It did not take long for the Soviet Union’s allies to
join with Moscow. On May 9, Bulgaria said that it
would not attend. East Germany’s announcement
followed one day later. Vietnam and Mongolia joined
the boycott list two days later. Czechoslovakia and
Laos followed, as did Afghanistan, Hungary, and Po-
land. Cuba announced on May 23 that it also was
staying home; the boycott now stood at eleven na-
tions. Only Romania withstood whatever pressure
was placed on the Eastern Bloc nations; it chose to
send its Olympic team to Los Angeles.
As was the case in 1980, the IOC faced a terrible
reality: It desperately wanted the Olympics to be free
of political pressure, but it was powerless to stop such
influence. The IOC’s actions in 1984 again failed to
eliminate what it believed was the poisonous rela-
tionship of international relations and athletics. In
both years, it criticized the nation that led the boy-
cott and expressed its confidence in the host nation.
In both years, it pressed the political leadership of
the country leading the boycott to change its mind.
In both years, it failed.
Impact To suggest that the Olympic Games, prior
to 1980, had always been free of political pressure
would be incorrect. Indeed, the marriage of politics
and sports existed from the first modern Games in
- However, the actions of the United States in
1980 and the Soviet Union in 1984 marked the first
time that nations were willing to use their Olympic
athletes to bolster a diplomatic policy. Although the
Cold War was coming to an end in the 1980’s, the
boycotts provided justification for any independent
government to make the same decision in the fu-
ture. Sports had become a tool of international poli-
tics, despite the IOC’s efforts to separate the two.
Further Reading
Barney, Robert K., Stephen R. Wenn, and Scott G.
Martyn.Selling the Five Rings: The International
Olympic Committee and the Rise of Olympic Commer-
cialism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press,- An excellent text examining the develop-
ment of political and commercial pressures on
the Olympic Games.
Guttmann, Allen.The Olympics: A Histor y of the Mod-
ern Games. 2d ed. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 2002. An easy-to-read, detailed account of
the positive and negative events that have af-
fected the growth of the Olympic Games.
Hill, Christopher R.Olympic Politics: From Athens to
Atlanta, 1896-1996. Manchester, England: Man-
chester University Press, 1996. A thoroughly re-
searched discussion of the connection between
politics and sports.
Hulme, Derick L., Jr.The Political Olympics: Moscow,
Afghanistan, and the 1980 U.S. Boycott. New York:
Praeger, 1990. Examines the effectiveness of us-
ing international sport as a political instrument.
The author leaves no doubt that he holds the
1980 Olympics in low regard because of the ac-
tions of the Soviet government.
Anthony Moretti
See also Cold War; Foreign policy of the United
States; Goodwill Games of 1986; Olympic Games of
1980; Olympic Games of 1984; Olympic Games of
1988; Soviet Union and North America; Sports.Olympic Games of 1980
The Event The staging of winter and summer
international athletic competitions, held every
four years
Date Winter Games, February 14-23, 1980;
Summer Games, July 19-August 3, 1980
Place Winter Games, Lake Placid, New York;
Summer Games, Moscow, Soviet Union (now in
Russia)The year 1980 marked the quadrennial celebration of the
Olympic Games. The Winter Games were hosted by Lake
Placid for the second time, while Moscow became the first
city governed by a Communist government to host an Olym-
pics.724 Olympic Games of 1980 The Eighties in America
Afghanistan
Angola
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
East Germany
EthiopiaHungary
IranLibya bombing
Mongolia
North Korea
Poland
Soviet Union
VietnamCountries Boycotting the 1984
Los Angeles Olympics