The Islamic Games (, ) was a

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

for athletes from Muslim countries that was held from 28 September to 5 October 1980 in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, Turkey. Although 42 nations were invited to compete at the competition, ultimately only ten nations took part, with 691 athletes present.Lawton, John
The Islamic Games
''Aramco World'' (January/February 1992, Volume 43, Number 1). Retrieved on 2015-01-30. Among the nations competing at the tournament, only

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

and

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

had sent delegations to the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

(the rest observed the

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

History

The idea for the games was initiated in 1979, following an agreement between

foreign minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

s at a regional meeting in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

. Izmir was chosen as the host and was well equipped for the task given pre-existing facilities stemming from its hosting of the

1971 Mediterranean Games The 1971 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the VI Mediterranean Games, and commonly known as Izmir 1971, were the 6th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in İzmir, Turkey, from 6 to 17 October 1971, where 1,362 athletes (1,235 men an ...

, with İzmir Atatürk Stadium as the main venue. Anwar Chowdhry, a Pakistani sports official, praised the coming together of Muslim-majority nations, stating that "all the countries competing have relatively the same level of performance

hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

provides our athletes with encouragement to put on an even better performance". Libya won the five-team

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

tournament, going undefeated.Izmir Tournament 1980

Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

. Retrieved on 2015-01-30. The games was proposed to be held on a quadrennial basis, being scheduled one year before the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

to allow Muslim nations to prepare for the larger competition. Saudi Arabia was chosen to host the second Islamic Games in 1983, but ultimately the event was not held. A Women's Islamic Games was started in 1993 and then the Islamic Solidarity Games was inaugurated in 2005 in Saudi Arabia, continuing the legacy of an international games between Muslim-majority countries.

Editions

1980 Islamic Games

Sports

Participating nations

Medal table

References

{{Multi-sport events Islamic Games Islamic Games Sports competitions in İzmir Multi-sport events in Turkey Defunct multi-sport events International sports competitions hosted by Turkey September 1980 sports events in Asia October 1980 sports events in Asia 20th century in İzmir