Moscow 1980

The 1980 Moscow Olympics were the first staged in an Eastern Bloc country. Only Moscow and Los Angeles bid for the Games and Moscow won the vote comfortably, 39-20. 

The Olympics were disrupted by another boycott, larger than the 1976 walkout. It was led by the United States in protest of the 1979 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. On January 20, 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued an ultimatum: the US would boycott the Games if Soviet troops didn’t withdraw from Afghanistan within a month. The US duly went ahead with its boycott, supported by 65 countries. There were other forms of protest, too – 15 countries marched in the opening ceremony with the Olympic flag instead of their own and the Olympic flag and Olympic hymn were used at medal ceremonies when athletes from those countries won medals. Several other countries, including New Zealand, had only limited representation in Moscow.