The 1980 Moscow Games took place from July 19 to August 3rd. 80 nations took part in these games, 205 events in 21 sports. The number of nations participating was down as was the number of athletes 5217, 1124 of them women due to the boycott led by American President Jimmy Carter. Carter led the boycott as a protest of the Soviet invasion in December 1979 of Afghanistan. 80 nations boycotted, some like Great Britain gave their athletes the choice to go or stay home. The evil Carter [History’s Greatest Monster} told any athlete who went to Moscow they would have their passports taken if they went. In the end 65 nations didn’t go at all. A mistake they shouldn’t have followed Carter.

Moscow as chose over Los Angeles. Detroit must have finally given up. Los Angeles would get the 1984 Games. The games were open by the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev. The torch was lit by soviet basketball great Sergei Belov.

While the competition suffered because of the boycott there were still more world records that fell in Moscow than in Montreal 4 years earlier. The Soviet fans though missed out on booing the Americans, Japanese and West Germans so they took out their aggression by booing and heckling the East Germans and the Poles.

The big rivalry going into the games was between two British runners Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, Coe would win the 1500 and Ovett the 800. I will write more on them later.

Soviet swimmer Vladimir Salnikov won 3 gold in these games. Teofilio Stevenson who recently passed away- won the gold medal in the heavyweight division for the third straight Olympic Games. The chemically inhanced East German women won 11 of the 13 swimming events. Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany won this second Olympic Marathon in a row.

The final medal count was dominated by the Soviets and East Germans. The Soviets led the way with 80 gold and 195 total, East Germany won 47 gold and 126 total medals, Bulgaria won 8 gold and41 total, 4th was Cuba with 8 gold and 20 total and in 5th was Italy with 8 gold and 15 total medals.