Moscow 1980 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

19 Jul 1980

End:

03 Aug 1980

Countries:

Athletes:

5179

Sports:

Events:

203

City:

Moscow, USSR (Tallinn - Sailing)

In October 1974, at the 75th Session of the IOC in Vienna, Moscow, USSR was named the host city of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games.
The only opponent of Moscow was Los Angeles, USA - the next host city for the 1984 Olympics.
It was the first Olympiad in a communist country.
In 1980, at the 83rd Session of the IOC in Moscow, Juan Antonio Samaranch was elected president of the IOC.

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev officially opened the Games of the 22nd Olympiad at the 103,000-capacity Lenin Stadium.
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, the United States, West Germany, Canada, Japan, and more than 60 other countries decided to boycott the Games. So only 80 countries - the fewest since 1956 - participated in the Olympics in 1980.
The governments of some states, such as Great Britain, Australia, Italy, and others, supported the boycott but allowed their athletes to compete if they chose to.
Despite the absence of American and other athletes, the Moscow Olympics have seen 36 world records and 74 Olympic records broken.
Soviet gymnast Aleksandr DITYATIN won three gold, four silver and 1 bronze medal.
The East German female athlete Caren METSCHUCK won three gold and one silver medal.
The Soviet athlete Vladimir SALNIKOV and two female athletes from the GDR, Barbara KRAUSE and Rica REINISCH, each won three gold medals in Swimming.
The Soviet athlete Vladimir PARFENOVICH won three gold medals in Kayaking.