| Event: | Swimming |
| Games: | 1980 Summer |
| Venue: | Olimpiysky Sports Complex |
| Competitors: | 333 |
| Nations: | 41 |
| Prev: | 1976 |
| Next: | 1984 |
Swimming as usual was one of the three aquatics disciplines at the 1980 Summer Olympics—the other two being Water Polo and Diving. It was held in the Swimming Pool of the Olimpiysky Sports Complex between July 20 and July 27. There was a total of 333 participants from 41 countries competing.[1] [2]
Because the number of participants was reduced by the boycott, FINA broke format by doing away with the semifinals. Instead, the top 8 finishers from the heats qualified directly for the final, or final A as it was called. In events up to 400m, those that finished 9th to 16th in the heats would swim in Final B for the 9th place after the swimmers from Final A swam. This would continue as the Olympic format up to the 1996 Olympic Games.
333 swimmers from 41 nations competed.[1]
| 100 m freestyle | 50.40 | 50.91 | 51.29 | ||||
| 200 m freestyle | 1:49.81 | 1:50.76 | 1:51.60 | ||||
| 400 m freestyle | 3:51.31 | 3:53.24 | 3:53.95 | ||||
| 1500 m freestyle | 14:58.27 | 15:14.30 | 15:14.49 | ||||
| 100 m backstroke | 56.53 | 56.99 | 57.63 | ||||
| 200 m backstroke | 2:01.93 | 2:02.40 | 2:03.14 | ||||
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:03.34 | 1:03.82 | 1:03.96 | ||||
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:15.85 | 2:16.93 | 2:17.28 | ||||
| 100 m butterfly | 54.92 | 54.94 | 55.13 | ||||
| 200 m butterfly | 1:59.76 | 2:01.20 | 2:01.39 | ||||
| 400 m individual medley | 4:22.89 | 4:23.43 | 4:24.24 | ||||
| 4 × 200 m freestyle relay | Sergey Kopliakov Vladimir Salnikov Ivar Stukolkin Andrey Krylov Sergey Rusin* Sergey Krasyuk* Yuri Presekin* | 7:23.50 | Frank Pfütze Jörg Woithe Detlev Grabs Rainer Strohbach Frank Kühne* | 7:28.60 | 7:29.30 | ||
| 4 × 100 m medley relay | Mark Kerry Peter Evans Mark Tonelli Neil Brooks Glenn Patching* | 3:45.70 | Viktor Kuznetsov Arsens Miskarovs Yevgeny Seredin Sergey Kopliakov Vladimir Shemetov* Aleksandr Fedorovsky* Aleksey Markovsky* Sergey Krasyuk* | 3:45.92 | Gary Abraham Duncan Goodhew David Lowe Martin Smith Paul Marshall* Mark Taylor* | 3:47.71 |
| 100 m freestyle | 54.79 | 55.16 | 55.65 | ||||
| 200 m freestyle | 1:58.33 | 1:59.64 | 2:01.44 | ||||
| 400 m freestyle | 4:08.76 | 4:09.16 | 4:10.86 | ||||
| 800 m freestyle | 8:28.90 | 8:32.55 | 8:33.48 | ||||
| 100 m backstroke | 1:00.86 | 1:02.07 | 1:02.64 | ||||
| 200 m backstroke | 2:11.77 | 2:13.75 | 2:14.14 | ||||
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:10.22 | 1:10.41 | 1:11.16 | ||||
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:29.54 | 2:29.61 | 2:32.39 | ||||
| 100 m butterfly | 1:00.42 | 1:00.90 | 1:01.44 | ||||
| 200 m butterfly | 2:10.44 | 2:10.45 | 2:11.66 | ||||
| 400 m individual medley | 4:36.29 | 4:46.83 | 4:48.17 | ||||
| 4 × 100 m freestyle relay | Barbara Krause Caren Metschuck Ines Diers Sarina Hülsenbeck Carmela Schmidt* | 3:42.71 | Carina Ljungdahl Tina Gustafsson Agneta Mårtensson Agneta Eriksson Birgitta Jönsson* Helena Peterson* | 3:48.93 | 3:49.51 | ||
| 4 × 100 m medley relay | Rica Reinisch Ute Geweniger Andrea Pollack Caren Metschuck Sarina Hülsenbeck* | 4:06.67 | 4:12.24 | Yelena Kruglova Elvira Vasilkova Alla Grishchenkova Natalya Strunnikova Irina Aksyonova* Olga Klevakina* | 4:13.61 |
Some of the Olympic medalists in Moscow: