Athletics at the 1980 Summer Games: Previous Summer Games
Host City: Moskva, Soviet Union
Venue(s): Grand Arena, Central Lenin Stadium Area, Moskva
Date Started: July 24, 1980
Date Finished: July 24, 1980
Format: Scoring by 1962/1977 point tables.
| Gold: | Nadiya Tkachenko |
| Silver: | Olga Rukavishnikova |
| Bronze: | Olga Kuragina |
Nadezhda Tkachenko had finished fifth in the pentathlon in 1976 at Montréal. In 1978 she seemed to have won the European Championships in the pentathlon but was disqualified for a positive doping test for anabolic steroids. In Moskva she took the lead after the shot put, with a nice effort of 16.84 (55-3), and was never headed. The Soviet women swept the medals in the event, with all three athletes bettering the previous world record. Actually, all three set world records, with bronze medalist Olga Kuragina crossing the line in the 800 first with 2:03.6, followed by silver medalist Olga Rukavishnikova in 2:04.8, and Tkachenko coming in 4/10ths of a second later for the gold medal. Tkachenko's world record of 5,083 was the first mark ever over 5,000 points.
| Rank | Athlete | Age | Team | NOC | Medal | P(1977AT) | P(1985AT) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nadiya Tkachenko | 31 | Soviet Union | URS | Gold | 5.083 | 5.213 | WR |
| 2 | Olga Rukavishnikova | 25 | Soviet Union | URS | Silver | 4.937 | 5.051 | |
| 3 | Olga Kuragina | 21 | Soviet Union | URS | Bronze | 4.875 | 4.964 | |
| 4 | Ramona Neubert | 21 | East Germany | GDR | 4.698 | 4.750 | ||
| 5 | Margit Papp | 32 | Hungary | HUN | 4.562 | 4.584 | ||
| 6 | Burglinde Pollak | 29 | East Germany | GDR | 4.553 | 4.547 | ||
| 7 | Valentina Dimitrova | 24 | Bulgaria | BUL | 4.458 | 4.439 | ||
| 8 | Emiliya Kunova | 20 | Bulgaria | BUL | 4.431 | 4.409 | ||
| 9 | Florence Picaut | 27 | France | FRA | 4.424 | 4.402 | ||
| 10 | Sylvia Barlag | 26 | Netherlands | NED | 4.333 | 4.315 | ||
| 11 | Marcela Koblasová | 24 | Czechoslovakia | TCH | 4.328 | 4.301 | ||
| 12 | Małgorzata Guzowska | 21 | Poland | POL | 4.326 | 4.320 | ||
| 13 | Judy Livermore-Simpson | 19 | Great Britain | GBR | 4.304 | 4.261 | ||
| 14 | Conceição Geremias | 23 | Brazil | BRA | 4.263 | 4.216 | ||
| 15 | Sue Longden | 30 | Great Britain | GBR | 4.234 | 4.199 | ||
| 16 | Yvette Wray | 21 | Great Britain | GBR | 4.159 | 4.076 | ||
| 17 | Cécile Ngambi | 19 | Cameroon | CMR | 3.832 | 3.733 | ||
| AC | Nancy Vallecilla | 22 | Ecuador | ECU | DNF | |||
| AC | Christine Bodner-Laser | 29 | East Germany | GDR | DNF |