Swimming as usual was one of the three aquatics disciplines at the 1980 Summer Olympics—the other two being Water Polo and Diving. It was held in the Swimming Pool of the Olimpiysky Sports Complex between July 20 and July 27. There was a total of 333 participants from 41 countries competing.
Malin Therese Alshammar is a Swedish swimmer who has won three Olympic medals, 25 World Championship medals, and 43 European Championship medals. She is a specialist in short distances races in freestyle and butterfly. She is coached by former Swedish swimmer Johan Wallberg. She is the first female swimmer and the third overall to participate in six Olympic Games.
Mark Anthony Kerry is an Australian former backstroke and freestyle swimmer of the 1970s and 1980s, who won three Olympic medals, including a gold in the 4 × 100 m medley relay at the 1980 Summer Olympics as the backstroker for the Quietly Confident Quartet. During his career, he won twelve Australian Championships.
Mark Lyndon Tonelli, whose birth name was Mark Lyndon Leembruggen, is an Australian former backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle swimmer of the 1970s and 1980s, who won a gold in the 4×100-metre medley relay at the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a makeshift butterfly swimmer in the self-named Quietly Confident Quartet. Tonelli unofficially led the relay team and was an athletes' spokesperson who fought for the right of Australian Olympians to compete in the face of a government call for a boycott to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Pär Arvidsson is a former butterfly swimmer from Sweden. He won the 100 m butterfly at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, after having set the world record in the same event a couple of months earlier in Austin, Texas. He held the record until April 1981.
Daniel Carlsson is a former swimmer from Sweden. He won gold medals in 4 × 50 m medley relay at the 1998 and 1999 European Short Course Swimming Championships and 4 × 50 m freestyle at 1998. He won also a bronze medal in 50 m backstroke at 1998. He competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
David Charles "Dave" Berkoff is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events. Berkoff was a backstroke specialist who won a total of four Olympic medals during his career at two different Olympic Games. He is best known for his powerful underwater start, the eponymous "Berkoff Blastoff".
Simon Sjödin is a Swedish competitive swimmer who represented Sweden at both the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2016 Olympic Games. He is of Gambian descent.
Thomas Lejdström is a former Swedish freestyle and medley swimmer, who competed in the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics.
Michael Söderlund is a former swimmer from Sweden who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics, between 1980 and 1988. In the 1984 Summer Olympics, he was a part of the 4×100 m freestyle relay team, swimming one leg in the prelims. His best individual result in the Olympics was a 6th place on 200 m backstroke on the time of 2:04.10, which was a Swedish record for 27 years. Soderlund was on the 400-meter freestyle relay team that captured the bronze medal in the ’84 Olympiad at Los Angeles.
Jan Bidrman is the head coach of the Calgary Academy of Swimming Excellence and the high performance coach of Swim Alberta. Formerly a decorated international athlete in Sweden, Bidrman was selected to the Swedish National Swim Team for both the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
Ulla Agneta Linnéa Mårtensson is a Swedish former freestyle swimmer. She won a silver medal in 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow along with Carina Ljungdahl, Tina Gustafsson and Agneta Eriksson. She also competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics.
The Quietly Confident Quartet was the self-given name of the Australian men's 4 × 100 metres medley relay swimming team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and, through the 2016 Olympics, the Australian victory remains the only occasion the United States has not won the event at Olympic level since its inception in 1960. The quartet consisted of backstroker Mark Kerry, breaststroker Peter Evans, butterflyer Mark Tonelli, and freestyler Neil Brooks. The team was nominally led by its oldest member Tonelli, who was 23 and was also a spokesperson for the Australian athletes' campaign for their right to compete at the Olympics against the wishes of the Fraser government. The team was seen as an unlikely prospect to win; all four of the swimmers had clashed with swimming authorities over disciplinary issues and three experienced suspension or expulsion from the Australian team during their careers.
The men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held in Moscow, Soviet Union on 24 July 1980 in the Olympiski Sports Complex. A total of 13 teams participated in the event. These were split over two heats held in the morning of that day, and the eight fastest teams qualified for the finals held in the evening of the same day.
Lillian Debra Watson, commonly known by her nickname Pokey Watson, and later by her married name Lillian Richardson, is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in three events.
Matthew Grevers is an American competition swimmer who competes in the backstroke and freestyle events, and is a six-time Olympic medalist. He has won a total of thirty-three medals in major international competition, fourteen gold, twelve silver, and seven bronze spanning the Olympics, World Championships, and the Universiade. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Grevers won gold medals as a member of the U.S. teams in the 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley relays, and a silver medal in the 100-meter backstroke. Four years later, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won gold medals in the 100-meter backstroke and the 4×100-meter medley relay, and a silver medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Betsy Mitchell is an American competition swimmer who was a world record-holder, world champion, and Olympic gold and silver medalist. She also was a member of the United States' 1994 Rowing World Championship team.
Susanne Jean Atwood is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in two events.
Richard Michael McGeagh was an American competition swimmer and water polo player in his youth, and later a real estate appraiser. He was best known for swimming the backstroke leg for the U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the men's 4×100-meter medley relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and establishing the Olympic record for a backstroke leg. The U.S. team won its preliminary heat and also won the event final, but McGeagh did not swim in the finals and was consequently not eligible for an Olympic medal under the rules in place at the time.
Ryan Fitzgerald MurphyOLY is an American competitive swimmer specializing in backstroke. He is a four-time Olympic gold medalist and the former world-record holder in the men's 100-meter backstroke.
