Diving at the 1980 Summer Olympics

The United States-led boycott decimated the men’s side of this sport as the best diver in the world in 1980, at least on platform, was American Greg Louganis, who could not compete. Louganis, considered the greatest male diver ever, had won a silver on platform in 1976 and would return in 1984 and 1988 to win both men’s events.

As at all recent Olympics, the swimming, diving, water polo, and modern pentathlon swimming were held at the same site, the indoor Olympic Pool at the Olympiysky Sports Complex, or the Plavatelny Basseyn, Sportivny Kompleks Olimpiysky in transliterated Russian. There were four diving events – 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform for men and women, which remained the standard Olympic diving program through 1996. The four gold medals were divided equally between East Germany and the Soviet Union.