| Moscow 1980 |
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The Games of the XXII Olympiad were held in Moscow, from July 19th to August 3rd in 1980. There were 203 sports events. The participants from 81 countries, all together 5283 representatives, competed in 21 sports disciplines.
The General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev announced the opening of the Games and the Olympic torch was lit by the basketball player Sergiej Bielow. The only two cities applied for the Olympics: Moscow and Los Angeles. Moscow was chosen on 23rd October in 1974 in Vienna. The mascot was Misha, the Russian bear. He was designed by the famous children's books illustrator Victor Chizhikov. Misha became very popular not only in the USSR but also on the international arena. The Games were held at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow. The pole vault competition engraved strongly in the spectators’ memory for a long time. The organizers and supporters who were present at the Luzhniki stadium wanted Konstantin Volkov to win the event. That was why the stadium gates were opened and closed to change the direction of the wind and the audience responded with whistles when the Volkov’s rivals were jumping . Immediately after Kozakiewicz secured his gold medal, he responded with an bent elbow gesture. Since then that gesture has been referred to as "Kozakiewicz's gesture". Slusarski and Volkov took the second place. The medium distance favorites were the British. Steve Ovett seemed to be a candidate to the victory in the 1500 m race and Sebastian Coe in the 800 m event. In practice Ovett won the 800 m and Coe was the first in the 1500 m. In the high jump competition the little-known Gerd Wessig fought a very exciting duel for the Olympic championship with Jacek Wszola. Finally the German athlete won the competition with the Polish jumper by 1 cm with the result of 2,36 m, which was the new world record at that time. Bronislaw Malinowski proofed to be the highest class athlete in the 3000 m steeplechase. His main rival Filibert Bayi from Tanzania was 80 m ahead before him in the middle of the race. Malinowski kept calm and did not change his own pace. Eventually he overtook his rival from Tanzania and won the race with the great result 8:09,7.
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