The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott of the Moscow Olympics was a part of a package of actions initiated by the United States to protest the Soviet war in Afghanistan.^[1] It preceded the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott carried out by the Soviet Union and other Communist-friendly countries.

Background[link]

The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on January 20, 1980 that the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan within one month.^[2]

The pros and cons of the boycott were further discussed in several interventions at the 1980 Bilderberg meeting held towards the end of April in Aachen. The debate partly surrounded the perception that the action could be perceived on the worldwide stage as a sentimental rather than a strategic act. An African representative at the event stated that a boycott would be an effective symbolic protest because of its magically dramatic visibility to the citizens of the Soviet Union, regardless of whether or not the action provoked a response.^[3]

The United States was joined in the boycott by some other countries – including Japan, West Germany, China, the Philippines, Argentina and Canada. Some of these countries competed at the Olympic Boycott Games in Philadelphia. Notably, United Kingdom, France and Australia supported the boycott but allowed their athletes to participate if they wished (the U.S. did not) and left the final decisions to participate in the Games to their respective National Olympic Committees and the individual athletes of the countries concerned. The United Kingdom and France sent a much smaller delegation of athletes than usual. Nevertheless, the delegation of the United Kingdom was the largest among Western Europe, with 170 athletes applying to compete.^[4] Spain, Italy, Sweden, Iceland and Finland were other principal nations representing western Europe,^[4] though Italian athletes belonging to military corps did not attend the Games, due to the government's support of the boycott, which severely affected many events. Some American-born athletes who were citizens of other countries, such as Italy and Australia, did compete in Moscow.

At the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, athletes from a number of countries, including Australia, Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, San Marino, Spain, and Switzerland, marched under the Olympic Flag, instead of their national flags, a fact that the Soviet TV coverage alternately ignored. Moreover, although the government of New Zealand officially supported the boycott, four athletes from that country competed independently and marched under their NOC's flag.^[5] Altogether, the athletes of 16 countries were not represented by their national flags, and the Olympic Anthem replaced their national anthems at medal ceremonies. As a result, there were a few ceremonies where three Olympic Flags were raised.

Because Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau was unable to travel to Moscow due to the boycott, Sandra Henderson and Stéphane Préfontaine, the final torchbearers at the previous games, were sent in his stead to participate in the Antwerp Ceremony at the opening ceremony, and at the closing ceremony, the Los Angeles city flag – rather than the United States flag – was raised to symbolize the next host of the Olympic Games.

Even though only 80 nations participated, more world records were set in Moscow than in 1976 in Montreal.

Response by athletes[link]

On May 24, 1980 in Buffalo, New York at the United States Olympic Trials for the marathon, Gary Fanelli led the pack for 15 miles (24 km) while protesting the boycott with a shirt that read "The Road to Moscow Ends Here".^{[6][7] [8]}

Non-participating countries[link]

Incomplete map of Olympic boycotts, showing 1980 boycotting countries in blue

Sixty-five countries did not participate in the Olympics despite being invited. While most of these did not go to Moscow because of the boycott,^{[citation needed]} a number didn't participate for economic reasons.

^*Qatar did not attend the Games because they were not invited by the International Olympic Committee.^[9]
**Chinese Taipei / Taiwan did not attend because of the 1979 Nagoya Resolution, in which the People's Republic of China agreed to participate in the IOC if the Republic of China/Taiwan were referred to as "Chinese Taipei".

Altered participants[link]

Sixteen nations participated in the Games, but paraded into the Olympic stadium without their national flags.

Nations that did not participate in the Opening Parade[link]

Seven countries attending the Games did not participate in the Opening parade:^[9]

^{[clarification needed]}

National teams paraded by their own officials[link]

^{[clarification needed]}

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

• Great Britain – Richard Palmer
• Ireland

Nations under the Olympic Flag by their own athletes[link]

4 National teams participated at the Games under the Olympic flag and by their own athletes^{[clarification needed]}:^[9]

• Australia
• Andorra
• Denmark
• Puerto Rico

Nations that competed under their NOC flag[link]

• Spain
• Portugal
• New Zealand

Aftermath[link]

The succeeding 1984 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, United States saw another boycott, this time led by the Soviet Union. On May 8, 1984, the Soviet Union issued a statement that the country would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles due to "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States."^[10] Thirteen Soviet allies joined the boycott, giving a total of fourteen nations that boycotted the Olympics. Iran was the only country that did not participate in either Moscow or Los Angeles.

See also[link]

• 1980 Summer Olympics
• 1984 Summer Olympics boycott

References[link]

Games of the XXII Olympiad

Host city	Moscow, Soviet Union
Nations participating	80[1]
Athletes participating	5,179 (4,064 men, 1,115 women)[1]
Events	203 in 21 sports
Opening ceremony	19 July
Closing ceremony	3 August
Officially opened by	Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev
Athlete's Oath	Nikolay Andrianov
Judge's Oath	Aleksandr Medved
Olympic Torch	Sergei Belov
Stadium	Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium

Badge, released in the USSR

The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament were held in Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk. The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe.

The United States and a number of other countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag. This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Some of the later events of the games were also nearly mired by the death and unauthorized mass funeral of the immensely popular and beloved singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky.^[2]

Host city selection[link]

The only two cities to bid for the 1980 Summer Olympics were Moscow and Los Angeles. The choice between them was made on 23 October 1974 in the 75th IOC Session in Vienna, Austria.^[3]

1980 Summer Olympics bidding result[4]
City	Country	Round 1
Moscow	Soviet Union	39
Los Angeles	United States	20

Overview[link]

Olympic Village as it appeared in February 2004

• Although approximately half of the 24 countries that boycotted the 1976 Summer Olympics (over the apartheid issue in South Africa) participated in these games, the 1980 Summer Olympics were disrupted by another, even larger, boycott led by the United States in protest of the 1979 Soviet war in Afghanistan.^[5] Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the Liberty Bell Classic (also known as the "Olympic Boycott Games") in Philadelphia.
• Eighty nations participated – the smallest number since 1956. However, the nations that did compete had won 71% of the medals, including 71% of the gold medals, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
• As a form of protest against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, fifteen countries marched in the Opening Ceremony with the Olympic Flag instead of with their national flags, and the Olympic Flag and Olympic Hymn were used at Medal Ceremonies when athletes from these countries won medals. Competitors from one country – New Zealand – competed under their association flag, the flag of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association^[6] Some of the teams who marched under other than their national flags were depleted by boycotts by individual athletes, and others did not march.
• Italy won four times as many gold medals as it did in Montreal and France multiplied its gold medal results by three. Romania won more gold medals than it had at any previous Olympics. In terms of total medals, this was Ireland's most successful Olympics since Melbourne 1956. The same was true for Great Britain. "Third World" athletes qualified for more events and took more medals than at any previous Olympics.
• 21% of the competitors were female – a higher percentage than at any previous Olympics.
• There were 203 events – more than at any previous Olympics.
• 36 World records, 39 European records and 74 Olympic records were set. In total this was more records than were set at Montreal.
• New Olympic records were set 241 times over the course of the competitions and world records were beaten 97 times.
• Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium, Chairman of the IOC Medical Commission, stated: "There were 9,292 drug tests. None positive".
• Four Olympic records set in 1980 still stood as of 2008^[update] – East German women 4×100 metre relay 41.6 seconds; Shot Put Ilona Slupianek of East Germany 22.41 metres; Soviet Nadezhda Olizarenko 800 metres, 1:53.43; Modern Pentathlon Soviet Anatoli Starostin 5568 points.
• The impact of the boycott was mixed. Some events, like field hockey and equestrian sports, were hard hit. Others like boxing, judo, rowing, swimming, track and field and weightlifting actually had more participants than in 1976.
• Eight nations appeared for the first time at an Olympics – Angola, Botswana, Laos, Nicaragua, Seychelles, Mozambique and Cyprus. Zimbabwe also made its first appearance under that name; it had previously competed as Rhodesia.
• Athletes from 25 countries won Olympic gold (the same total as in the 1984 Games and one fewer than in the 1976 Games) and competitors from 36 countries became Olympic medalists.

1980 Summer Olympics Torch

• Major broadcasters of the Games were USSR State TV and Radio (1,370 accreditation cards), Eurovision (31 countries, 818 cards) and Intervision (11 countries, 342 cards).^[7] Asahi TV with 68 cards provided coverage for Japan, while OTI representing the Spanish-speaking world received 59 cards and the Seven Network provided coverage for Australia (48 cards).^[7] NBC, which had intended to be another major broadcaster, canceled its coverage in response to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, and became a minor broadcaster with 56 accreditation cards,^[7] although the network did air highlights and recaps of the games on a regular basis. (ABC aired scenes of the opening ceremony during its Nightline program, and promised highlights each night, but the next night, the show announced that they could not air any highlights as NBC still had exclusive broadcast rights in the USA.) The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation almost canceled their plans for coverage after Canada took part in the boycott and was represented by nine cards.^[7]
• The television centre used 20 television channels, compared to 16 for the Montreal Games, 12 for the Munich Games, and seven for the Mexico City Games.
• During the opening ceremony, Salyut 6 crew Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin sent their greetings to the Olympians and wished them happy starts in the live communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium. They appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were translated via loud speakers.^[8]
• According to the Official Report, submitted to the IOC by the NOC of the USSR, total expenditures for the preparations for and staging of the Games were 862.7 million rubles, total revenues being 744.8 million rubles.

150-rubles platinum coin (obverse)

150-rubles platinum coin (reverse)

• A series of commemorative coins was released in the USSR in 1977–1980 to commemorate the event. It consisted of five platinum coins, six gold coins, 28 silver coins and six copper-nickel coins.
• The Games attracted five million spectators, an increase of 1.5 million from the Montreal Games.
• There were 1,245 referees from 78 countries.
• At the closing ceremony, the Los Angeles city flag, rather than the United States flag, was raised to symbolize the next host of the Olympic Games, and the Olympic flag was handed over to the IOC President rather than to the mayor of Los Angeles. This was the first time that the Olympic Flag Handover took place during the closing ceremony.

Highlights[link]

1977 USSR commemorative stamp issued for the archery event

Opening ceremony[link]

Archery[link]

• Tomi Poikolainen of Finland, who had not finished any of the previous 3 days shootings higher than 4th, came from 4th on the last day to win the men's archery competition, scoring 2455 points. He won gold just three points ahead of a Soviet.
• The women's archery gold was won by Ketevan Losaberidze (USSR) who was also the world, European and Soviet champion.
• The women's archery silver was won by Natalia Butuzova (USSR). In 1979 she had set nine national records and three world records.

Athletics[link]

Marathon in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral

• Ethiopian Miruts Yifter won the 5000 metre and 10000 metre athletics double, emulating Lasse Virén's 1972 and 1976 performances.
• "I have a 90% chance of winning the 1,500 metres" wrote Steve Ovett in an article he did for one of Britain's Sunday papers just before the start of the Olympics. After he won the 800 metre Olympic gold, beating world-record holder Sebastian Coe, Ovett stated that he would not only win the 1,500 metres, but would beat the world record by as much as four seconds. Ovett had won 45 straight 1,500 meter races since May 1977. In contrast Coe had competed in only 8 1,500 meter races between 1976–1980. Coe won, however, holding off Ovett in the final lap. Ovett finished third.
• Scotsman Allan Wells beat Cuban Silvio Leonard to become the first Briton since 1924 to win the Olympic 100 meters. It was the closest 100 m race at the Olympics in 28 years, ending in a photo finish in which both runners timed at 10.25 seconds.
• Gerd Wessig – who had made the East German team only 2 weeks before the Games – easily won the gold medal with a 2.36m (7'9") high jump. This was 9 cm higher than he had ever jumped before. For the first time in history the world record in high jump was broken at the Olympic Games.
• The 1980 Olympic women's long jump competition produced a surprise when the 3rd string Soviet jumper, Tatiana Kolpakova, bested her compatriots and other competitors by setting a new Olympic record of 7.06m (23'2").
• Poland's Władysław Kozakiewicz won the pole vault with a jump of 5.78m (18'11.5") – only the 2nd pole vaulting world record to be established during an Olympics. The previous time had been at the Antwerp Olympics 1920.
• In the pole vault competition, despite pleas for silence in three languages, jeers, chants and whistles among the different factions in the crowd supporting French, Soviet and Polish pole vaulters could be heard. Immediately after Kozakiewicz secured his gold medal, he responded to the jeering Soviet crowds with an obscene bent elbow gesture. This gesture is now referred to in Polish as "Kozakiewicz's gesture".
• In the pole vault an athlete topped the Olympic record by 15 cm (6"), yet finished fourth. Similarly, athletes who broke the Olympic record in men's high jump by 5 cm (2"), the women's long jump by 13 cm (5"), and the women's javelin by 60 cm (2'), wound up no better than fourth. A total of 12 track and field athletes performed so well that their scores would have won any previous Olympics, yet failed to win a medal at Moscow.
• In the long jump competition, three women beat 23 feet (7.0 m) for the first time ever in one competition.
• Waldemar Cierpinski of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) won his second consecutive marathon gold.
• Bärbel Wöckel, also of the GDR, winner of the 200 metres in Montreal, became the first woman to retain the title.

• Tatiana Kazankina (USSR) retained the 1,500m title that she had won in Montreal.
• Soviet walker Anatoly Solomin was leading the 20 km walk with 1 lap to go when he was disqualified. The race was won by a hitherto little known Italian, Maurizio Damilano, in an Olympic record time.
• For the first time in the history of the Olympics all 8 male participants in the long jump final beat the mark of 8 metres.
• Spain and Bulgaria earned their first ever medals in Men's track.
• Lutz Dombrowski (GDR) won the long jump gold. His was the longest jump recorded at sea level and he became only the 2nd human to jump further than 28 feet (8.5 m).
• In the triple jump final Viktor Saneyev who won gold at Mexico, Munich and Montreal won silver behind his compatriot Jaak Uudmäe.
• Yuriy Sedykh (USSR) won gold in the hammer throw event. 4 of his 6 throws broke the world record of 80m.No hammer thrower in the world had ever achieved this before. As in Montreal the USSR win gold, silver and bronze in this event.
• Evelin Jahl (GDR) the 1976 Olympic champion won discus gold again. She won with a new Olympic record – 69.96m. She had been undefeated since Montreal.
• Cuba's María Caridad Colón won the women's javelin setting a new Olympic record and beating the favored Soviet throwers.
• Sara Simeoni of Italy won the women's high jump, setting a new Olympic record. She had won a silver in the 1976 Games and would go on to win a silver in the 1984 Games.
• In track-and-field six world records, 18 Olympic records and nine best results of the year were registered.
• In women's track and field events alone either a world or Olympic record was broken in almost every event.
• Daley Thompson of Great Britain won the gold in the Decathlon. He won gold again at the L.A. Olympics.
• Soviet Dainis Kula won gold in the men's javelin. He also had the best sum total of throws, showing his consistency. He finished ahead of his teammate Alexander Makarov.
• IAAF President Adrian Paulen of the Netherlands said "Whereas at the 1976 Games in Montreal the Jury of Appeal had to deal with 16 protests, the fact remains that in Moscow there were only two. This was the smallest number of protests at any Olympic Games since Tokyo 1964".

Basketball[link]

Boxing[link]

• Teófilo Stevenson of Cuba became the first boxer to win three consecutive Olympic titles in heavyweight, the only boxer to win the same event in 3 Games. (László Papp from Hungary was the first boxer to win three titles). In boxing Cuba won 6 gold, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes, a haul only equaled once before in the entire history of the Olympics (by the USA at St. Louis in 1904 when there were hardly any other boxers from other nations present). The USSR won 1 gold medal, the same as Italy, Yugoslavia, East Germany and Bulgaria.
• The Val Barker Trophy is presented by the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) to the competitor adjudged to be the best stylist at the Games. The winner was Patrizio Oliva of Italy who won gold at light-welterweight. In his final Oliva defeated Serik Konakbaev (USSR). In 1979 Konakbaev had beaten Oliva in the final of the European Championships.
• Donald F. Hull, U.S. president of the Amateur International Boxing Federation (IABA) said "I consider the organization of the present boxing tournament to be the best among the last 3 Olympics".

Canoeing[link]

All events in canoeing and rowing took place at the Moscow Canoeing and Rowing Basin in Krylatskoye

• The prophets of the canoeing world had predicted that the USSR would triumph in at least 9 of the 11 classes for which there were gold medals to be won at the 1980 Olympic regatta. At Montreal the USSR had won 6 of 11 titles and at Munich 6 out of 7.
• Sergei Postrekhin (USSR) was favored to win the single canoe 1,000 metres gold but is beaten by Lubomir Lubenov of Bulgaria.
• In canoeing Australia won its first medal since 1956.
• Ivan Patzaichin (Romania) won gold medals over a 16 year period,1968–1984.
• Apart from the boycott of the LA Olympics Birgit Fischer (East Germany) won medals in each Olympics from 1980–2004. In the 500 metres kayak singles for women she won gold in Moscow, silver in Seoul, gold in Barcelona.
• Uladzimir Parfianovich of the USSR won 3 gold medals in canoeing.

Cycling[link]

Olympic Velodrome in Krylatskoye

• Lothar Thoms of East Germany won the 1,000 metre individual pursuit cycling gold, breaking the world record by nearly 4 seconds.
• The surprise winner of the bronze in that race was Jamaica's David Weller who also broke the 16 year old world record.
• In the 4,000 metre team pursuit qualifying heats new world indoor records were set 8 times.
• In the 4,000 metre individual pursuit the Olympic flag was flown for all 3 medal winning positions – Switzerland gold, France silver, Denmark bronze. Robert Dill-Bundi became the 1st Olympic champion in the history of Swiss cycling.
• The 189 kilometer individual road race gold was won by Sergei Sukhoruchenkov (USSR). British team manager Peter Crinnon called it "The greatest exhibition of power riding ever". Sukhoruchenkov is voted best racer in the world by the International Amateur Cycling Federation.
• In this race only a photo-finish can tell the next 2 finishers apart, giving the silver medal to the Polish cyclist and the bronze to a Soviet cyclist.
• The cycling team road race is won by the Soviet team as they had done in Munich and Montreal.
• In cycling world records were toppled 21 times.

Diving[link]

• As Aleksandr Portnov waited to do a 2 and 1/2 reverse somersault in the springboard final, cheers broke out in three adjoining swimming pool during the closing stages of Salnikov's world record breaking 1,500m swim. The diver delayed his start until the noise had subsided but, as he took his first steps along the board, even greater cheers broke out as Salnikov touched in under 15 minutes. Under the rules Portnov, having started, could not stop before take-off. He crashed badly. On protest to the Swedish referee G.Olander he was allowed to repeat the dive and went ahead again of Mexico's Carlos Girón. Later protests by Mexico against the re-dive and by East Germany that their Falk Hoffmann wanted to re-dive after allegedly being disturbed by photographic flashlights were both turned down by the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA). FINA President Javier Ostas of Mexico stated that the decision taken by the Swedish referee was the "correct one. FINA assessed all the Olympic diving events and considers the judging to have been objective". Portnov remained the winner with Giron taking silver and Cagnatto of Italy bronze.
• Martina Jaschke (East Germany) was 4th after the preliminary high dives, behind 2 Soviets and a Mexican, but came back to win gold on the second day of competition.
• Irina Kalinina (USSR) won gold in the springboard final. As a result of her 10 dives in the preliminaries she amassed a unique number of points : 478.86. In the previous 4 years no diver had scored so many.
• In this final the Mexican judge A.Marsikal allowed Karin Guthke (East Germany) re-take a dive. Guthke then won bronze ahead of the Soviet Zhanna Tsirulnikova.

Equestrian[link]

• In the individual show jumping event Poland's Jan Kowalczyk and the USSR's Nikolai Koralkov beach had 8 faults, but Kowalczyk won gold as his horse completed the course the quicker. So Poland won the last of the 203 gold medals contested.
• Austrian horsewoman Elisabeth Theurer, despite the decision of the federation of equestrian sports of her country not to participate in the Olympics, was flown to Moscow by former racing driver Niki Lauda. Theurer won the gold medal in the dressage competition.
• The oldest medalist at the Moscow Olympics was Petre Rosca (Romania) in the dressage at 57 years 283 days.

Fencing[link]

• Soviet foil fencers, who had taken possession of all the World and Olympic titles, were not among the 6 challengers in the finals. The Soviet 5 time world champion Alexander Romankov won a bronze.
• France took 4 golds in fencing, an Olympic record in the post World War II era.
• In the team sabre fencing final, for the 5th Olympics in a row, Italy and the USSR met. The USSR won as they did in Tokyo, Mexico and Montreal.
• In the men's foil final the USSR and France record 8 wins each but the Frenchmen made more hits and this won them the gold.

Football[link]

Pins released by the USSR for the football event of the Olympics (with a British 50 pence coin for size comparison)

• The USSR were favorites to win gold in football but won bronze instead. Czechoslovakia won the gold medal beating German Democratic Republic (East Germany) 1:0 in the final. After many years in the doldrums, Olympic football had a revival in 1980 when the matches attracted nearly 2 million spectators.

Gymnastics[link]

• Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin won a medal in each of the eight gymnastics events, including three titles. He was the first athlete to win 8 medals at an Olympics. He scored several 10s, the first perfect scores in men's gymnastics since the 1924 Paris Olympics.
• Nikolai Andrianov who had won gold on floor at both Munich and Montreal was pipped this time by Roland Bruckner of East Germany. Andrianov retained the vault title he had won in Montreal.
• Zoltán Magyar (Hungary) retained the Olympic title on pommel horse that he had won in Montreal. He was also 3 times World champion and 3 times European champion on this piece of apparatus.
• In women's gymnastics the USSR won 1 medal in the All-Around competition. In each Olympics before this they had always won 2 and in Rome 1960 had won all 3. In the Friendship Games at Olomouc '84 and at Seoul '88 they would win 2 again. In the Team Competition they won the gold medal for the eighth time, continuing the "gold" series started in 1952.
• In the women's gymnastics event finals, a Romanian gymnast medals on each piece of apparatus for the first time:
  • Balance Beam – Nadia Comăneci (gold)
  • Floor – Nadia Comăneci (gold)
  • Uneven Bar – Emilia Eberle (silver) & Melita Ruhn (bronze)
  • Vault – Melita Ruhn (bronze)
• In women's gymnastics there was a judging scandal when the Romanian head judge refused to post the score of her fellow Romanian Nadia Comăneci. This score gave Comaneci a silver medal behind Yelena Davydova of the USSR, but the Romanian judge, Mili Simionescu, tried to persuade the other judges to increase Comaneci's score so that she would win gold. After the Olympics, Simionescu was severely criticized by the International Gymnastics Federation. Before the LA Olympics, the United States gymnastics federation proposed a change in the rules so that a head judge cannot interfere and meddle in the scoring of competitors.

Handball[link]

• East Germany beat the USSR 23–22 in the handball final to take their first medal of any sort in the men's event.

Hockey[link]

• Women's field hockey was an Olympic sport for the first time. Six countries competed: Austria, India, Poland, Czechoslovakia, USSR, and Zimbabwe. The gold medal was won by the team of Zimbabwe ahead of the firm favorites of the USSR who won bronze. Zimbabwe did not learn it would get a place in the tournament until 35 days before the Games began and chose its team only the weekend before the opening ceremony. None of their players had prior playing experience on an artificial surface. They had not trained at all together before the tournament and warmed up by playing some friendly matches with different Soviet club teams.
• India won a record 8th title in men's field hockey.

Judo[link]

• In Japan's absence, the USSR was expected to improve its showing in judo but wound up with 5 medals, the same as Montreal, despite the fact that there were 2 more weight categories. 15 countries shared the medals in judo, more than the record 12 countries in Munich and Montreal.

Modern Pentathlon[link]

• In the women's pentathlon the Soviet Nadezhda Tkachenko scored 5,083 points to become the first athlete to exceed 5,000 points in the event during Olympic competition.
• Although she won the silver medal Olga Rukavishnikova (USSR) held the world record for 0.4 seconds as she finished 1st in the last event of 800m.That gave her the shortest reign of any world record holder ever.
• In the men's Pentathlon Anatoly Starostin (USSR) became the youngest ever Olympic champion in this sport.
• 26 competitors scored over 5,000 points. In Munich 12 topped this mark and in Montreal 21.
• It was the 1st time ever at either a world championship or an Olympics that as many as 8 teams topped the 15,000 point level.
• In the modern pentathlon George Horvath (Sweden) recorded a perfect score in the pistol shoot. It had been achieved only once before, at the 1936 Olympics.

Rowing[link]

• East Germany dominated rowing, winning eleven of the fourteen titles. The East German men won 7 out of 8 events, foiled from achieving a clean sweep by Pertti Karppinen of Finland (who defended his Olympic title from Montreal). East German women won 4 of their 6 events. The Soviets had been expected to win most of these titles considering their success at Munich and Montreal.
• The East German women's eights team win gold despite only having been selected 3 months before the Olympics began.
• In the rowing eights with coxswain the British team win silver just 0.74 seconds behind East Germany. The Britons had never rowed together before the Olympic trials and had only 10 weeks to prepare for Moscow. The stroke, Richard Stanhope, had never stroked on an 8 man shell before and in the final their steering broke.

Pirita Yachting Centre as it appears today

Sailing[link]

• Sailing event was held in Tallinn, Estonia which was at the time one of the soviet republics.
• Soviet sailor Valentyn Mankin won a gold medal in "Star" class. He won Olympic champion titles in "Finn" and "Tempest" classes before, and as of 2007^[update] remains the only sailor in Olympic history to win gold medals in three different classes.
• Finland (gold) won its first gold Olympic yachting medal and Ireland (silver) won its first ever Olympic yachting medal.
• The USSR had its worst Olympic regatta since Mexico 1968.
• In 1980 the medals were awarded to yachtsmen from 12 countries, the widest medal distribution in the sport at an Olympics.

Shooting[link]

• The 3-day skeet shooting marathon was won by Hans Kjeld Rasmussen of Denmark, the 2nd Olympic gold for Danish shooters since the 1900 Paris Games.
• In the smallbore rifle, prone event, Hungarian Károly Varga captured the gold and equalled the world record despite having broken his shooting hand just prior to the competition.

Swimming[link]

Rica Reinisch with her Gold medal in 200 m

• Vladimir Salnikov (USSR) won three gold medals in swimming. He became the first man in history to break the magic 15 minute barrier in the 1500 metre freestyle, swimming's equivalent of breaking the 4-minute mile. He missed the LA Games because of the boycott but won gold again in this event at Seoul 88.
• Salnikov also won gold in the 4x200m relay and the 400m freestyle. In the 400m freestyle he set a new Olympic record which was just eleven-hundredths of a second outside his own world record.
• In the Montreal final of the 400m freestyle the 7th and 8th place finalists finished in over 4 minutes. In Moscow 16 swimmers finished in under 4 minutes and 8 of them didn't make the final.
• Duncan Goodhew of Great Britain won the 100 metres breaststroke, beating Miskarov, a strongly favoured Soviet, into second place by half a second.
• Sweden's Bengt Baron, participating in his 1st major international competition, won gold in the 100 meter backstroke ahead of 2 Soviets.
• In the men's 4×100 metres medley relay each of the 8 teams taking part in the final broke its country's national record.
• The first Australian gold since 1972 came in the 4×100 men's medley relay.^[9] The Australians had been expecting to win silver behind the hot favourites from the USSR but with Neil Brooks swimming the final leg, the Australians swam the 2nd fastest time in history.
• East German women dominated the swimming events, winning 9 of 11 individual titles, both the relays and setting 6 world records. They also won all 3 medals in 6 different races. In total they won 26 of the available 35 medals.
• Barbara Krause (East Germany) became the first woman to go under 55 seconds for the 100 m freestyle.
• Backstroker Rica Reinisch (East Germany) was 20th in the world rankings for 100m in 1979 and not in the top 100 for the 200 m. At the Olympics she broke the world records in both distances winning golds.
• In the 100m butterfly Caren Metschuk (East Germany) beats her more experienced team-mate Andrea Pollack to win gold.
• Petra Schneider ( East Germany) shaved 3 seconds off the world record in the 400m medley.
• As in Montreal the Soviet women made a clean sweep of the medals in the 200m breaststroke.
• Yulia Bogdanova (USSR), the recent world title winner in the 200m breaststroke did not qualify for the Olympic final, the title in this event was won by her teammate Lina Kačiušytė.
• The Soviet women swimmers in the 4×100 metres freestyle relay were disqualified.
• Michelle Ford (Australia) won the 800m freestyle more than 4 seconds ahead of her East German rivals.
• In swimming 230 national, 22 Olympic and 10 World records were set.
• Poland won its first ever swimming medal.
• The youngest male gold medallist of these Olympics was Hungarian backstroke swimmer Sándor Wladár, 17 years and 1 week old.

Volleyball[link]

• The prominent nation in both volleyball competitions was the USSR; only once had their teams failed to reach the final. The Soviet men and women had lost only 6 games between them in the 5 Olympics since volleyball was incorporated into the list of Olympic sports at Tokyo 1964.

Water polo[link]

• Hungary won a bronze medal in waterpolo. This continued their run of always winning a medal in this event since 1924.

Weightlifting[link]

• The standard of weightlifting was the highest in the history of the Olympics. There were 18 senior world records,2 junior world records, more than 100 Olympic records and 108 national records set.
• The oldest of weightlifting's Olympic records – the snatch in the lightweight class set in 1964 – was bettered 13 times.
• 56 kg: Daniel Núñez (Cuba) won gold ahead of the favourite Yurik Sarkisian (USSR).
• 60 kg: Viktor Mazin (USSR), holder of all the world records in this class, was the expected winner with a new Olympic record total. But if only Marek Sewelyn (Poland) had succeeded with his last jerk, he would have scored a surprise win. After fixing the 162.5 kg bar overhead, he let it fall while making a faulty recovery.
• 90 kg: After the 1976 Olympic champion and undisputed favourite, David Rigert (USSR) failed to register a snatch, Peter Baczako (Hungary) became the surprise winner.
• Yurik Vardanyan (USSR) became the 1st middleweight to total more than 400 kg.
• In the super heavyweight class Vasily Alexeyev (USSR) Olympic champion at Munich and Montreal, 8 times world champion and who in his career set 80 world records, failed to make a single lift.
• The new category in weightlifting – up to 100 kg – was won by Ota Zaremba of Czechoslovakia.

Wrestling[link]

• In Greco-Roman wrestling Ferenc Kocsis of Hungary was declared the winner of the 163 pound class when the Olympic and Soviet defending champion Anatoly Bykov was disqualified for passivity.
• 1980 witnessed the first ever "Graeco" to win a Greco-Roman title at an Olympics; Greece's Stilianos Migiakis took the gold in the featherweight division.
• In the 106 pound freestyle wrestling final Italy's Claudio Pollio put Soviet grappler and twice world champion Sergei Kornilaev to the mat to take an unexpected gold on point standings.
• None of the experts rated the Bulgarian welterweight freestyle wrestler Valentin Raitchev. He had no experience of international competition but won gold.
• The Soviet national head coach said that Nikolai Balboshin – the reigning Olympic champion from Montreal – was unbeatable in his heavyweight division. However Balboshin failed to win a medal.

Closing ceremony[link]

Venues[link]

• Central Lenin Stadium area
  • Grand Arena² – opening/closing ceremonies, athletics, football (final), equestrian (jumping individual)
  • Minor Arena² – volleyball
  • Swimming Pool² – water polo
  • Sports Palace² – gymnastics, judo
  • Druzhba Multipurpose Arena¹ – volleyball
  • Streets of Moscow – Athletics (20 & 50 km walk, marathon)
• Olympiysky Sports Complex
  • Indoor Stadium¹ – basketball (final), boxing
  • Swimming Pool¹ – swimming, diving, modern pentathlon (swimming), water polo (final)
• CSKA (Central Sports Club of the Army) Sports Complex
  • CSKA Athletics Fieldhouse, Central Sports Club of the Army¹ – wrestling
  • CSKA Football Fieldhouse, Central Sports Club of the Army¹ – fencing, modern pentathlon (fencing)
  • CSKA Palace of Sports¹ – basketball
• Venues in metropolitan Moscow
  • Dynamo Central Stadium, Grand Arena² – football preliminaries
  • Dynamo Central Stadium, Minor Arena² – field hockey
  • Young Pioneers Stadium² – field hockey (final)
  • Dynamo Palace of Sports¹, Khimki-Khovrino – handball
  • Trade Unions' Equestrian Complex¹ – equestrian, modern pentathlon (riding, running)
  • Izmailovo Sports Palace¹ – weightlifting
  • Sokolniki Sports Palace² – handball (final)
  • Dynamo Shooting Range², Mytishchi – shooting, modern pentathlon (shooting)
• Krylatskoye Sports Complex
  • Krylatskoye Sports Complex Canoeing and Rowing Basin², Krylatskoye – canoeing, rowing
  • Krylatskoye Sports Complex Velodrome¹, Krylatskoye – cycling (track)
  • Krylatskoye Sports Complex Cycling Circuit – cycling (individual road race)
  • Krylatskoye Sports Complex Archery Field¹, Krylatskoye – archery
• Venues outside Moscow
  • Moscow-Minsk Highway – cycling (road team time trial)
  • Kirov Stadium², Leningrad, Russian SFSR – football preliminaries
  • Dynama Stadium², Minsk, Byelorussian SSR – football preliminaries
  • Republican Stadium², Kiev, Ukrainian SSR – football preliminaries
  • Olympic Regatta in Tallinn¹, Tallinn, Estonian SSR – sailing

¹ New facilities constructed in preparation for the Olympic Games. ² Existing facilities modified or refurbished in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Medals awarded[link]

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Calendar[link]

Medal count[link]

These are the top medal-collecting nations for the 1980 Games. (Host country is highlighted).

A "bronze" medal – actually tombac – from the 1980 Summer Olympics

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union Soviet Union (URS) (host nation)	80	69	46	195
2	East Germany (GDR)	47	37	42	126
3	Bulgaria (BUL)	8	16	17	41
4	Cuba (CUB)	8	7	5	20
5	Italy (ITA)	8	3	4	15
6	Hungary (HUN)	7	10	15	32
7	Romania (ROU)	7	6	13	25
8	France (FRA)	6	5	3	14
9	Great Britain (GBR)	5	7	9	21
10	Poland (POL)	3	14	15	32
Total		204	204	223	631

Participating nations[link]

Participating nations

Number of athletes sent per nation

A total of 81 nations were represented at the Moscow Games, but Liberia withdrew after marching in the Opening Ceremony, so a total of 80 nations actually competed.

Despite the large boycott, six nations made their first Olympic appearance in 1980: Angola, Botswana, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique, and Seychelles. Cyprus made its debut at the Summer Olympics, but had appeared earlier at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Sri Lanka competed for the first time under its new name (previously as Ceylon), Benin had competed previously as Dahomey and Zimbabwe competed for the first time under that name (previously as Rhodesia).

In the following list, the number in parentheses indicates the number of athletes from each nation that competed in Moscow. Nations in italics competed under the Olympic flag.

Non-participating countries and regions[link]

Boycotting countries shown in blue

65 countries and regions invited didn't take part in the 1980 Olympic Games. Many of these followed the United States' boycott initiative, while others (such as Zaire) cited economic reasons for not coming.^[5][10]

^*Qatar did not attend the Games because they were not invited by the International Olympic Committee.^[10]
**Chinese Taipei / Taiwan did not attend because of the 1979 Nagoya Resolution, in which the People's Republic of China agreed to participate in the IOC if the Republic of China/Taiwan were referred to as "Chinese Taipei".

See also[link]

Olympics portal

• 1980 Summer Paralympics
• 1980 Winter Paralympics
• 1980 Winter Olympics
• Olympic games with significant boycotts
  • 1976 Summer Olympics – Montreal – African boycott
  • 1980 Summer Olympics – Moscow – United States-led boycott
  • 1984 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles – Soviet-led boycott
• Summer Olympic Games
• Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• List of IOC country codes

Notes[link]

References[link]

• "Moscow 1980". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Summer/Moscow-1980. 
• "All the Medallists since 1896". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/All-Olympic-results-since-1896/?AthleteName=&Games=1333882&Country=&Sport=&TargetResults=true&resultsPageIPP=30. 
• Official Report from the Organizing Committee (3 volumes)

Further reading[link]

• John Goodbody, The Illustrated History of Gymnastics, 1982, ISBN 0-09-143350-9.
• Bill Henry, An Approved History of the Olympic Games, ISBN 0-88284-243-9.
• The Olympic Games, 1984, Lord Killanin and John Rodda, ISBN 0-00-218062-6.
• Stan Greenberg, Whitakers Olympic Almanack, 2004 ISBN 0-7136-6724-9.
• Olympics 1984, produced by Philips International B.V.
• Chronicle of the Olympics, ISBN 0-7894-2312-X.
• Peter Arnold, The Olympic Games, ISBN 0-603-03068-8
• Official British Olympic Association Report of the 1980 Games, published 1981, ISSN 0143-4799
• Evelyn Mertin, The Soviet Union and the Olympic Games of 1980 and 1984: Explaining Boycotts to their Own People. In: S. Wagg/D. Andrews (Eds.) East plays West. Sport and the Cold War, 2007, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 235–252, ISBN 978-0-415-35927-6.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1980 Summer Olympics

• "Moscow 1980". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Summer/Moscow-1980. 
• (Russian) Theme songs of the 1980 Summer Olympics – lyrics and links to MP3 files
• Moscow Life: A retrospective of the 1980 Moscow Olympics

v t e Era of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko Political events 1964–1982: Collectivity of leadership · Glassboro Summit Conference · Prague Spring · Invasion of Czechoslovakia · 1968 Red Square demonstration · Brezhnev Doctrine · Brezhnev assassination attempt · Sino–Soviet border conflict · Détente  · Helsinki Accords · 1977 Moscow bombings · 1977 Soviet Constitution · 1978 Georgian demonstrations · Soviet war in Afghanistan · 1980 Summer Olympics · Soviet reaction to the Polish crisis · Exercise Zapad · Death and funeral of Leonid Brezhnev · Legacy of Leonid Brezhnev 1982–1985: RYAN · Korean Air Lines Flight 007 · 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident · Able Archer 83 · 1984 Summer Olympics boycott and the Friendship Games Politburo members 1960s · 1970s · 1980s Aliyev · Andropov · Brezhnev · Chebrikov · Chernenko · Demichev · Dolgikh · Efremov · Gorbachev · Grechko · Grishin · Gromyko · Kirilenko · Kiselyov · Konayev · Kosygin · Kulakov · Kuznetsov · Masherov · Mazurov · Mikoyan · Mzhavanadze · Pelše · Podgorny · Polyansky · Ponomarev · Rashidov · Romanov · Shcherbytsky · Shelepin · Shelest · Shevardnadze · Shvernik · Solomentsev · Suslov · Tikhonov  · Ustinov · Voronov · Vorotnikov Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev (Troika: Brezhnev · Kosygin · Podgorny) · Yuri Andropov · Konstantin Chernenko · Collective leadership National Economy Era of Stagnation: 1965 reform · 1973 reform · 1979 reform · Food Programme · 1984 reform Five-Year Plans: 8th Plan · 9th Plan · 10th Plan · 11th Plan Government Cabinets: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Brezhnev's family Churbanov (son-in-law) · Galina (daughter) · Lyubov (niece) · Viktoria (wife) · Yakov (brother)  · Yuri (son) Soviet Union

Jimmy Carter
39th President of the United States
In office January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981
Vice President	Walter Mondale
Preceded by	Gerald Ford
Succeeded by	Ronald Reagan
76th Governor of Georgia
In office January 12, 1971 – January 14, 1975
Lieutenant	Lester Maddox
Preceded by	Lester Maddox
Succeeded by	George Busbee
Georgia State Senator from the 14th District
In office January 14, 1963 – January 10, 1967
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Hugh Carter
Constituency	Sumter County
Personal details
Born	James Earl Carter, Jr. (1924-10-01) October 1, 1924 (age 87) Plains, Georgia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Rosalynn Smith (1946–present)
Children	Jack James Donnel Amy
Alma mater	Georgia Southwestern State Georgia Tech U.S.N.A. (B.S.)
Profession	Farmer Naval Officer
Religion	Baptist[1]
Signature
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1946–1953
Rank	Lieutenant
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize Grand-croix de l'Ordre de la Couronne

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).^[2]

During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments were created: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He took office during a period of international stagflation, which persisted throughout his term. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (at the end of 1979), 1980 Summer Olympics boycott by the United States of the Moscow Olympics and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

By 1980, Carter's popularity had eroded. He survived a primary challenge against Ted Kennedy for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980 election, but lost the election to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan. On January 20, 1981, minutes after Carter's term in office ended, the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Iran were released, ending the 444-day Iran hostage crisis.^[3]

After leaving office, Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982,^[4] a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization that works to advance human rights. He has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project,^[5] and also remains particularly vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In March 2012, two months before President Barack Obama's declaration of support for same-sex marriage, Carter said he favors allowing same-sex couples to legally marry.^[6]

Early life[link]

Jimmy Carter (around age 13) his dog, Bozo, in 1937.

James Earl Carter, Jr., was born at the Wise Sanitarium^[7] on October 1, 1924, in the tiny southwest Georgia city of Plains, near Americus. The first president born in a hospital,^[8] he is the eldest of four children of James Earl Carter and Bessie Lillian Gordy. Carter's father was a prominent business owner in the community and his mother was a registered nurse.

Carter is descended from immigrants from southern England (his paternal ancestor arrived in the American Colonies in 1635),^[9] and his family has lived in the state of Georgia for several generations. Carter has documented ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, and he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.^[10] Carter's great-grandfather, Private L.B. Walker Carter (1832–1874), served in the Confederate States Army.^[11]

Carter was a gifted student from an early age who always had a fondness for reading. By the time he attended Plains High School, he was also a star in basketball. He was greatly influenced by one of his high school teachers, Julia Coleman (1889–1973). While he was in high school he was in the Future Farmers of America, which later changed its name to the National FFA Organization, serving as the Plains FFA Chapter Secretary.^[12]

Carter had three younger siblings: sisters Gloria Carter Spann (1926–1990) and Ruth Carter Stapleton (1929–1983), and brother William Alton "Billy" Carter (1937–1988). During Carter's Presidency, Billy was often in the news, usually in an unflattering light.^[13]

He married Rosalynn Smith in 1946; they have four children.

He is a first cousin of politician Hugh Carter and a half-second cousin of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. on his mother's side, and a cousin of June Carter Cash.^[14]

Naval career[link]

After high school, Carter enrolled at Georgia Southwestern College, in Americus. Later, he applied to the United States Naval Academy and, after taking additional mathematics courses at Georgia Tech, he was admitted in 1943. Carter graduated 59th out of 820 midshipmen at the Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree with an unspecified major, as was the custom at the academy at that time.^[15]

Carter served on surface ships and on diesel-electric submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. As a junior officer, he completed qualification for command of a diesel-electric submarine. He applied for the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program run by then Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest influence on him. Carter has said that he loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations. Carter felt the best route for promotion was with submarine duty since he felt that nuclear power would be increasingly used in submarines. Carter was based in Schenectady, New York, and working on developing training materials for the nuclear propulsion system for the prototype of a new submarine.^[16]

On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown. The resulting explosion caused millions of liters of radioactive water to flood the reactor building's basement, and the reactor's core was no longer usable.^[17] Carter was now ordered to Chalk River, joining other American and Canadian service personnel. He was the officer in charge of the U.S. team assisting in the shutdown of the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor.^[18]

Once they arrived, Carter's team used a model of the reactor to practice the steps necessary to disassemble the reactor and seal it off. During execution of the actual disassembly each team member, including Carter, donned protective gear, was lowered individually into the reactor, stayed for only a few seconds at a time to minimize exposure to radiation, and used hand tools to loosen bolts, remove nuts and take the other steps necessary to complete the disassembly process.

During and after his presidency Carter indicated that his experience at Chalk River shaped his views on nuclear power and nuclear weapons, including his decision not to pursue completion of the neutron bomb.^[19]

Upon the death of his father James Earl Carter, Sr., in July 1953, he was urgently needed to run the family business. Lieutenant Carter resigned his commission, and he was discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953.

Farming and personal belief[link]

Though Carter's father, Earl, died a relatively wealthy man, between Earl's forgiveness of debts owed to him and the division of his wealth among his heirs, Jimmy Carter inherited comparatively little. For a year, due to a limited real estate market, the Carters lived in public housing (Carter is the only U.S. president to have lived in housing subsidized for the poor).^[20]

Knowledgeable in scientific and technological subjects and raised on a farm, Carter took over the family peanut farm. Carter took to the county library to read up on agriculture while Rosalynn learned accounting to manage the businesses financials.^[20] Though they barely broke even the first year, Carter managed to expand in Plains. His farming business was successful, and during the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, he was considered a wealthy peanut farmer.^[21]

From a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity, serving as a Sunday School teacher throughout his life. Even as President, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man, called, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"^[22]

Early political career[link]

Georgia State Senate[link]

Jimmy Carter started his career by serving on various local boards, governing such entities as the schools, hospitals, and libraries, among others. In the 1960s, he served two terms in the Georgia Senate from the fourteenth district of Georgia.

His 1961 election to the state Senate, which followed the end of Georgia's County Unit System (per the Supreme Court case of Gray v. Sanders), was chronicled in his book Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age. The election involved corruption led by Joe Hurst, the sheriff of Quitman County; system abuses included votes from deceased persons and tallies filled with people who supposedly voted in alphabetical order. It took a challenge of the fraudulent results for Carter to win the election. Carter was reelected in 1964, to serve a second two-year term.

For a time in State Senate he chaired its Education Committee.^[23]

In 1966, Carter declined running for re-election as a state senator to pursue a gubernatorial run. His first cousin, Hugh Carter, was elected as a Democrat and took over his seat in the Senate.

Campaigns for Governor[link]

In 1966, during the end of his career as a state senator, he flirted with the idea of running for the United States House of Representatives. His Republican opponent, Howard Callaway, dropped out and decided to run for Governor of Georgia. Carter did not want to see a Republican Governor of his state, and, in turn, dropped out of the race for Congress and joined the race to become Governor. Carter lost the Democratic primary, but drew enough votes as a third-place candidate to force the favorite, liberal former governor Ellis Arnall, into a runoff election, setting off a chain of events which resulted in the nomination of segregationist Democrat Lester Maddox. Maddox would go on to be selected governor of Georgia by the Georgia General Assembly despite finishing a close second in a three-way general election race between Maddox, Callaway, and Arnall, who ran as a Write-in candidate. During the primary Carter ran as a moderate alternative to both liberal Arnall and conservative Maddox.^[23] Although he lost, his strong third place finish was viewed as a success for a little-known state senator.^[23]

For the next four years, Carter returned to his agriculture business and carefully planned for his next campaign for Governor in 1970, making over 1,800 speeches throughout the state.^{[citation needed]}

During his 1970 campaign, he ran an uphill populist campaign in the Democratic primary against former Governor Carl Sanders, labeling his opponent "Cufflinks Carl". Carter was never a segregationist, and refused to join the segregationist White Citizens' Council, prompting a boycott of his peanut warehouse. His family was also one of only two that voted to admit blacks to the Plains Baptist Church.^[24]

"Carter himself was not a segregationist in 1970. But he did say things that the segregationists wanted to hear. He was opposed to busing. He was in favor of private schools. He said that he would invite segregationist governor George Wallace to come to Georgia to give a speech.", according to historian E. Stanly Godbold.^{[citation needed]}

Carter's campaign aides handed out a photograph of Sanders celebrating with black basketball players.^[25][26] Following his close victory over Sanders in the primary, he was elected Governor over Republican Hal Suit.

After his election, Carter would make a statement that would displease the segregationists: "I say to you quite frankly, that the time for racial discrimination is over. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice."^{[citation needed]}

Leroy Johnson, Georgia State Senator reflected: "We were extremely pleased. Many of the white segregationists were displeased. And I'm convinced that those people that supported him, would not have supported him if they had thought that he would have made that statement."^[27]

Governor of Georgia[link]

Carter was sworn in as the 76th Governor of Georgia on January 12, 1971, and held this post for one term, until January 14, 1975. Governors of Georgia were not allowed to succeed themselves at the time. His predecessor as Governor, Lester Maddox, became the Lieutenant Governor. Carter and Maddox found little common ground during their four years of service, often publicly feuding with each other.^[28][29]

Civil rights politics[link]

Carter declared in his inaugural speech that the time of racial segregation was over, and that racial discrimination had no place in the future of the state, the first statewide office holder in the Deep South to say this in public.^[30] Afterwards, Carter appointed many African Americans to statewide boards and offices. He was often called one of the "New Southern Governors" – much more moderate than their predecessors, and supportive of racial desegregation and expanding African-Americans' rights.^{[citation needed]}

Abortion[link]

Although "personally opposed" to abortion, after the landmark US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 (1973) Carter supported legalized abortion.^[31] He did not support increased federal funding for abortion services as president and was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union for not doing enough to find alternatives.^[32] In March 2012, during an interview on The Laura Ingraham Show, Carter expressed his view that the Democratic Party should be more pro-life. He explained how difficult it was for him, given his strong Christian beliefs, to uphold Roe v. Wade while he was president.^[33]

State government reforms[link]

Carter improved government efficiency by merging about 300 state agencies into 30 agencies. One of his aides recalled that Governor Carter "was right there with us, working just as hard, digging just as deep into every little problem. It was his program and he worked on it as hard as anybody, and the final product was distinctly his." He also pushed reforms through the legislature, providing equal state aid to schools in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia, set up community centers for mentally handicapped children, and increased educational programs for convicts. Carter took pride in a program he introduced for the appointment of judges and state government officials. Under this program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than political influence.^[34][35]

Vice-Presidential aspirations in 1972[link]

In 1972, as US Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was marching toward the Democratic nomination for President, Carter called a news conference in Atlanta to warn that McGovern was unelectable. Carter criticized McGovern as too liberal on both foreign and domestic policy, yet when McGovern's nomination became a foregone conclusion, Carter lobbied to become his vice-presidential running mate.

During the 1972 Democratic National Convention he endorsed the candidacy of Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington.^[36] Carter received 30 votes at the Democratic National Convention in the chaotic ballot for Vice President.^{[citation needed]} McGovern offered the second spot to Reubin Askew, from next door Florida and one of the "new southern governors", but he declined.^{[citation needed]}

Death penalty and crime[link]

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Georgia's death penalty law in 1972, Carter quickly proposed state legislation to replace the death penalty with life in prison (an option that previously did not exist).^[37]

When the Georgia legislature passed a new death penalty statute, Carter, despite voicing reservations about its constitutionality,^[38] signed new legislation on March 28, 1973^[39] to authorize the death penalty for murder, rape and other offenses, and to implement trial procedures that conformed to the newly announced constitutional requirements. In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia's new death penalty for murder. In the case of Coker v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional as applied to rape.

Many in America were outraged by William Calley's life sentence at Fort Benning for his role in the My Lai Massacre; Carter instituted "American Fighting Man's Day" and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on in support of Calley.^[40] Indiana's governor asked all state flags to be flown at half-staff for Calley, and Utah's and Mississippi's governors also disagreed with the verdict.^[40]

Despite his earlier support, Carter soon became a death penalty opponent, and during Presidential campaigns (like previous nominee George McGovern and two successive nominees, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis), this was noted.^[41] Carter is known for his outspoken opposition to the death penalty in all forms; in his Nobel Prize lecture, he urged "prohibition of the death penalty".^[42]

United States Senate appointment[link]

Richard Russell, Jr., then-President pro tempore of the United States Senate, died in office on January 21, 1971. Carter, only nine days into his governorship, appointed state Democratic Party chair David H. Gambrell to fill an unexpired Russell term in the Senate on February 1.^[43] Gambrell was defeated in the next Democratic primary by the more conservative Sam Nunn.

Other activities[link]

In 1973, while Governor of Georgia, Carter filed a report on his 1969 UFO sighting with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City.^[44][45][46] In 2007, Carter stated that he did not remember why he filed the report and that he believes he probably only did it at the request of one of his children. He also stated he does not believe it was an alien spacecraft, but rather that it was likely some sort of military experiment being conducted from a nearby military base.^[47]

Carter made an appearance as the first guest of the evening on an episode of the game show What's My Line in 1974, signing in as "X", lest his name give away his occupation. After his job was identified on question seven of ten by Gene Shalit, he talked about having brought movie production to the state of Georgia, citing Deliverance, and the then-unreleased The Longest Yard.

In 1974, Carter was chairman of the Democratic National Committee's congressional, as well as gubernatorial, campaigns.

1976 presidential campaign[link]

The electoral map of the 1976 election

When Carter entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1976, he was considered to have little chance against nationally better-known politicians. He had a name recognition of only two percent. When he told his family of his intention to run for President, his mother asked, "President of what?" The Watergate scandal was still fresh in the voters' minds, and so his position as an outsider, distant from Washington, D.C., became an asset. The centerpiece of his campaign platform was government reorganization. Carter published Why Not the Best? in June 1976 to help introduce himself to the American public.^[48]

Carter and President Gerald Ford debating at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia.

Carter became the front-runner early on by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He used a two-prong strategy: In the South, which most had tacitly conceded to Alabama's George Wallace, Carter ran as a moderate favorite son. When Wallace proved to be a spent force, Carter swept the region. In the North, Carter appealed largely to conservative Christian and rural voters and had little chance of winning a majority in most states. He won several Northern states by building the largest single bloc. Carter's strategy involved reaching a region before another candidate could extend influence there. He traveled over 50,000 miles, visited 37 states, and delivered over 200 speeches before any other candidates even announced that they were in the race.^[49] Initially dismissed as a regional candidate, Carter proved to be the only Democrat with a truly national strategy, and he eventually clinched the nomination.

The national news media discovered and promoted Carter, as Lawrence Shoup noted in his 1980 book The Carter Presidency and Beyond:

What Carter had that his opponents did not was the acceptance and support of elite sectors of the mass communications media. It was their favorable coverage of Carter and his campaign that gave him an edge, propelling him rocket-like to the top of the opinion polls. This helped Carter win key primary election victories, enabling him to rise from an obscure public figure to President-elect in the short space of 9 months.

Carter was interviewed by Robert Scheer of Playboy for its November 1976 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple of weeks before the election. It was here that in the course of a digression on his religion's view of pride, Carter admitted: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times."^[50] He remains the only American president to be interviewed by this magazine.

As late as January 26, 1976, Carter was the first choice of only four percent of Democratic voters, according to a Gallup poll. Yet "by mid-March 1976 Carter was not only far ahead of the active contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he also led President Ford by a few percentage points", according to Shoup.

He chose Senator Walter F. Mondale as his running mate. He attacked Washington in his speeches, and offered a religious salve for the nation's wounds.^[51]

Carter began the race with a sizable lead over Ford, who was able to narrow the gap over the course of the campaign, but was unable to prevent Carter from narrowly defeating him on November 2, 1976. Carter won the popular vote by 50.1 percent to 48.0 percent for Ford and received 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. He became the first contender from the Deep South to be elected President since the 1848 election. Carter carried fewer states than Ford—23 states to the defeated Ford's 27—yet Carter won with the largest percentage of the popular vote (50.1 percent) of any non-incumbent since Dwight Eisenhower, and only half a percent less than what Ronald Reagan would defeat him with in 1980.

Presidency[link]

Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger, January 20, 1977.

Carter was elected over Gerald Ford in 1976. His tenure was a time of continuing inflation and recession, as well as an energy crisis. On January 7, 1980, Carter signed Law H.R. 5860 aka Public Law 96-185 known as The Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 bailing out Chrysler Corporation and canceled military pay raises during a time of high inflation and government deficits.

While attempting to calm various conflicts around the World, most visibly in the Middle East resulting in the signing of the Camp David Accords, giving back the Panama Canal and signing the SALT II nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the final year of his administration was marred by the Iran hostage crisis, which contributed to his losing his 1980 re-election campaign to Ronald Reagan.

U.S. Energy Crisis[link]

On April 18, 1977 Carter delivered a televised speech declaring that the U.S. energy crisis during the 1970s was the moral equivalent of war. Carter encouraged energy conservation by all U.S. citizens and installed solar water heating panels on the White House,^[52][53] and wore sweaters while turning down the heat within the White House.

Carter meeting with the Shah of Iran, Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, in Tehran

The Shah and Carter

EPA Love Canal Superfund[link]

In 1978, Carter declared a federal emergency in the neighborhood of Love Canal in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. More than 800 families were evacuated from the neighborhood, which was built on top of a toxic waste landfill. The Superfund law was created in response to the situation. Federal disaster money was appropriated to demolish the approximately 500 houses, the 99th Street School, and the 93rd Street School, which were built on top of the dump and to remediate the dump and construct a containment area. This was the first time that such a thing had been done. He then said that there were several more "Love Canals" across the country, and that discovering such dumpsites was "one of the grimmest discoveries of our modern era".

Deregulation[link]

American beer industry[link]

U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the
Airline Deregulation Act.

During 1979, Carter deregulated the American beer industry by opening access of the home-brew market back up to the craft brewers, making it again legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to American home brewers for the first time since the effective 1920 beginning of Prohibition in the United States.^[54]

U.S. Airline Industry[link]

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Alfred E. Kahn, a professor of economics at Cornell University, to be chair of the CAB. A concerted push for the legislation had developed, drawing on leading economists, leading 'think tanks' in Washington, a civil society coalition advocating the reform (patterned on a coalition earlier developed for the truck-and-rail-reform efforts), the head of the regulatory agency, Senate leadership, the Carter administration, and even some in the airline industry. This coalition swiftly gained legislative results in 1978.

The Airline Deregulation Act (Pub.L. 95-504) is United States enacted federal legislation signed into law by President Carter on October 24, 1978. The main purpose of the act was to remove government control over fares, routes and market entry (of new airlines) from commercial aviation. The Civil Aeronautics Board's powers of regulation were to be phased out, eventually allowing passengers to be exposed to market forces in the airline industry. The Act, however, did not remove or diminish the FAA's regulatory powers over all aspects of airline safety.

U.S. Boycott of the Moscow Olympics[link]

One of Carter's most bitterly controversial decisions was his boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This marks the only time since the founding of the modern Olympics in 1896 that the United States has ever failed to participate in a Summer or Winter Olympics. The Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and did not withdraw troops from Afghanistan until 1989 (eight years after Carter left office).

1980 presidential campaign[link]

The electoral map of the 1980 election

Carter wrote that the most intense and mounting opposition to his policies came from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which he attributed to Ted Kennedy's ambition to replace him as president.^[55] Kennedy, originally on board with Carter's health plan, pulled his support from that legislation in the late stages; Carter states that this was in anticipation of Kennedy's own candidacy, and when neither won, the tactic effectively delayed comprehensive health coverage for decades.^[56]

Carter's campaign for re-election in 1980 was one of the most difficult, and least successful, in history. He faced strong challenges from the right (Ronald Reagan), the center (John B. Anderson), and the left (Ted Kennedy). He had to run against his own "stagflation"-ridden economy. He alienated liberal college students, who were expected to be his base, by re-instating registration for the draft. He was defeated by Ronald Reagan.

Post-Presidency[link]

Former President and First Lady Carter wave from their aircraft after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan on January 20, 1981.

In 1981, Carter returned to Georgia to his peanut farm, which he had placed into a blind trust during his presidency to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. He found that the trustees had mismanaged the trust, leaving him over one million dollars in debt. In the years that followed, he has led an active life, establishing The Carter Center, building his presidential library, teaching at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and writing numerous books.^[51]

Legacy[link]

When he first left office, Carter's presidency was viewed by most as a failure.^[57][58][59] In historical rankings of US presidents, the Carter presidency has ranged from #19 to #34. Although Carter's presidency received mixed reviews from some historians, his all-around peace keeping and humanitarian efforts since he left office have led him to be renowned as one of the most successful ex-presidents in US history.^[60][61]

Although Carter has also received mixed reviews in both television and film documentaries, such as the Man from Plains (2007), the 2009 documentary, Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace, credits Carter's efforts at Camp David, which brought peace between Israel and Egypt, with bringing the only meaningful peace to the Middle East. The film opened the 2009 Monte-Carlo Television Festival in an invitation-only royal screening^[62] on June 7, 2009 at the Grimaldi Forum in the presence of Albert II, Prince of Monaco.^[63]

Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On December 11, 2006, they had been out of office for 25 years and 325 days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826. On Friday, September 7, 2012, at 11:36 a.m. EST, Carter will surpass Herbert Hoover as the President with the longest retirement from the office.

Jimmy Carter is one of only four presidents,^[64] and the only one in modern history, who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court. The other three are William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Andrew Johnson.

Public image[link]

The Independent writes, "Carter is widely considered a better man than he was a president."^[65] While he began his term with a 66 percent approval rating,^[66] this had dropped to 34 percent approval by the time he left office, with 55 percent disapproving.^[67]

Much of this image in the public eye results from the Presidents proximate to him in history.^[68] In the wake of Nixon's Watergate Scandal, exit polls from the 1976 Presidential election suggested that many still held Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon against him,^[69] and Carter by comparison seemed a sincere, honest, and well-meaning Southerner.^[65]

Despite being honest and truthful, Carter's administration suffered from his inexperience in politics. Carter paid too much attention to detail. He frequently backed down from confrontation and was always quick to retreat when under fire from political rivals. He frequently appeared to be indecisive and ineffective, and did not define his priorities clearly. He seemed to be distrustful and uninterested in working with other groups, or even with Congress when controlled by his own party, which he denounced for being controlled by special interest groups.^[68] Though he made efforts to address many of these issues in 1978, the approval he won from his reforms did not last long.

When Carter ran for reelection, Ronald Reagan's nonchalant self-confidence contrasted to Carter's serious and introspective temperament. Carter's personal attention to detail, his pessimistic attitude, his seeming indecisiveness and weakness with people was also accentuated by Reagan's charismic charm and easy delegation of tasks to subordinates.^[68][70] Ultimately, the combination of the economic problems, the Iran hostage crisis, and lack of Washington cooperation made it very easy for Reagan to portray Carter as a weak and ineffectual leader, which resulted in Carter to become the first elected president since 1932 to lose a reelection bid, and his presidency was largely considered to be a failure.