40 Years Ago the Soviet Union Announced Boycott of 1984 Summer Olympics
Likely in retaliation to the American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow (due to their 1979 invasion of Afghanistan), on May 8, 1984, the Soviet Union announced they would not compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
The Soviet government issued a statement that said, “It is known from the very first days of preparations for the present Olympics the American administration has sought to set course at using the Games for its political aims. Chauvinistic sentiments and anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in this country.”
Officials claimed that protests were likely to break out in Los Angeles and that American officials would not even try to contain them, and so they feared for their Soviet athletes. President Reagan’s staff responded that it was “a blatant political decision for which there was no real justification.”
Steve Powell/Getty Images Sport
Because thirteen other Eastern bloc countries, including East Germany, Hungary and Poland, also skipped the 1984 Olympics, the United States won a record 83 gold medals. Ethopia, Angola and Iran (plus Soviet-occupied Afghanistan) also skipped them. The Soviet Union organized a full-scale multi-sport competition event for boycotting countries called the Friendship Games that was held between July 2 and September 16, 1984. The Soviet Union prevailed, winning 126 gold medals.
In 2016, documents surfaced revealing the Soviet Union’s plans for a statewide steroid doping system in track and field that year, so it’s also possible that stricter drug tests implemented in 1984 may have been the real reason behind it. But you never know with the USSR!
The beloved 1960s-80s Soviet cartoon on which I was raised, Nu Pogodi, has a pretty fun episode set at an Olympic stadium. Watch below!
Oh What A Year: 1980
January 2020
Take a look back at our retrospect of the year 1980 where we celebrate the hottest in movies, music and TV.
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