One of the major showdowns of the Games featured British great middle-distance runners, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. The teammates split the 1,500 m and 800 m titles. Coe, who repeated as 1,500 champion in 1984 set a 800m world record in 1981, which remains until today. Coe has explained his record saying, "I was coached by my father. He was an engineer and not a coach, and therefore did not understand the limits of the event".

	It was no secret Miruts Yifter of Ethiopia was the best long distance runner in the world, so his impressive 5,000-10,000 meter double victory was no surprise. What was a secret was his age. Estimates ranged from 33 to 42. Yifter relentlessly guarded his true age and is quoted as saying, "Men may steal my chickens, men may steal my sheep. But no man can steal my age!".

An injury forced Marita Koch of East Germany to withdraw from the semi-final of the women's 400 m in 1976. However Koch kept her dream of victory alive. She even kept the same running shoes which she used in the Moscow Games to easily win her long awaited 400 m final in Olympic record time.

The women's field hockey competition, held for the first time in 1980, suffered greatly when five of the six teams scheduled to compete withdrew because of the decision by several western countries not to attend the Games. Olympic organizers contacted Zimbabwe five weeks before the Games offering to subsidize a trip for a female hockey team. A team was selected the weekend before the Games. In Moscow the Cinderella story was fulfilled when the team won a gold medal -- Zimbabwe's only medal ever.