The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, were the first to include a competition in women's field hockey. Pre-tournament favourites included Australia, the Netherlands and West Germany, but the American-led Western boycott of the Moscow Olympics led to these teams and others withdrawing, leaving only the Soviets in the women's hockey event. The Soviet and international Olympic authorities filled the gaps by inviting teams from countries that had not qualified. Among the nations invited was Zimbabwe, which had become an internationally recognised country in April 1980 following seven years of civil war. Moscow marked the southern African nation's return to the Olympics after 16 years; as Rhodesia it had been excluded from the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Games for political reasons following the mostly white government's declaration of independence from Britain in 1965. The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee received the invitation to send men's and women's hockey squads to Moscow on 14 June 1980, 35 days before the Olympics were due to start. They were taken totally by surprise—they had not prepared hockey teams for the Games—but nevertheless agreed to send a women's squad. No women's hockey team representing the country had ever played overseas before.