Basketball at the 1980 Summer Olympics


Basketball at the 1980 Summer Olympics was the tenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It was held from July 20 to July 30 at the Olympiiski Indoor Stadium and at the CSKA Sports Palace, both located in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Finals of men's events were held 30 July at the Olympiiski Indoor Stadium.
Due to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, the United States and other nations withdrew from the tournament. The 1980 Olympics marked the second time that the United States men's team did not win the gold medal in Olympic basketball; Yugoslavia won gold in the men's tournament and the Soviet Union in the women's competition.

Medal summary

Qualification

An NOC may enter up to one men's team with 12 players and up to one women's team with 12 players. Automatic qualifications were granted to the host country for both events, plus the winning team at the 1978 FIBA World Championship and the gold medal winners at the 1976 Summer Olympics. The remaining spots were decided by corresponding continental qualifying tournaments for the men's competition, and in a tournament held months before the Olympic Games in Varna, Bulgaria for the women's event.

Men

Women

Men's tournament:
Women's tournament:
Tie-breaking criteria:
  1. Head to head results
  2. Goal average between the tied teams
  3. Goal average of the tied teams for all teams in its group

    Men's tournament

Preliminary round

The top two teams from each group advance to the final round group, while the remaining teams compete for 8th through 12th places in the classification group. Hosts Soviet Union and the world champions Yugoslavia advanced undefeated to the final round. Meanwhile, qualification in Group C was closely contested between Italy, Cuba and Australia, which ended up being decided by a third tiebreaker in favor of the first two teams.

Group A

TeamPts
30321235+866
21297235+625
12285236+494
03194391−1973

----
----

Group B

TeamPts
30328249+796
Spain21289241+485
12256297−414
03196282−863

----
----

Group C

TeamPts
21248233+1551W–1L1.0001.064
21226214+1251W–1L1.0001.056
21224215+951W–1L1.0001.042
03191227−363

Classification round

Results between Poland vs. Senegal, Australia vs. Sweden and Czechoslovakia vs. India were carried over from the preliminary round.
TeamPts
41453359+9491W–0L
41417381+3690W–1L
32474377+9781W–0L
32375341+3480W–1L
14345396−516
05329539−2105

Final round

The first two places in the final round compete for the gold medal, while the third and fourth places compete for the bronze. The remaining teams' group ranking determines their positions in the final standings. The host nation failed to compete for the gold in spite of finishing the preliminary round undefeated, due to losses against the other two group leaders Yugoslavia and especially Italy, since the result from that match served as tiebreaker, giving the latter a passport to the gold medal match. The Soviet Union then won the bronze against Spain. Yugoslavia earned their first and only gold medal in men's basketball at this Olympic Games.
Results from Yugoslavia vs. Spain, Italy vs. Cuba and Soviet Union vs. Brazil were carried over from the preliminary round.
Competed for the gold medal
Competed for the bronze medal

Medal matches

Bronze Medal
Gold Medal

Women's tournament

The women's tournament was decided in a round robin group with all six teams. The first two places competed for the gold medal, while the third and fourth places for the bronze. The remaining teams retain their group ranks for the final standings. The host nation finished the group phase undefeated and won the gold against Bulgaria. Yugoslavia would go on to win the bronze medal against Hungary.
Competed for the gold medal
Competed for the bronze medal

Medal matches

Bronze Medal
Gold Medal

Final standings