1980 Summer Olympics opening ceremony

The Opening Ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics was the official opening ceremony held in the afternoon at 16:00 Moscow Time (UTC+3) on 19 July 1980 in the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium. It was attended by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev, and IOC President Lord Killanin.

1980 Summer Olympics
opening ceremony
Part of 1980 Summer Olympics
The Opening Ceremony at the Central Lenin Stadium
Date19 July 1980; 44 years ago (1980-07-19)
Time15:46 – 17:00 MSK (UTC+3)
VenueCentral Lenin Stadium
LocationMoscow, Russian SFSR, USSR
Coordinates55°42′56″N 37°33′5″E / 55.71556°N 37.55139°E / 55.71556; 37.55139
Filmed by

Due to changes made to the Olympic charter in 1969, it became mandatory for the organizing country to demonstrate various elements of its culture during the opening and closing ceremonies. While the Montréal ceremonies were simpler and more austere, Moscow's opening ceremony started a trend which changed the format of the ceremonies. Prior to 1976, Olympic opening ceremonies were truly "ceremonial", consisting of just the parade of nations and rituals associated with the official opening of the Games. The USSR authorities wanted to put on a spectacle to impress the rest of the world, so highly produced artistic performances were included after the protocolar elements finished. Since then, subsequent opening ceremonies had a high level artistic programs, and it is now seen as an important aspect of the Games.[citation needed]

Sequence of events

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Olympic Flag in the stadium. RIAN photo.

Cultural Segment

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  • Salyut 6 crew Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin sent their greetings to the Olympians and wished good luck to all in a live sound communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium. Pictures of them appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were broadcast at the stadium via the loud speakers.
 
Friendship of the Peoples dance suite. RIAN photo.

After the Salyut 6 crew greetings the cultural performances started under the theme of the Friendship of the Peoples.

    • Friendship of the Peoples: A dance suite featuring the traditional dances of the 15 Soviet republics. The Russian finale also featured troikas and a final performance by the performers from all the republics (to the tune of the Russian folk song Kalinka). The song "Wide Is My Motherland" (Широка страна моя родная, from the movie Circus) was also heard at the beginning and end of the suite.
    • Gymnasts' performance, including ribbon, ball and pommel horse displays.
    • Misha: Scores of performers donned as Misha, the Moscow Olympics mascot, dance in the stadium field.
    • Children's performance, beginning with a boys' pole horse performance, followed by a girls' doll performance. Gymnastic maneuvers were done by the performance in each part of the segment, which ended with the boys and girls mixed together, forming groups of "troikas", then leaving the scene.
    • Performance of acrobats and trampoline gymnastics display.
 
Five pillars - five Olympic Rings. RIAN photo.
    • Appearance of five pillars in the configuration of the Olympic Rings. Each pillar held performers forming "human vases". Eugen Doga's famous wedding waltz from the 1978 movie A Hunting Accident could be heard throughout this segment. The same music would later be used in the finale of the opening ceremonies of the 1986 Goodwill Games and during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
    • Finale: Performers from throughout the opening ceremony re-entered the stadium as the Moscow Olympics' theme song "Moscow Gives the Start" (Старт даёт Москва, Start dayot Moskva) was sung, and would later exit again. Balloons were released. The card stunt at this time was showing the Moscow 1980 Olympic logo.
  • Both the opening and closing ceremonies were shown in Yuri Ozerov's 1981 film O, Sport, You - the Peace! (Russian: О спорт, ты - мир!).

Anthems

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