The 1980 Moscow Games: An Olympic controversy which split Ireland, and the world

The Tokyo Olympics are off but in 1980, a longer and far more controversial saga threatened the Moscow Games

David Wilkins' silver medal from the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach / Sportsfile

Jim Tunney could have hardly been clearer when he addressed a gathering of top athletes at a meeting in the Ballinteer Sports Complex. This was six months before the Games would begin in Moscow and less than one since the USSR had launched its shock Christmas Eve invasion of Afghanistan and, with it, talk of boycotts and sanctions.

“Athletes must not use the current controversies concerning the Olympics as an excuse for letting up in training,” said the then Minister of State at the Department of Education. “Time lost now can never be regained.”