1980 Summer Olympics medal table
| 1980 Summer Olympics medals | |
|---|---|
Vladimir Parfenovich won three gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics, tied for the most of any competing athlete. | |
| Location | Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Highlights | |
| Most gold medals | Soviet Union (80) |
| Most total medals | Soviet Union (195) |
| Medalling NOCs | 36 |
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| 1980 Summer Olympics |
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The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Moscow, Soviet Union, from 19 July to 3 August. They were the first Olympic Games to be staged in a communist nation. A total of 5,179 athletes representing 80 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated, which included seven teams making their Olympic debut at the Summer Games; Angola, Botswana, Cyprus, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique, and Seychelles. This was the smallest number of participating NOCs since 1956. The games featured 203 events in 21 sports across 27 disciplines.
67 eligible countries participated in a boycott against these games, some of which did so explicitly citing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Sixteen NOCs participated under the Olympic Flag, as opposed to their nation's flag, as a partial boycott. This included the Olympic Anthem and flag being used at medal ceremonies when athletes from these NOCs won medals.
Athletes representing 36 NOCs received at least one medal, with 25 NOCs winning at least one gold medal. The Soviet Union won the most overall medals, with 195, and the most gold medals, with 80, setting a new record for most golds won in a single games (which was later broken at the 1984 Games). Sports commentators noted that the absence of the United States and various other Western nations stemming from a large-scale boycott contributed to the highly skewed medal results benefitting the Soviet Union. Guyana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe won their first Olympic medals of any kind, with Zimbabwe also winning their nation's first gold medal.
Among individual participants, Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin won the most medals overall with eight medals (three gold, four silver, one bronze), becoming the first athlete to win eight medals at a single games. Dityatin, Soviet canoer Vladimir Parfenovich, Soviet swimmer Vladimir Salnikov, and East German swimmers Barbara Krause, Caren Metschuck, and Rica Reinisch tied for the most gold medals, with three each.