Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw

This was the 19th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1976 Games were silver medalist Wolfgang Schmidt of East Germany and tenth-place finisher Velko Velev of Bulgaria. Schmidt was the 1978 European champion and world record holder as well, but was bothered by an ankle injury. That injury, along with the absence of the American team due to boycott (1976 Olympic champion Mac Wilkins was still a top thrower, and four-time gold medalist Al Oerter had come out of retirement) left the competition open.^[2]

Kuwait and Syria each made their debut in the men's discus throw. Sweden made its 15th appearance, most of any nation competing, though tied with Hungary for second behind the United States's 18 appearances.

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936, with the qualifying round completely separate from the divided final. In qualifying, each athlete received three attempts; those recording a mark of at least 62.00 metres advanced to the final. If fewer than 12 athletes achieved that distance, the top 12 would advance. The results of the qualifying round were then ignored. Finalists received three throws each, with the top eight competitors receiving an additional three attempts. The best distance among those six throws counted.^[2][3]

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Wolfgang Schmidt (GDR)	71.16	East Berlin, East Germany	9 August 1978
Olympic record	Mac Wilkins (USA)	68.28	Montréal, Canada	24 July 1976

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Qualifying round

The qualifying round was held on Sunday July 27, 1980.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	Distance	Notes
1	Imrich Bugár	Czechoslovakia	61.50	65.08	—	65.08	Q
2	Viktor Rashchupkin	Soviet Union	64.78	—	—	64.78	Q
3	Luis Delís	Cuba	64.20	—	—	64.20	Q
4	Ihor Duhinets	Soviet Union	63.10	—	—	63.10	Q
5	Yuriy Dumchev	Soviet Union	62.82	—	—	62.82	Q
6	Kenth Gardenkrans	Sweden	53.90	62.58	—	62.58	Q
7	Emil Vladimirov	Bulgaria	60.54	60.52	62.50	62.50	Q
8	Wolfgang Schmidt	East Germany	62.46	—	—	62.46	Q
9	Markku Tuokko	Finland	62.14	—	—	62.14	Q
10	Velko Velev	Bulgaria	54.82	56.60	61.30	61.30	q
11	José Santa Cruz	Cuba	60.14	58.70	X	60.14	q
12	Hilmar Hoßfeld	East Germany	X	57.98	59.92	59.92	q
13	Armin Lemme	East Germany	59.44	54.44	X	59.44
14	Iosif Nagy	Romania	56.50	59.34	58.48	59.34
15	Namakoro Niare	Mali	X	57.34	56.08	57.34
16	Adnan Houri	Syria	X	X	47.52	47.52
17	Najem Najem	Kuwait	X	39.26	35.38	39.26
—	Oskar Jakobsson	Iceland	X	X	X	No mark

Final

The home-nation officials may have provided some assistance to Raschupkin, as "Cuba's Luis Delís's final throw appeared to be a winning mark, but some observers thought it was marked at least a foot short."^[2]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Distance
	Viktor Rashchupkin	Soviet Union	62.38	64.72	65.08	66.64	60.48	X	66.64
	Imrich Bugár	Czechoslovakia	65.14	61.78	64.34	66.38	64.42	65.96	66.38
	Luis Delís	Cuba	X	63.46	X	65.30	X	66.32	66.32
4	Wolfgang Schmidt	East Germany	X	61.60	65.30	65.64	65.34	X	65.64
5	Yuriy Dumchev	Soviet Union	64.78	X	65.58	X	63.16	X	65.58
6	Ihor Duhinets	Soviet Union	62.18	64.04	63.18	X	62.04	X	64.04
7	Emil Vladimirov	Bulgaria	62.84	63.18	61.60	61.70	61.60	61.20	63.18
8	Velko Velev	Bulgaria	60.88	60.74	63.04	61.14	X	61.72	63.04
9	Markku Tuokko	Finland	61.54	55.32	61.84	Did not advance			61.84
10	José Santa Cruz	Cuba	56.06	58.52	61.52	Did not advance			61.52
11	Hilmar Hoßfeld	East Germany	60.26	61.14	59.30	Did not advance			61.14
12	Kenth Gardenkrans	Sweden	60.24	58.40	60.12	Did not advance			60.24

• 1978 Men's European Championships Discus Throw (Prague)
• 1982 Men's European Championships Discus Throw (Athens)
• 1983 Men's World Championships Discus Throw (Helsinki)
• 1986 Men's European Championships Discus Throw (Stuttgart)
• 1987 Men's World Championships Discus Throw (Rome)

• Results