Sailing at the 1980 Summer Olympics

Sailing at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
Venues	Tallinn Olympic Yachting Centre, Tallinn, Estonian SSR, Soviet Union
Dates	First race: 21 July 1980 (1980-07-21) Last race: 29 July 1980 (1980-07-29)
Competitors	156 (all male) from 23 nations
Boats	83
←  1976 1984  →

Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1980 consisted of a total of six sailing classes (disciplines). For each class seven races were scheduled from 19 to 29 July 1980 of the coast of Tallinn (district of Pirita, in present-day Estonia), in that time an illegally annexed part of the USSR at the Baltic Sea. The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses. ^[1]

Venue

The Olympic Yachting Centre in Pirita (pictured in 2005)
Pirita Olympic Yachting Center
General information
Town or city	Tallinn
Country	Estonia
Coordinates	59°28′13″N24°49′6″E / 59.47028°N 24.81833°E / 59.47028; 24.81833

Olympic Yachting Centre 1980.

According to the IOC statutes the contests in all sport disciplines must be held either in, or as close as possible to the city which the IOC has chosen. Since Moscow was not a suitable place the Olympic Yachting Centre in Pirita Tallinn was constructed for the 1980 Olympic Sailing event.

Competition

Overview

Continents	Countries	Classes	Boats	Male	Female
3	23	6	83	156	0

Continents

• Europe
• Africa
• Americas

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1980 Olympic Games.
Blue: Water
Gray: Never participated in OG
Dark Gray: Participated in earlier OG
Green: Country participated for the first time
Dark Blue: Country participated also on previous games
Red: Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG

Austria  (AUT)	Brazil  (BRA)	Bulgaria  (BUL)
Cuba  (CUB)	Cyprus  (CYP)	Denmark  (DEN)
Spain  (ESP)	Finland  (FIN)	East Germany  (GDR)
Greece  (GRE)	Guatemala  (GUA)	Hungary  (HUN)
Ireland  (IRL)	Italy  (ITA)	Netherlands  (NED)
Poland  (POL)	Romania  (ROM)	Switzerland  (SUI)
Sweden  (SWE)	Czechoslovakia  (TCH)	Soviet Union  (URS)
Yugoslavia  (YUG)	Zimbabwe  (ZIM)

1980 Olympic boycott

The boycott affected the medalists in most sailing events with a number of European and World champions not participating. In the Soiling, the Canadian World champion team of Glen Dexter, Andreas Josenhans and [Sandy McMillan] was absent. Some British athletes participated in the Games under a neutral flag, but the sailing federation chose to join the boycott. ^[2] In several classes an alternative sailing event was organized by the boycotting nations, with the Flying Dutchman class having been held Luxembourg. ^[3]

Canadian Olympic Boycott Party

The Flying Dutchman on a Russian stamp, issued for the Olympics in 1978

Classes (equipment)

Class	Type	Event	Sailors	Trapeze	Mainsail	Jib/Genoa	Spinnaker	First OG	Olympics so far
Finn	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1952	8
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1976	2
Flying Dutchman	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1960	6
Tornado	Catamaran		2	1	+	+	–	1976	2
Star	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	–	1932	10
Soling	Keelboat		3	0	+	+	+	1972	3

1980 Olympic Classes designs

• 

Medal summary

Winners of the XXII Olympic Games in Moscow. Sailing.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1980: Finn details	Finland  (FIN) Esko Rechardt	Austria  (AUT) Wolfgang Mayrhofer	Soviet Union  (URS) Andrei Balashov
1980: 470 details	Brazil  (BRA) Marcos Soares Eduardo Penido	East Germany  (GDR) Jörn Borowski Egbert Swensson	Finland  (FIN) Jouko Lindgrén Georg Tallberg
1980: Flying Dutchman details	Spain  (ESP) Alejandro Abascal Miguel Noguer	Ireland  (IRL) David Wilkins James Wilkinson	Hungary  (HUN) Szabolcs Detre Zsolt Detre
1980: Tornado details	Brazil  (BRA) Lars Sigurd Björkström Alexandre Welter	Denmark  (DEN) Peter Due Per Kjergard	Sweden  (SWE) Göran Marström Jörgen Ragnarsson
1980: Star details	Soviet Union  (URS) Valentin Mankin Aleksandr Muzychenko	Austria  (AUT) Hubert Raudaschl Karl Ferstl	Italy  (ITA) Giorgio Gorla Alfio Peraboni
1980: Soling details	Denmark  (DEN) Poul Richard Høj Jensen Valdemar Bandolowski Erik Hansen	Soviet Union  (URS) Boris Budnikov Alexandr Budnikov Nikolay Poliakov	Greece  (GRE) Anastasios Bountouris Anastasios Gavrilis Aristidis Rapanakis

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	2	0	0	2
2	Soviet Union	1	1	1	3
3	Denmark	1	1	0	2
4	Finland	1	0	1	2
5	Spain	1	0	0	1
6	Austria	0	2	0	2
7	East Germany	0	1	0	1
	Ireland	0	1	0	1
9	Greece	0	0	1	1
	Hungary	0	0	1	1
	Italy	0	0	1	1
	Sweden	0	0	1	1
Totals (12 entries)		6	6	6	18

Remarks

Sailors

In the Finn (left): Mihai Butucaru

During the sailing regattas at the 1980 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

•   Soviet Union  (URS), Valentin Mankin, multi-medalist in the Star
•   Romania  (ROM), Mihai Butucaru, later committee member of Eurosaf ^[4]

References

1. "Sailing at the 1980 Summer Olympics". olympedia.org. Olympedia. 2023. Archived from the original on 19 December 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
2. "Sailing 1980 Olympic Team". 5 December 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
3. Smothers, Ronald (19 July 1996). "OLYMPICS; Boycott". The New York Times.
4. Eurosaf

Sources

• I. T. Novikov, ed. (1981). Games of the XXII Olympiad,Volume I: Organization (PDF). Moscow: OCOG-80. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
• I. T. Novikov, ed. (1981). Games of the XXII Olympiad,Volume II: Facilities (PDF). Moscow: OCOG-80. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
• I. T. Novikov, ed. (1981). Games of the XXII Olympiad,Volume III: Results (PDF). Moscow: OCOG-80. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sailing at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games: Sailing". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
• Hugh Drake & Paul Henderson (2009). Canada's Olympic Sailing Legacy, Paris 1924 – Beijing 2008. Toronto: CYA.