Cold St. Petersburg, (Leningrad at the time), may not seem to be the ideal place to develop as one of the greatest long-distance swimmers of all times. However, in a men's swimming event effected tremendously by the decision of many western nations not to attend the 1980 Moscow Games, Vladimir Salnikov, the son of a sea captain, put on a memorable display of pace and power. Salnikov matched legendary Australian Murray Rose's 1956 Olympic victories, achieving gold in both the 400 and 1,500 meters freestyle, and winning a third gold in the 4x200m freestyle. His three gold medals, however, were overshadowed by his 1,500m showing. Fifty-eight years after Johnny Weissmuller broke the one-minute mark for the 100 meters, Salnikov became the first man to swim the 1,500 meters in less than 15 minutes: 14:58.27 minutes.

Cuban Teofilio Stevenson's dominance of Olympic and amateur super-heavyweight boxing was overwhelming through the 1970's and early 1980's. The first Olympic boxer to go the three-round distance against him, Hungarian Istavan Levai, did so by running around the ring desperately trying to avoid contact in the semi-final. Stevenson won his third consecutive gold but was denied the opportunity to compete for a fourth when Cuba chose not to attend the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Loyal to his country's communist regime, Stevenson turned down offers of millions of dollars and did not follow many of his generation's Olympic greats to professional stardom. Stevenson's friend and outspoken boxer, the great Muhammad Ali, said Stevenson missed out on a sure-fire win of the world heavyweight title.