448 The 1980 Summer Olympics

First  viewed : July  1980

I  must  confess   that  by  the  time  these  Olympics  came  round  the  hype  around  the   Coe-Ovett  rivalry  had  had  its  effect  on  me  and  I  was  interested  enough  to  actually  tune  in  and  watch athletics  with  some  engagement. I  didn't  like  Sebastian  Coe  who  came  across  as  a  self-satisfied  prig  but  there  was  something  about  Steve  Ovett's  bony  face  and  that  silly  finger  gesture  at  the  end  of   a  race  that  made  me  favour  the  former.

These  Games  held  in  Moscow,  were  dogged  by  political  controversy  with  many  nations  choosing  to  boycott  them  over  the  Soviet  invasion  of  Afghanistan  in  1979,  most  notably  Jimmy  Carter's  U.S.A. The  absence  of  the  Americans  in  particular  threw  a  question  mark  over  the   authenticity  of  many  of  the  medals  gained.

In  the  event  it  was  honours  even  between  the  two  Brits. Ovett  first  beat  Coe  in  his  less  favoured  800  metres  and  boldly  stated  he  would  not  only  win  the  1500  metres  but  shave  four  seconds  off  the  world  record. Thus  set  up  for  a  fall, Ovett  came  third  as  Coe  won  the  race. A  third  Brit  made  the  800  metres  final , a  guy  with  a  moustache  called  David  Warren  who  confidently  proclaimed  that  he  would  win  the  bronze. He  came  last.

Much  more  likable  than  either  of  them  was  the  Scottish  sprinter  Allan  Wells  who  won  gold  in  the  100  metres  final  by  a  micrometre. His  right  to  gold  was  more  questioned  than  the  others'  but  hey  you've  got  to  be  in  it  to  win  it  as  they  say. That  race  has  become  notable  as  the  last  100  metres  final  to  even  feature  a  white  runner  let  alone  a  winner.

The  other  main  memory  I  have  of  the  Games   is  the  transformation  in  Romania's  Nadia  Comaneci  from the  half-starved  waif  at  14  in  1976  to  18-year  old  sexpot. She  now  had  boobs  and  towered   over  her  fellow  competitors. Inevitably  the  change  in  her  physical  shape  had  its  effect  on  her  performances. She  successfully  defended  two  ( although  one  was  shared  with  Russia's  Nelly  Kim )   of  her  three  titles  but  was  felt  to  have  been  the  beneficiary  of  over-generous  marking.

Nadia  was  the  subject  of  many  lurid  rumours  linking  her  to  Nicu  Ceaucescu, the  playboy  son  of  the  Communist  dictator  who  was  said  to  have  raped  her  and  beaten  her  up  on  numerous  occasions. In  fact  they  scarcely  knew  each  other  and  apart  from  a  drinking  problem  that  eventually  killed  him  Nicu  was  actually  a  fairly  decent  guy  in  the  circumstances. She  defected  to  the  USA  just  before  the  Romanian  revolution  , married  a  former  US  gymnast  and  became  a  naturalised  American  in  2001.