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Moscow 1980: The Cold War Olympics

18/10/2005

BBC Four - Moscow 1980: The Cold War Olympics

Steve Cram reflects on the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Cold War between East and West.

Steve Cram recalls how the Moscow Olympics of 1980 came to symbolise the intensity of the Cold War. As politics and sport collided head on, athletes faced tough dilemmas.

Back in 1980, a teenage Steve Cram was part of a team of British athletes who defied their government to go behind the iron curtain and compete in the Olympic Games.

Steve Cram returns to the Russian capital to relive the story of the most controversial Olympics of modern times. An Olympics boycotted by the United States because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and blighted by allegations of cheating and state sponsored doping.

But these were also the games of Daley Thompson, Duncan Goodhew, Alan Wells and the incredible rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett.

It's a fascinating story in which we hear how the games that threatened the very existence of the Olympic movement actually changed it for the better and, decades later, provided an unexpected bonus for the whole of British sport.

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Moscow 1980: The Cold War Olympics

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Moscow 1980: The Cold War Olympics

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