Can anyone explain why there was both a summer and a Winter Olympics in 1980? I know the Summer Olympics was boycotted by the U.S. and other NATO nations. Did this have to do with them being in the same year?
The 1980 boycott of the Summer Olympics was held by the US and other Western countries in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 (the Summer Olympics in 1980 were hosted by Moscow).
Summer and winter Olympics were held in the same Olympic year from the start of the Winter Olympics in 1924 through 1992. The alternating schedule was adopted with the 1994 Winter Olympics held in Lillehammer, Norway, which means that the shortest time between Winter Olympics was 1992-1994, between the Albertville, France games and the Lillehammer games.