 1980 Games. Idaho Statesman. Retrieved on 22 August 2010.
  4. 40 Years of Summer Olympic Cities. cnbc.com. Retrieved on 22 August 2010.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "The Olympic Boycott, 1980", state.gov, U.S. Department of State.
  6. The 1980 Olympics Are the 'Cleanest' in History. Athletes Recall How Moscow Cheated the System.
  7. "The Soviet Doping Plan: Document Reveals Illicit Approach to '84 Olympics", The New York Times, 13 August 2016.
  8. New Zealand Olympic Committee. Olympic.org.nz. Retrieved on 8 August 2010.

Links[]

Preceded by
Lake Placid 1980
Olympics
1980
Succeeded by
Sarajevo 1984
Preceded by
Montreal 1976
Summer Olympics
1980
Succeeded by
Los Angeles 1984
Olympic Games
Summer Olympic Games
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Winter Olympic Games
Chamonix 1924St. Moritz 1928Lake Placid 1932Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936St. Moritz 1948Oslo 1952Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956Squaw Valley 1960Innsbruck 1964Grenoble 1968Sapporo 1972Innsbruck 1976Lake Placid 1980Sarajevo 1984Calgary 1988Albertville 1992Lillehammer 1994Nagano 1998Salt Lake City 2002Torino 2006Vancouver 2010Sochi 2014Pyeongchang 2018Beijing 2022Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026
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