Liberty Bell Classic

For the baseball tournament, see Liberty Bell Classic (baseball).

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

The U.S. Congress voted $10 million to fund "alternative Olympics" in several Olympic sports, to which athletes from boycotting countries would be invited. Besides the Liberty Bell Classic, the U.S. Gymnastics Federation held an "International Invitational" 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 meets that would clash with the Olympic meet, and so the Liberty Bell began three days before the Moscow Games opened (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. However, the winning performances in two events (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:

Argentina Australia Bahamas Brazil Canada Chile China Ivory Coast

Egypt France Great Britain Greece Israel Italy Japan

Kenya South Korea Malaysia Mexico New Zealand Portugal Puerto Rico

Philippines Spain Sudan Thailand United States West Germany Zaire

Medal summary

Athletics

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 meters	Mel Lattany United States	10.31	Harvey Glance United States	10.31	Willie Gault United States	10.33
200 meters	James Butler United States	20.65	Fred Taylor United States	20.66	Desai Williams Canada	20.92
400 meters	Billy Konchellah Kenya	45.59	Hassan El Kachief Sudan	45.60	Bill Green United States	45.79
800 meters	Don Paige United States	1:47.19	Omer Khalifa Sudan	1:47.27	Randy Wilson United States	1:48.03
1500 meters	Steve Scott United States	3:40.19	Omer Khalifa Sudan	3:40.34	Mike Durkin United States	3:41.40
5000 meters	Kip Rono Kenya	13:37.52	Hillary Tuwei Kenya	13:39.72	Greg Duhaime Canada	13:45.77
110 meter hurdles	Renaldo Nehemiah United States	13.31	Tonie Campbell United States	13.68	Hans-Gerd Klein West Germany	13.94
400 meter hurdles	James Walker United States	48.6	David Lee United States	49.1	Bart Williams United States	50.0
4 × 100 meter relay	United States (USA)	38.61	Canada (CAN)	39.54	Thailand (THA)	41.29
4 × 400 meter relay	United States (USA)	3:03.20	Kenya (KEN)	3:05.72	Sudan (SUD)	3:04.76
High jump	Benn Fields United States	2.26 m	Nat Page United States	2.26 m	Dietmar Mögenburg West Germany Carlo Thränhardt West Germany	2.22 m
Long jump	Larry Myricks United States	8.20 m	Larry Doubley United States	7.95 m	Carl Lewis United States	7.77 m
Triple jump	Zhou Zhenxian China	16.90 m	Greg Caldwell United States	16.75 m	Steve Hanna Bahamas	16.42 m
Pole vault	Tom Hintnaus United States	5.50 m	Steve Lawry United States	5.33 m	Zhang Cheng China	5.18 m
Shot put	Youssef Nagui Asaad Egypt	19.69 m	Ian Pyka United States	19.58 m	only two competitors entered
Discus throw	Ben Plucknett United States	61.46 m	Al Oerter United States	60.76 m	Alwin Wagner West Germany	59.48 m
Javelin throw	Shen Maomao China	89.12 m	Tom Petranoff United States	84.56 m	Gheorghe Megelea Canada	79.24 m
Hammer throw	Scott Neilson Canada	72.62 m	Boris Djerassi United States	71.34 m	Andy Bessette United States	69.08 m
Decathlon	Bobby Coffman United States	8058	Lee Palles United States	8009	Wang Kangqiang China	7015

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 meters	Chandra Cheeseborough United States	11.27	Jeanette Bolden United States	11.41	Karen Hawkins United States	11.43
200 meters	Angella Taylor Canada	22.77	Chandra Cheeseborough United States	22.84	Karen Hawkins United States	23.41
400 meters	Gwen Gardner United States	52.04	Charmaine Crooks Canada	52.33	Roberta Belle United States	52.34
800 meters	Yvonne Mondesire Canada	2:02.34	Robin Campbell United States	2:02.53	Ann Mackie-Morelli Canada	2:02.63
1500 meters	Mary Decker United States	4:00.87	Julie Brown United States	4:10.37	Francie Larrieu United States	4:10.39
100 meter hurdles	Stephanie Hightower United States	13.08	Benita Fitzgerald United States	13.17	Esther Rot Israel	13.20
4 × 100 meter relay	United States (USA)	44.57	West Germany (FRG)	45.26	Thailand (THA)	46.90
4 × 400 meter relay	United States (USA)	3:32.69	Canada (CAN)	3:33.50
High jump	Zheng Dazhen China	1.92 m	Brigitte Reid Canada	1.84 m	Paula Girven United States	1.80 m
Long jump	Kathy McMillan United States	6.65 m	Carol Lewis United States	6.60 m	Shonel Ferguson Bahamas	6.48 m
Shot put	Shen Lijuan China	17.09 m	Ann Turbyne United States	16.24 m	Lu Cheng China	15.98 m
Discus throw	Xie Jianhua China	56.56 m	Lucette Moreau Canada	55.20 m	Lorna Griffin United States	53.52 m
Javelin throw	Laurie Kern Canada	57.42 m	Tang Guoli China	55.30 m	Li Baolian China	54.94 m
Pentathlon	Diane Konihowski Canada	4640	Marlene Harmon United States	4346	Linda Waltman United States	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

References

Sources

• Olympic Boycott Games
• The Olympic Games and Modern history