Liberty Bell Classic

The Liberty Bell Classic was a track and field athletics event organized by the Athletics Congress as part of the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott and held at Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on July 16 and 17, 1980. It was named after Philadelphia's Liberty Bell.

The U.S. Congress voted to approve $10 million in funding to alternative tournaments in several Olympic sports, to which athletes from boycotting countries would be invited. In addition to the Liberty Bell Classic, the U.S. Gymnastics Federation held an International Invitational tournament in Hartford, Connecticut. Earlier in the year, the United States had considered holding other games in Côte d'Ivoire, Italy, Japan, West Germany, or China.

The IAAF prohibited any official track and field meet that would clash with the Olympic meet, so the Liberty Bell began three days before the Moscow Games opened (and ten days before the Olympic athletics events began). The Liberty Bell came the day after the prestigious Bislett Games in Oslo, and many eligible athletes declined to compete, including 17 of the 34 champions at the US Olympic Trials. The winning performances in the men's 110 m hurdles and 400 m hurdles were better than those in Moscow.

Participants

Athletes from 29 countries participated in the event, many of which had taken part in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, including:

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Countries marked with an asterisk (*) went on to be represented in the 1980 Summer Olympics under the Olympic flag.

List of Medalists

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	10.31	Template:Flagmedalist	10.31	Template:Flagmedalist	10.33
200 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	20.65	Template:Flagmedalist	20.66	Template:Flagmedalist	20.92
400 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	45.59	Template:Flagmedalist	45.60	Template:Flagmedalist	45.79
800 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	1:47.19	Template:Flagmedalist	1:47.27	Template:Flagmedalist	1:48.03
1500 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	3:40.19	Template:Flagmedalist	3:40.34	Template:Flagmedalist	3:41.40
5000 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	13:37.52	Template:Flagmedalist	13:39.72	Template:Flagmedalist	13:45.77
110 meter hurdles	Template:Flagmedalist	13.31	Template:Flagmedalist	13.68	Template:Flagmedalist	13.94
400 meter hurdles	Template:Flagmedalist	48.6	Template:Flagmedalist	49.1	Template:Flagmedalist	50.0
4 × 100 meter relay	Template:Flagteam Mel Lattany Harvey Glance James Butler Carl Lewis	38.61	Template:Flagteam Tony Sharpe Desai Williams Marvin Nash Ben Johnson	39.54	Template:Flagteam	41.29
4 × 400 meter relay	Template:Flagteam Walter McCoy Fred Taylor David Lee Herman Frazier	3:03.20	Template:Flagteam James Atuti Billy Konchellah James Maina Boi Daniel Kimaiyo	3:05.72	Template:Flagteam	3:09.06
High jump	Template:Flagmedalist	2.26 m	Template:Flagmedalist	2.26 m	Template:Flagmedalist Template:Flagmedalist	2.22 m
Pole vault	Template:Flagmedalist	5.50 m	Template:Flagmedalist	5.33 m	Template:Flagmedalist	5.18 m
Long jump	Template:Flagmedalist	8.20 m	Template:Flagmedalist	7.95 m	Template:Flagmedalist	7.77 m
Triple jump	Template:Flagmedalist	16.90 m	Template:Flagmedalist	16.75 m	Template:Flagmedalist	16.42 m
Shot put	Template:Flagmedalist	19.69 m	Template:Flagmedalist	19.58 m	Template:Flagmedalist	16.17 m
Discus throw	Template:Flagmedalist	61.46 m	Template:Flagmedalist	60.76 m	Template:Flagmedalist	59.48 m
Hammer throw	Template:Flagmedalist	72.62 m	Template:Flagmedalist	71.34 m	Template:Flagmedalist	69.08 m
Javelin throw	Template:Flagmedalist	89.12 m	Template:Flagmedalist	84.56 m	Template:Flagmedalist	79.24 m
Decathlon	Template:Flagmedalist	8058	Template:Flagmedalist	8009	Template:Flagmedalist	7015

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	11.27	Template:Flagmedalist	11.41	Template:Flagmedalist	11.43
200 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	22.77	Template:Flagmedalist	22.84	Template:Flagmedalist	23.41
400 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	52.04	Template:Flagmedalist	52.33	Template:Flagmedalist	52.34
800 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	2:02.34	Template:Flagmedalist	2:02.53	Template:Flagmedalist	2:02.63
1500 meters	Template:Flagmedalist	4:00.87	Template:Flagmedalist	4:10.37	Template:Flagmedalist	4:10.39
100 meter hurdles	Template:Flagmedalist	13.08	Template:Flagmedalist	13.17	Template:Flagmedalist	13.20
4 × 100 meter relay	Template:Flagteam Chandra Cheeseborough Karen Hawkins Kathy McMillan Jeanette Bolden	44.57	Template:Flagteam	45.26	Template:Flagteam	46.90
4 × 400 meter relay	Template:Flagteam Kim Thomas Delisa Walton Robin Campbell Roberta Belle	3:32.69	Template:Flagteam	3:33.50
High jump	Template:Flagmedalist	1.92 m	Template:Flagmedalist	1.84 m	Template:Flagmedalist	1.80 m
Long jump	Template:Flagmedalist	6.65 m	Template:Flagmedalist	6.60 m	Template:Flagmedalist	6.48 m
Shot put	Template:Flagmedalist	17.09 m	Template:Flagmedalist	16.24 m	Template:Flagmedalist	15.98 m
Discus throw	Template:Flagmedalist	56.56 m	Template:Flagmedalist	55.20 m	Template:Flagmedalist	53.52 m
Javelin throw	Template:Flagmedalist	57.42 m	Template:Flagmedalist	55.30 m	Template:Flagmedalist	54.94 m
Pentathlon	Template:Flagmedalist	4640	Template:Flagmedalist	4346	Template:Flagmedalist	4314

See also

• 1980 Summer Olympics boycott
• 1980 in athletics (track and field)
• 1980 World Championships in Athletics
• Athletics at the Friendship Games, 1984 events in Moscow and Prague as part of the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott
• Politics and sports
• Goodwill Games

References

Sources

• Olympic Boycott Games
• The Olympic Games and Modern history