BBC Documentaries

Moscow 1980: The Cold War Olympics (2008x120)

Air date: Aug 04, 2008

Back in 1980, a teenage Steve Cram was part of a team of British athletes who defied their government to go behind the iron curtain and compete in the Olympic Games. Steve Cram returns to the Russian capital to relive the story of the most controversial Olympics of modern times. An Olympics boycotted by the United States because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and blighted by allegations of cheating and state sponsored doping. But these were also the games of Daley Thompson, Duncan Goodhew, Alan Wells and the incredible rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. It's a fascinating story in which we hear how the games that threatened the very existence of the Olympic movement actually changed it for the better and, decades later, provided an unexpected bonus for the whole of British sport.