# Sailing at the 1980 Summer Olympics

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.

## Venue

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

| 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. In several classes an alternative sailing event was organized by the boycotting nations, with the Flying Dutchman class having been held Luxembourg.

### Classes (equipment)

| Class | Type | 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 |

## Medal summary

| 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 |
| 7 | Ireland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Greece | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Hungary | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Italy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Sweden | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (12 entries) | Totals (12 entries) | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 |

## Remarks
### Sailors

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