Shooting at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Mixed trap

This was the 13th appearance of the men's ISSF Olympic trap event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1924 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1952 to 2016. As with most shooting events, it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980; the trap remained open to women through 1992. Very few women participated these years. The event returned to being men-only for 1996, though the new double trap had separate events for men and women that year. In 2000, a separate women's event was added and it has been contested at every Games since. There was also a men's team trap event held four times from 1908 to 1924.^[2][3]

Only one of the top 10 shooters from the 1976 Games returned: fourth-place finisher Burckhardt Hoppe of East Germany. The reigning champion, Donald Haldeman of the United States, was kept out by the American-led boycott. Three different Italian shooters had earned medals at the World Championships since the 1976 Games; Silvano Basagni was among the two shooters selected for the Olympic team. Basagni had earned Olympic bronze in 1972 and a World silver in 1978. He was joined by Luciano Giovannetti on the Italian squad. None of the three World Champions competed in Moscow; indeed, Basagni and 1979 silver medalist Aleksandr Asanov of the Soviet Union were the only two World medalists from the last three years.^[4]

Jordan made its debut in the event. Great Britain missed the event for the first time; Italy was the competing nation with the most appearances (9), with four nations (Great Britain, Canada, France, and Sweden) with more appearances not competing.

The competition used the 200-target format introduced with the return of trap to the Olympics in 1952. Only a single round of shooting was done, with all shooters facing 200 targets. Shooting was done in 8 series of 25 targets. The first three series (75 shots) were on day 1, the next three (75 shots) on day 2, and the final two series (50 shots) on day 3. Shoot-offs of 25 shots were used as necessary to break ties for medals.^[4]

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

World record	Angelo Scalzone (ITA)	199	Munich, West Germany	27–29 August 1972
Olympic record	Angelo Scalzone (ITA)	199	Munich, West Germany	27–29 August 1972

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