The 1980 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from June 19, 1980 until July 19, 1980 prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The route covered around and involved over 5,435 torchbearers. Basketball player and Olympic champion Sergei Belov lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony.
Route RouteMapOlympia Patras Corinth Athens Thebes Larissa Veria Thessaloniki SerresBlagoevgrad Sofia Plovdiv Shipka Veliko Tarnovo Pleven RuseGiurgiu Bucharest Ploiești Buzău Bacău Roman IașiLeușeni Chișinău Bălți Chernivtsi Khmelnytskyi Vinnytsia Zhytomyr Kiev Lubny Poltava Chutove Raion Kharkiv Belgorod Kursk Kromy Orel Tula Serpukhov Podolsk Moscow
July 20: Offshoots of the flame taken to competition sites:Vorontsov, Oleg. "1980 Moscow Torch: The Unknown History", Journal of Olympic History, May 2002, pages 24–30. Retrieved from the Olympic World Library on 27 September 2025."The Relay", Official Report of the Organizing Committee of the Games of the XXII Olympiad, Moscow, 1980, Volume 2, pages 268–278. Retrieved from the LA84 Digital Library on 27 September 2025. Minsk Leningrad Tallinn Kiev
References
External links IOC website for 1980 torch relay