# Cross-country skiing at the 1980 Winter Olympics – Men's 50 kilometre

The men's 50 kilometre cross-country skiing competition at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, United States, was held on Saturday 23 February at Mount Van Hoevenberg, Essex County, New York. Sven-Åke Lundbäck of Sweden was the 1978 World champion and Ivar Formo of Norway was the defending champion from the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
Each skier started at half a minute intervals, skiing the entire 50 kilometre course. Of the 43 athletes who started the race, 6 did not finish. Nikolay Zimyatov of the Soviet Union took his third Gold medal of the games after winning the 30 kilometre and being part of Soviet Union's winning 4 × 10 km relay team.

## Results

Sources:
| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Deficit |
| | 41 | Nikolay Zimyatov | Soviet Union | 2:27:24.60 | – |
| | 38 | Juha Mieto | Finland | 2:30:20.52 | +2.55.92 |
| | 14 | Alexander Zavyalov | Soviet Union | 2:30:51.52 | +3:26.92 |
| 4 | 47 | Lars Erik Eriksen | Norway | 2:30:53.03 | +3:28.43 |
| 5 | 6 | Sergey Savelyev | Soviet Union | 2:31:15.82 | +3:51.22 |
| 6 | 28 | Yevgeny Belyayev | Soviet Union | 2:31:21.19 | +3:56.59 |
| 7 | 20 | Oddvar Brå | Norway | 2:31:46.83 | +4:22.23 |
| 8 | 36 | Sven-Åke Lundbäck | Sweden | 2:31:59.65 | +4:35.05 |
| 9 | 21 | Asko Autio | Finland | 2:32:25.57 | +5:00.97 |
| 10 | 18 | Franz Renggli | Switzerland | 2:33:27.56 | +6:02.96 |
| 11 | 33 | Matti Pitkänen | Finland | 2:34:09.04 | +6:44.44 |
| 12 | 40 | Jean-Paul Pierrat | France | 2:34:13.07 | +6:48.47 |
| 13 | 37 | Bill Koch | United States | 2:34:31.62 | +7:07.02 |
| 14 | 10 | Heinz Gähler | Switzerland | 2:35:11.20 | +7:46.60 |
| 15 | 2 | Anders Bakken | Norway | 2:35:33.26 | +8:08.66 |
| 16 | 8 | Thomas Eriksson | Sweden | 2:36:33.85 | +9:09.25 |
| 17 | 42 | Józef Łuszczek | Poland | 2:36:38.05 | +9:13.45 |
| 18 | 5 | Pertti Teurajärvi | Finland | 2:36:44.08 | +9:19.48 |
| 19 | 22 | Giulio Capitanio | Italy | 2:37:01.40 | +9:36.80 |
| 20 | 23 | Jim Galanes | United States | 2:37:09.64 | +9:45.04 |
| 21 | 12 | Peter Zipfel | West Germany | 2:37:09.74 | +9:45.14 |
| 22 | 46 | Dieter Notz | West Germany | 2:37:47.41 | +10:22.81 |
| 23 | 44 | Jiří Beran | Czechoslovakia | 2:37:51.58 | +10:26.98 |
| 24 | 32 | Kjell Jakob Sollie | Norway | 2:38:06.07 | +10:41.47 |
| 25 | 39 | Roberto Primus | Italy | 2:38:10.10 | +10:45.50 |
| 26 | 24 | Alf-Gerd Deckert | East Germany | 2:38:13.53 | +10:48.93 |
| 27 | 17 | František Šimon | Czechoslovakia | 2:39:53.03 | +12:28.43 |
| 28 | 4 | Franz Schöbel | West Germany | 2:40:25.96 | +13:01.36 |
| 29 | 30 | Josef Schneider | West Germany | 2:40:49.68 | +13:25.08 |
| 30 | 26 | Jiří Švub | Czechoslovakia | 2:40:53.94 | +13:29.34 |
| 31 | 11 | Michel Thierry | France | 2:41:38.26 | +14:13.66 |
| 32 | 1 | Gianfranco Polvara | Italy | 2:41:51.58 | +14:26.98 |
| 33 | 27 | Stan Dunklee | United States | 2:42:20.20 | +14:55.60 |
| 34 | 35 | Erik Gustavsson | Sweden | 2:43:39.93 | +16:15.33 |
| 35 | 29 | Paul Fargeix | France | 2:45:39.70 | +18:15.10 |
| 36 | 19 | Luvsandashiin Dorj | Mongolia | 2:48:22.97 | +20:58.37 |
| 37 | 34 | Shiro Sato | Japan | 2:48:33.02 | +21:08.42 |
| | 7 | Philippe Poirot | France | DNF | |
| | 9 | Doug Peterson | United States | DNF | |
| | 15 | Stig Jäder | Sweden | DNF | |
| | 25 | Gaudenz Ambühl | Switzerland | DNF | |
| | 31 | Maurilio De Zolt | Italy | DNF | |
| | 45 | Konrad Hallenbarter | Switzerland | DNF | |
| | 3 | Þröstur Jóhannesson | Iceland | DNS | |
| | 13 | Tone Ðuričič | Yugoslavia | DNS | |
| | 16 | Haukur Sigurðsson | Iceland | DNS | |
| | 43 | Khristo Barzanov | Bulgaria | DNS | |