Olympics 1980
Only two cities had bid to host the Summer Olympics in 1980: Los Angeles, California; and Moscow, Russia – which was part of the Soviet Union at the time. Moscow won the bid. Los Angeles would win four years later, for the next Summer Olympics.
Unrelated to the Olympics, in 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. It fought in Afghanistan for about ten years, leaving eventually – having achieved nothing. The U.S. and then President James Carter objected to the war. As part of the U.S. protest, President Carter banned American athletes from partipating in the Olympics in Moscow in 1980. This decision became a bit ironic when in 2001 the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and remained until 2021.
I knew someone who was to compete in that Olympics. She was very disappointed and was unable to compete in Los Angles. She missed her moment. One of the core principles or points of the Olympics is that its about the athletes regardless of nationality or politics. The Olymics is also an opportunity for countries to meet neutrally, for enemies to compete vicariously in peaceful ways, in the hopes of building better relations among countries.
Note
The top set of stamps were issued to promote the 1980 Summer Olympics. The rest are for the 1980 Winter games. Since the U.S. had boycotted the Olympics, you wouldn’t expect the Post Office to issue stamps for them. These stamps were printed and issued in September 1979, almost a year before the Olympics in Moscow.
Contains 13 spots: own 13 – 13 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed May 12, 2025
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
Summer Olympics
✓ |
1791 |
15c (sep 1979) |
|||
✓ |
1790 |
10c (sep 1979) |
|||
✓ |
1792 |
15c (sep 1979) |
|||
✓ |
1793 |
15c (sep 1979) |
|||
✓ |
1794 |
15c (sep 1979) |
Winter Olympics
✓ |
1795 |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1796 |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1797 |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1798 |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1795A |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1796A |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1797A |
15c (feb 1980) |
|||
✓ |
1798A |
15c (feb 1980) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
