Moscow 1980. The Moscow Games (1980) were marked by a boycott promoted by the political authorities of the United States, in protest against the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, a boycott that was supported by 57 countries. Fortunately, Spain chose to participate, allowing some Basque athletes to complete a brilliant and promising performance. The best result was the fourth place achieved by the rower Luis Mari Lasurtegui from San Juan in the coxless four, completed by Isidro Martín, Salvador Vergés, Manuel Bermúdez and the Catalan coxswain Sabriá. Also noteworthy was the performance of the double sculls team made up of Basques José Luis Korta, from Orio, and José Ramón Oyarzábal, from Oyarzun, who won the small final, or in other words, came seventh. The first and very modest experience of the Ur-Kirolak men in Rome (1960) was now a distant memory, but the best was yet to come. Juan Manuel López Iturriaga from Bilbao also came fourth with the Spanish basketball team, which lost the bronze medal to the USSR in the decisive match. In handball, Spain achieved an excellent fifth place, with four athletes from Gipuzkoa participating: José María Pagoaga, Jesús María Albisu, Juan José Uría and Ignacio Novoa. Roberto Cabrejas and Ramón Cid, also from Gipuzkoa, represented the region in the king of sports, athletics. The former made it to the high jump final after beating his own personal best of 2.21 metres, the minimum required to advance. However, on the eve of the final, the Andoaindarra jumper came down with the flu, which affected his performance and he was only able to clear 2.10 metres, relegating him to 16th place, last among the finalists. Cid, meanwhile, with a triple jump of 16.20 metres, fell 35 centimetres short of the minimum required to reach the final, and his performance at the Moscow Olympics was as disappointing as it had been four years earlier in Montreal. In sailing, José Benavides, this time as second to Gorostegui from the mountains, ed his seventh place in the Canadian Games, although on that occasion he had competed in the Flying Dutchman class and this time in the Star class. The Bilbao swimmer Ramón Lavín, who competed in four events (100 and 200 metres freestyle and the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays), finished in all cases with lower rankings than his previously accredited records. Finally, the Spanish football team, with Agustín Gajate from Real Sociedad and Santiago Urkiaga and Miguel De Andrés from Athletic Bilbao, got off to a good start, drawing with the German Democratic Republic, the reigning champions and runners-up at the Moscow Games. But they threw it all away with two more draws, this time incomprehensible, against teams considered at the time to be as insignificant as Algeria and Syria. In this sport, and within the modest Venezuelan team, the performance of the young striker Iker Joseba Zubizarreta, who proudly displayed his Basque origins, stood out. Another Basque-Venezuelan footballer, whose surname was Añor, made much less of an impression.