Venues of the 1980 Summer Olympics

The oldest venue for the games was Republican Stadium in Kiev, which was constructed in 1923.[23] Dynamo Central Stadium's Grand Arena in Moscow was constructed in 1928 for the first Spartakiad.[10][26][27] Young Pioneers Stadium was constructed between 1932 and 1934.[17] For the 1956 Spartakiad, four venues were constructed, most notably Central Lenin Stadium Grand Arena (now Luzhniki Stadium) in 1956.[28] The Canoeing and Rowing Basin was constructed in 1973 for the European Rowing Championships.[13] Moscow first bid for the Olympic Games in 1970 for the 1976 Summer Olympics, losing out to Montreal, Quebec.[29] Four years later, it beat out Los Angeles for the 1980 Summer Games.[29] One of the new venues constructed was the cycling circuit at the Krylatskoye Sports Circuit that was the first permanent venue for road cycling.[14] Plans to build some of the venues used for the 1980 Games were in place in 1971 with expected completion to be in 1990, a year before the fall of the Soviet Union.[30] These were done in six different venues and the new venues were completed by 1979.[30]

The men's individual road race cycling event featured the largest margin of victory in the event since 1928 when gold medalist Sergei Sukhoruchenkov of the Soviet Union pulled away from the pack with 20 mi (32 km) remaining though that event was an individual time trial event.[31] At the Olimpiysky Sports Complex Swimming Pool during the men's springboard diving final, the noise of the men's 100 m butterfly which was going on at the same time, created issues during one Soviet diver Aleksandr Portnov's dives.[32] Portnov turned a two-and-a-half backward somersault into a belly flop.[32] He protested immediately, was awarded as redive which he did perfectly and won gold.[32] Similar protests from divers representing East Germany, Italy, and Mexico followed, but they were disallowed.[32] This resulted in protests outside of the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City because of the decision.[32] Luzhniki hosted the football final that was held for the third straight Olympics in a rainstorm.[33] In that final, Czechoslovakia defeated East Germany 1–0 in a game that had four cautions and two expulsions.[34]

Moscow hosted the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 1981.[35] The city also hosted the World Amateur Boxing Championships eight years later.[36]

Following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, the erstwhile Olympic venues were divided between four of the new states. The regatta in Tallinn was now in Estonia, Dynama Stadium in Minsk was now in Belarus, and the Kiev Republican Stadium is called Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex in Ukraine.[37][38][39]

Luzhniki Stadium, then as Grand Lenin Stadium, had a human crush disaster on 20 October 1982 during a second round UEFA Cup football match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem of the Netherlands. The disaster has since become known as the Luzhniki disaster.[40] Luzhniki served as host for the World Championships in Athletics in 2013.[41] In December 2010, Russia was awarded the 2018 FIFA World Cup with Luzhniki and Dynamo Grand Stadium being proposed as venues for the Cup.[42]

The Moscow Canoeing and Rowing Basin served as host for the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships 2014.[43]