30 kilometres, Men

The 1978 World Champion and defending Olympic Champion, Soviet Sergey Savelyev was surprisingly not selected to their quartet for the 1980 cross-country opening distance, concentrating only on the 50 km. But the Soviet Union had a strong team, headed by 24-year old Nikolay Zimyatov, the tall and lanky silver medalist at the distance at the 1978 World Championships. At 10 km, Zimyatov was in the lead, 13 seconds ahead of the Swede Thomas Wassberg. Lying third, to everyone’s surprise, was Bulgarian Ivan Lebanov, 1977 Junior World Champion, 19.5 seconds behind the leader. And the young Bulgarian continued to impress. At the halfway mark he had moved up to second place, 36 seconds behind the leading Zimyatov, but he was closely followed by Wassberg and Soviet Vasily Rochev. Zimyatov continued to push the pace, at 20 km he had widened his lead to 40 seconds, but behind him it was very close: Wassberg now second, Lebanov third and Rochev fourth, all three within 8 seconds. Rochev, starting first of the favorites, was fastest over the last 10 km and finished in impressive style. Zimyatov, starting one minute behind Lobanov, caught the Bulgarian 5 km from home, and they finished together. Zimyatov came in half a minute ahead of his countryman Rochev, and Lobanov was now in bronze medal position. Wassberg, starting last of all, could not match Lobanov’s speed over the last kilometers and had to be content with fourth place. The surprise winner of the 15 km in the 1978 World Championships, the Pole Józef Łuszczek, made his best ever Olympic placing by finishing fifth. Zimyatov won his first international championship, and Lobanov won the first ever Winter Olympics medal for Bulgaria, and it would be another 18 years before the next.