The first Olympic Games in a communist country were held from July 19 to August 3, 1980 in Moscow, but also in the then Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk and Tallinn, where part of the football and sailing competitions took place.
They were also the first Olympic Games to be held in Eastern Europe, in a Slavic-speaking area and in a socialist state. More than anything else - it was the Games that were boycotted by the largest number of countries in the history of the Olympic movement (64).
Held at the height of the Cold War between the capitalist and communist worlds, many "Western" countries refused to travel to the Soviet Union, including the most trophy-winning Olympic nation - the United States of America. All this was a consequence of the call of the then US President Jimmy Carter, who saw the awarding of the 22nd Olympic Games to Moscow and the Soviet Union as a major diplomatic defeat by the President of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev, regardless of the fact that it was already known that the next Games would be organized by Los Angeles .
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The immediate reason for Carter's call for a boycott was the war in Afghanistan between the domestic Marxist government and insurgents, and in fact between the Soviets and anti-Soviet forces.
In Moscow, therefore, the smallest number of countries participated since 1956 - a total of 80, of which 15 competed under the Olympic flag. When the competitors from those countries won a medal, the Olympic anthem was played. And among those countries were Italy, France, Great Britain... The then president of Italy, Sandro Pertini, namely, was explicit in his desire for athletes from that country to go to the competition in Moscow, and the national committee of Great Britain did not accept the proposal of the "steel lady ” Margaret Thatcher, who expectedly supported Carter's initiative. Apart from the USA, however, there were no great sports powers in Moscow, such as West Germany, Japan...
Despite everything, a record was recorded - 21 percent of athletes were female, which was the highest percentage until then. 36 world, 39 European and 74 Olympic records were broken at the Games. Eight countries appeared for the first time - Angola, Vietnam, Botswana, Laos, Nicaragua, Seychelles, Mozambique and Cyprus, while Zimbabwe participated for the first time under that name.
At the closing ceremony, the flag of the city of Los Angeles appeared, instead of the flag of the United States, to symbolize the next host of the Olympic Games. The teddy bear Misha - the symbol of the 22nd Games - gained great popularity in Moscow.
Yugoslavia presented itself in Moscow with a record 164 competitors in 17 sports and with nine medals - two gold, three silver and four bronze, it took 14th place among countries that won Olympic trophies.
Basketball players and boxer Slobodan Kačar (lightweight) returned with gold from Moscow, silver went to handball players (it was the first Olympic medal for Yugoslav women's sport), water polo players and double sculls rowers Milorad Stanulov and Zoran Pančić.
Bronze medals for Yugoslavia were won by basketball players, judoka Radomir Kovačević (heavyweight), wrestler Šaban Seidi (freestyle) and rowers Zlatko Celent, Duško Mrduljaš and Josip Reić in a duo with a coxswain.
The final of the men's basketball tournament between Yugoslavia and Italy remained a special memory for sports fans in these areas. Ranko Žeravica's team previously defeated Senegal (104:67), Poland (129:91) and Spain (95:91) in the first phase, and outclassed Italy (102:81) and Cuba (112:84) in the second. After defeating the home USSR (101:91) in the toughest match of the tournament only after extra time, the "blues" awaited a new duel with the Italians in the final.
Yugoslavia was toying with the "azures", leading at the finish by 16 points (84:68), and Italy's mountain center Dino Menegin could not bear the defeat sportingly, so six seconds before the end he hit the best Yugoslav basketball player, Dragan Kićanović, with a knee in the thigh. while he tried to put the ball in the basket... Kića was taken off the field.
Apart from Kićanović, members of the Yugoslav basketball championship team were Zoran Slavnić, Andro Knego, Rajko Žižić, Mihovil Nakić, Željko Jerkov, Branko Skroče, Krešimir Ćosić, Ratko Radovanović, Duje Krstulović, Dražen Dalipagić and Mirza Delibašić.
Gymnast from the USSR Aleksandar Dityatin was the absolute hero of the Games, winning a medal in each of the eight disciplines, three of which were gold. He entered the history of the Olympics as the only athlete who won eight medals at the same Games.
Athletic competitions were marked by a duel of competitors from the USSR (seven gold medals - six silver - five bronze) and DR Germany (5 - 5 - 5), while the other countries picked up only crumbs. One of the athletic heroes was again, however, the great Cuban Alberto Huantorena, who defended his titles in the 400 and 800 meter races.
The final race of athletes at 100 meters was remembered for the photo-finish that decided the winner between the British Alan Wells and the Cuban Silvio Leonard, in favor of the competitor from Wales.
Competitions on the athletics track were also marked by Murus Jefter from Ethiopia - winner of 5.000 and 10.000 meters and Valdemar Cerpinski from East Germany who managed to get his second consecutive trophy in the marathon.
The swimming pool in Moscow was dominated by Vladimir Saljnikov from the USSR with three gold medals, with the fact that he became the first swimmer in history to swim faster than 1.500 minutes in the 15 meter freestyle, as well as the British Duncan Goodhue with gold in the 100 and 200 meters. breaststroke.
East Germany dominated in rowing with 11 victories in 14 rowing disciplines, while Cuba gave the world another sports hero in Moscow - boxer Teofil Stevenson, who won his third consecutive victory at the Olympic Games.
Competitors from the Eastern Bloc clearly dominated the podiums, so the USSR was first in terms of the number of medals won (80 - 69 - 46), the GDR was second (47 - 37 - 42), and the third, then and who knows when, was Bulgaria ( 8 - 16 - 17).
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