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| Event type

30 kilometres, Men

Date14 February 1980 — 9:00
StatusOlympic
LocationMt. Van Hoevenberg Recreation Area, Lake Placid
Participants57 from 20 countries
DetailsCourse Length: ?
Height Differential: 124 m
Intermediate 1: 10.0 km
Intermediate 2: 15.0 km
Intermediate 3: 20.0 km
Maximum Climb: 51 m
Total Climbing: 867 m

The 1978 World Champion and defending Olympic Champion, Soviet Sergey Savelyev was surprisingly not selected to their quartet for the 1980 cross-country opening distance, concentrating only on the 50 km. But the Soviet Union had a strong team, headed by 24-year old Nikolay Zimyatov, the tall and lanky silver medalist at the distance at the 1978 World Championships. At 10 km, Zimyatov was in the lead, 13 seconds ahead of the Swede Thomas Wassberg. Lying third, to everyone’s surprise, was Bulgarian Ivan Lebanov, 1977 Junior World Champion, 19.5 seconds behind the leader. And the young Bulgarian continued to impress. At the halfway mark he had moved up to second place, 36 seconds behind the leading Zimyatov, but he was closely followed by Wassberg and Soviet Vasily Rochev. Zimyatov continued to push the pace, at 20 km he had widened his lead to 40 seconds, but behind him it was very close: Wassberg now second, Lebanov third and Rochev fourth, all three within 8 seconds. Rochev, starting first of the favorites, was fastest over the last 10 km and finished in impressive style. Zimyatov, starting one minute behind Lobanov, caught the Bulgarian 5 km from home, and they finished together. Zimyatov came in half a minute ahead of his countryman Rochev, and Lobanov was now in bronze medal position. Wassberg, starting last of all, could not match Lobanov’s speed over the last kilometers and had to be content with fourth place. The surprise winner of the 15 km in the 1978 World Championships, the Pole Józef Łuszczek, made his best ever Olympic placing by finishing fifth. Zimyatov won his first international championship, and Lobanov won the first ever Winter Olympics medal for Bulgaria, and it would be another 18 years before the next.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
156Nikolay ZimyatovURS1-27:02.80Gold
236Vasily RochevURS1-27:34.22Silver
354Ivan LebanovBUL1-28:03.87Bronze
458Thomas WassbergSWE1-28:40.35
557Józef ŁuszczekPOL1-29:03.64
649Matti PitkänenFIN1-29:35.03
726Juha MietoFIN1-29:45.08
825Ove AunliNOR1-29:54.02
940Alf-Gerd DeckertGDR1-30:05.17
1045Lars Erik EriksenNOR1-30:34.34
1119Yevgeny BelyayevURS1-30:35.32
1247Oddvar BråNOR1-30:46.70
1316Benny KohlbergSWE1-30:57.56
1410Nikolay BazhukovURS1-31:06.28
1520Edi HauserSUI1-31:20.09
168Per Knut AalandNOR1-31:26.58
1738Sven-Åke LundbäckSWE1-31:31.96
1843Harri KirvesniemiFIN1-31:35.13
1946Jean-Paul PierratFRA1-31:43.03
2050Maurilio De ZoltITA1-31:43.74
2127Jiří BeranTCH1-31:46.11
2234Dieter NotzFRG1-31:58.27
2344Hristo BarzanovBUL1-32:03.49
2442Gaudenz AmbühlSUI1-32:06.20
2512Stig JäderSWE1-32:08.09
2613Jorma AaltoFIN1-32:48.10
2735Giulio CapitanioITA1-33:07.48
285Jiří ŠvubTCH1-33:12.73
294Heinz GählerSUI1-33:43.68
3033Stan DunkleeUSA1-33:48.02
3111Josef SchneiderFRG1-34:05.33
3239Miloš BečvářTCH1-34:08.79
3330Ivo ČarmanYUG1-34:09.59
343Benedetto CarraraITA1-34:27.45
3532Paul FargeixFRA1-35:12.25
3653František ŠimonTCH1-35:32.70
3751Wolfgang MüllerFRG1-35:37.46
381Philippe PoirotFRA1-35:47.39
3923Shiro SatoJPN1-35:52.77
4022Peter ZipfelFRG1-36:06.95
4121Jim GalanesUSA1-36:15.17
4255Francis JacotSUI1-36:50.46
4329Roberto PrimusITA1-37:55.47
4428Michel ThierryFRA1-38:17.35
456Doug PetersonUSA1-38:29.86
4624Tone ĐurišičYUG1-38:46.90
4741José GiroESP1-41:57.97
487Ingólfur JónssonISL1-45:55.26
4918Emiliano MorlansESP1-46:28.42
509Marcos Luis JermanARG1-47:56.17
5117Kim Dong-HwanKOR1-51:13.35
5214Luvsandashiin DorjMGL1-53:52.24
DNF2Kim Nam-YoungKOR
DNF15Þröstur JóhannessonISL
DNF31Haukur SigurðssonISL
DNF37Hwang Byung-DaeKOR
DNF48Bill KochUSA
DNS52Kim Chun-GiKOR