The Soviets, who had been irritated by the United States’ reluctance to attend the 1980 games in Moscow due to Russia’s action in Afghanistan in 1979, were retaliating by boycotting the 1984 games in America. Other countries that refused to participate include China, Cuba, East Germany, Iraq, North Korea, South Africa, and Yugoslavia.
The Soviet boycott was one of the most significant events in American sports history. It caused an international incident between the two main powers in the Cold War, demonstrated the political power of athletes and their associations, and proved detrimental to the Los Angeles Olympics as well as the US-Soviet relationship.
China and Cuba were the only nations to send representatives to Los Angeles. The rest of the world’s leading athletes remained in their respective countries. The only exception is Australia, which sent a team made up of amateurs to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Australia”.
Australia had participated in every previous Summer Olympics, but this was its first appearance at a Winter Games. Canada also made its debut at a Winter Olympics.
South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) did not send teams to Los Angeles because they weren’t recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). South Africa was still under apartheid rules that prevented it from participating in sporting events with white people on the team roster.
1980 The 1980 Moscow Olympics witnessed the most boycotts ever. The 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia, were notable for two reasons: they were the first Summer Olympic Games to be held in a communist country, and they were largely boycotted, with 65 nations, including the United States, refusing to compete. The Soviet Union, which had supported South Africa during the apartheid era, had been granted permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council three months before the games began. Many countries refused to go to Moscow because of its support for South Africa.
Canada’s medal count was reduced from eight to four because of the boycott. Canada’s gold medals came in field hockey, while Mexico won two silver medals and one bronze.
The only nation to send a delegation to Moscow was the Soviet Union itself. Although sports officials in many other countries wanted to go to the games, they were told by their governments not to travel to the USSR at this time.
The American Olympic Committee decided not to go to Moscow because it believed that doing so would be disrespectful to the Soviet government. Other reasons included fears that there would be violence at the games or that the USSR might invade another country. A few American athletes did go to the games under the name “Independent Athletes”. They were allowed to compete but were not considered official members of the American team.
President Jimmy Carter stated on March 21, 1980, that the United States will boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Years of effort went unrewarded. President Ronald Reagan called the decision “a mistake”, but did not change his country’s plans.
The 1980 Olympic boycott To protest the late 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States sponsored a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. In total, 65 countries refused to participate in the games, while 80 countries sent athletes. The US was joined by Canada, France, Germany, India, and Japan in refusing to send competitors.
These countries had been excluded from the original Olympic charter, which limited participation to European nations. Therefore, they could not compete under the banner of “Olympic sports.”
In addition, many African countries were not free at the time of the boycott, and most Asian countries had no political representation within the IOC at all. So, they couldn’t influence what would happen with their bans if they participated.
Finally, some countries decided not to go because they didn’t want to be seen as cooperating with the United States during its boycott of the Moscow games. These countries included Australia, Belgium, Chile, West Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Yugoslavia.
Germany is considered the winner of the absent nation category since it led every sport except swimming and diving.
1980 On March 21, 1980, President Jimmy Carter said that the United States would boycott the Olympic Games, which were to be held in Moscow that summer. The declaration occurred after the Soviet Union failed to meet Carter’s deadline of February 20, 1980, to remove its soldiers from Afghanistan. Russia was allowed to host the games under protest.
The US boycott lasted from 1980 to 1988, when it was replaced by a government-imposed trade embargo against Russia.
During this time, many prominent Americans refused to go to Moscow to compete because they felt it was inappropriate for the US to be involved in the Soviet-Afghan War at the same time as the Olympics. Among those who stayed home were baseball player Joe DiMaggio and basketball players Bill Russell and Larry Bird.
While in Moscow, athletes were expected to follow the Soviet sports system, which meant that most would have been forced to join the Communist Party. Many other countries also banned their athletes from going to Moscow, including Canada, France, Japan, and West Germany.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, opening up Europe to free travel and trade. In 1990, the USSR collapsed, ending the Communist regime.
So, in total, the US boycotted the Olympics for eight years, from 1980 to 1988.
China, on the other hand, boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics as well. The sixteen nations that followed took part in the Games with certain modifications to full traditional participation in the Games events. Seven countries competed in the Games but did not take part in the Opening Ceremony: India, Iraq, North Korea, Nepal, Vietnam, and Yemen.
Other countries that did not send athletes to compete in Moscow include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, and Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro).
The only Commonwealth country to boycott the Games was Jamaica which stayed home because of concerns about safety after two protesters were killed at a demonstration against the Soviet-style crackdown on dissidents in China.
Jamaica’s decision not to send a team to Moscow came just a few months after its players refused to return to competition from a banned soccer league in America. The English-language newspaper The Globe and Mail reported at the time that “the Jamaican Olympic Committee says it has no plans to seek retribution against its star striker, Dwight Yorke, for refusing to go to Moscow.”
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