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The Games of the XXII Olympiad were held in 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union. It was the first time the Olympics were held in a socialist country. Moscow won out over Los Angeles for the right to host the games, though L.A. was to host the next Olympics.
The yachting events were held in Tallinn; preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament were held, besides Moscow, at the stadiums of Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk. The only other time before, where some part of the Olympics was in a different city was when Stockholm, Sweden hosted the equestrian events in the 1956 Summer Olympics while the rest of it was in Melbourne, Australia.
Highlights Misha, mascot of the 1980 Summer Olympics
Medals awarded See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
Medal count Top medal-collecting nations:
(for the full table, see 1980 Summer Olympics medal count)
American-led boycott Following the 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, instead of the Western democratic ideal of keeping politics out of the Games, U.S. president Jimmy Carter issued an ultimatum, the terms of which being that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops had not quit the country by 12:01 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1980; the official announcement confirming the boycott was made on March 21.
Carter engaged in extensive arm-twisting to gain support from other nations. Some governments, like those of Great Britain and Australia, supported the boycott but allowed the athletes to decide for themselves whether to go to Moscow. No such freedom of choice was allowed U.S. athletes, as Carter threatened to revoke the passport of any athlete who tried to travel to the USSR. In the end, 65 nations turned down their invitations to the Olympics; probably 45 to 50 did so because of the U.S.-led boycott. 80 nations did participate - the lowest number since 1956. [1] (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/innovations_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1980)
The United States were joined in the boycott by some other big countries - including Japan, West Germany and Canada. Notably, Great Britain, France and Greece did not boycott the games, but Great Britain and France sent a much smaller delegation of athletes than they normally did. Because of this Italy was the principal nation representing western Europe. The boycott severely affected many events.
In the Opening Ceremony, 16 nations (among those Great Britain and Australia) chose to march under the Olympic Flag - rather than their national flags and the Olympic Anthem replaced their national anthems at medal ceremonies. New Zealand's team marched under their Games Association flag. There were a few ceremonies where three Olympic Flags were raised as a result.
Another victim of the boycott was NBC, which had paid $87 million for the U.S. broadcast rights to the games, almost four times the amount paid four years earlier. It had to cut back on the planned 150 hours of coverage. [2] (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/O/htmlO/olympicsand/olympicsand.htm)
But even though only 80 nations participated, the Games were very well-organized and there were more world records set in Moscow than in 1976 in Montreal.
See also
External links - IOC Site on 1980 Summer Olympics (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1980)
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