Individual, Open
| Date | 3 August 1980 — 8:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Bolshaya arena, Tsentralny stadion imeni V.I. Lenina, Moskva | |
| Participants | 16 from 7 countries | |
| Format | Two rounds. Total score for both rounds determined placement. | |
Only 16 riders and horses started and none of them were among the world’s elite jumpers. In round one four riders led with only 4.00 faults, but Poland’s Jan Kowalczyk also had only 4.00 faults in round two to win the gold medal. Soviet Nikolay Korolkov had 4 and 5.5 faults in the two rounds to win silver, while the bronze medal came down to a jump-off between Mexican Joaquín Pérez and Guatemalan Oswaldo Méndez. Both had 4.00 faults in the jump-off but Pérez won the bronze medal with a narrow win based on time, 43.23 to 43.59 seconds.
The Rotterdam Show Jumping Festival was held for teams and riders not competing in Moskva, and had 38 starters from 18 nations. The title there was won by Austrian Hugo Simon, with Britain’s John Whitaker second, and American Melanie Smith third.
| Pos | Competitor | Horse | NOC | Faults | Jump-Off Faults | Jump-Off Time | Round #1 | Round #2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan Kowalczyk | Artemor |  POL | 8.00 | – | – | 4.00 (=1) | 4.00 (=1) | Gold | ||
| 2 | Nikolay Korolkov | Espadron |  URS | 9.50 | – | – | 4.00 (=1) | 5.50 (4) | Silver | ||
| 3 | Joaquín Pérez | Alymony |  MEX | 12.00 | 4.00 | 43.23 | 8.00 (=5) | 4.00 (=1) | Bronze | ||
| 4 | Oswaldo Méndez | Pampa |  GUA | 12.00 | 4.00 | 43.59 | 8.00 (=5) | 4.00 (=1) | |||
| 5 | Viktor Poganovsky | Topky | URS | 15.50 | – | – | 4.00 (=1) | 11.50 (7) | |||
| 6 | Wiesław Hartman | Norton | POL | 16.00 | – | – | 4.00 (=1) | 12.00 (8) | |||
| 7 | Barnabás Hevesy | Bohem |  HUN | 24.00 | – | – | 16.00 (=10) | 8.00 (5) | |||
| 8 | Marian Kozicki | Bremen | POL | 24.50 | – | – | 12.00 (=7) | 12.50 (10) | |||
| 9 | Vyacheslav Chukanov | Gepatit | URS | 24.75 | – | – | 12.00 (=7) | 12.75 (11) | |||
| 10 | Boris Pavlov | Montblanc |  BUL | 26.50 | – | – | 16.00 (=10) | 10.50 (6) | |||
| 11 | Alberto Valdés Lacarra | Lady Mirka | MEX | 28.00 | – | – | 12.00 (=7) | 16.00 (13) | |||
| 12 | Christopher Wegelius | Monday Morning |  FIN | 30.25 | – | – | 16.00 (=10) | 14.25 (12) | |||
| 13 | Nikola Dimitrov | Vals | BUL | 36.25 | – | – | 24.00 (14) | 12.25 (9) | |||
| 14 | Ferenc Krucsó | Vadrozsa | HUN | 40.25 | – | – | 16.00 (=10) | 24.25 (14) | |||
| Dimitar Genov | Makbet | BUL | – | – | – | – ( | – | ||||
| Jesús Gómez | Massacre | MEX | – | – | – | – ( | – |