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The boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles followed four years after the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The boycott involved 14 Eastern Bloc satellite states and allies, led by the Soviet Union, which initiated the boycott on May 8, 1984. Boycotting countries organized another major event, called the Friendship Games, in July and August 1984. Although the boycott led by the Soviet Union affected Olympic events that were normally dominated by the absent countries, 140 nations still took part in the Games, which was a record at the time.
Leadup to boycott
Since the announcement by President Carter of the US boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, there was fear from US officials that a reciprocal boycott could occur during the 1984 Games, scheduled for Los Angeles. The Soviets for their part gave sparsely few indications that this would happen, and indeed, from formalized talks which occurred over the course of three years, indicators seemed to point towards Soviet attendance. Only in the last few months before the Games began did a sense of non-participation come about through Soviet statements and actions.
In December 1983, a meeting of officials representing the 1984 L.A. Games and 14 members of the Soviet National Olympic Committee (NOC) took place in Los Angeles, resulting in the signing of a protocol agreement concerning Soviet expectations for participation. At that time, the chairman of the Soviet NOC, Marat Gramov, communicated his view of the upcoming Summer Games as being positive, and that he "saw no reason why the Soviet Union should not participate." One month later in January 1984, a second Soviet delegation visited Los Angeles to meet with the International Olympic Committee Executive Commission. This meeting was also viewed positively, with no mention of boycotts being made at that time. A final, positively-viewed meeting was held during the IOC's 87th Session on February 5, 1984, in Sarajevo, three days before the start of the Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. During that meeting, Soviet IOC member Konstantin Andrianov offered congratulations to the organizing committee of the upcoming Los Angeles Games, saying they were doing "a great job." Soviet general secretary Yuri Andropov died four days later on February 9.
On March 2, 1984, the Soviet's proposed-Olympic attaché, Oleg Yermishkin, was denied an entry visa from the US State Department, which identified him as an operational officer of the KGB. On April 9, the Soviet National Olympic Committee released their first statement voicing criticisms concerning the preparations of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The Soviets asked for an additional meeting of the IOC Executive Commission in order to ascertain that the US would "obey the principles of the Olympic Charter."
The meeting requested by the Soviet Union was held on April 24, 1984 at the IOC main office in Lausanne. Peter Ueberroth attended as representative of the L.A. 1984 Games, with Marat Gramov representing the Soviets. At the press conference Gramov revealed for the first time that the "Soviet NOC had received declarations and letters from various nationalistic and terrorist groups and organizations with threats."
On April 29, 1984, Gramov sent a letter to the Communist Party Central Committee in which he described the risk of anti-Soviet organizations using violence during the Games, therefore potentially encouraging participating Soviet athletes to come to their side. The document also included a statement that "participation in the Games would be difficult if the hostile activities were not ceased," and that the absence of the Soviet Union and other developing countries would "bring the first 'commercial Olympics' to economic catastrophe," and concluded that "if the conditions were not fulfilled, we will resign from participating." This was despite the fact that the Reagan Administration had agreed to meet all of the demands of the Soviet Union in turn for the Soviet Bloc's attendance, marking an exception to Reagan's generally "hawkish" Cold War foreign policy.
Announcement of boycott
The Soviet Union announced its intentions to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics on May 8, 1984, claiming "security concerns and chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States."U.S. Administration officials were quoted as saying the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and U.S. intelligence agencies misread signals for weeks that the Soviets might withdraw from the Games. The U.S. State Department stated that it was "absolutely dumbfounded" when the official announcement arrived.
After the announcement, six more Soviet Eastern Bloc satellites joined the boycott, including Bulgaria, East Germany (on May 10), Mongolia and Vietnam (both May 11), Laos, and Czechoslovakia (both May 13). Meanwhile, China formally confirmed that it would be present at the Games in Los Angeles.
Later, the Soviet-dominated Afghanistan also announced its withdrawal, becoming the eighth country to join the boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Then, Hungary (May 16) and Poland (May 17) became the ninth and tenth Communist countries to join the boycott. Hungary claimed the lives of its athletes would be put in danger if they were to spend time in Los Angeles. On the other hand, Poland said that the United States was engaging in a "campaign aimed at disturbing the Games".
On May 23, Cuba became the eleventh country to announce its participation in the boycott, making front-page news in the United States because it was a "serious blow to boxing and baseball". South Yemen was the twelfth country to remove itself from the event (May 27); the Los Angeles Times stated that this was due to their "Marxist connections". North Korea was the thirteenth nation to boycott the 1984 Olympics. Ethiopia became the first African state to participate in the boycott, followed by Angola. Having not participated in the Olympics since 1972 and under Thomas Sankara's revolutionary government, Upper Volta announced on 13 July 1984 its withdrawal in opposition to the United States' alleged support for South Africa, which was implementing apartheid at the time, as well as the England rugby union team visiting South Africa for a friendly match. Upper Volta's name would be changed to Burkina Faso during the Olympics.
Iran had earlier decided to boycott the Games because of "United States interference in the Middle East, its support for the regime occupying Jerusalem, and the crimes being committed by the U.S.A. in Latin America, especially in El Salvador". Iran and Albania were the only countries to boycott both the 1980 Moscow and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Libya also boycotted the Olympics after Libyan journalists were refused entry into the United States in July, after Libya announced the ban upon US exports to Libya in 1983 and a renewal of bans upon travel to Libya by holders of US passports. Libya and Ethiopia were the only nations to not attend both the 1976 Montreal and 1984 Los Angeles Games.
In addition, Albania did not attend any games from 1976 to 1988, and was the only country that boycotted the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics, although there was no official explanation for its absence at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Politically, Albania allied with China after the Sino-Soviet split, remaining antagonistic towards the Soviet Union; however, it also opposed China's rapprochement with the United States in the late 1970s, resulting in the Sino-Albanian split. A similar antagonism towards both superpowers had existed in Iran since 1979. This resulted in Iran and Albania boycotting both the 1980 and 1984 Olympics independently without endorsing the boycott on the opposing side.
As more countries withdrew, the IOC announced on the deadline week that it would consider extending the deadline for entry into the Olympics. The three top medal winners from the 1980 Games in Moscow were among the boycotters, and media analysis noted this would weaken the field of competitors in a number of sports.
Athletes from the one Eastern Bloc country that did attend the 1984 Games in Los Angeles—Romania—received a standing ovation at the Opening Ceremonies upon making their Coliseum entrance. Romania ended up finishing third in overall medal count at the Games. In a written correspondence with Romanian President Ceaușescu, President Reagan offered his personal thanks to Romania for their attendance, saying he "sincerely appreciated Romania’s important contribution to the Los Angeles Olympics and the Olympic movement."
Possible incentives to boycott
The Soviets cited two main reasons, firstly, its security concerns for the safety of its athletes, and secondly, the supposed 'commercialization' of the Games which, in their opinion, went against the principles of the Olympic movement. The majority of Western media viewed the boycott as more of a retaliatory move by the Soviets in response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Games. Whichever their reason, the timeline of when the Soviets began a push to boycott the Olympics suggests that their decision may have been precipitated by changes to the Soviet leadership. Leonid Brezhnev, who was general secretary during the Moscow Olympics, was the leader most affected and publicly embarrassed by the US-led boycott. Brezhnev died in 1982, and was replaced by the more liberal Yuri Andropov. During this time of Andropov's leadership, both in the Soviet Union and in other communist countries, preparations by those countries individual Olympic coordinating committees continued to progress with all-apparent intention of attending the 1984 Games. However, with Andropov's death in February 1984, the role of general secretary was taken over by the more radical Konstantin Chernenko, who had been a close ally of Brezhnev's, and thus more amenable to feelings of antipathy towards the Americans for the 1980 boycott. After Chernenko's succession as leader, a vast change in the Soviet attitude towards the Games could be seen, suggesting that the Soviet decision to boycott was uncertain till at least three months before the Olympics began, and was influenced by the change in leadership from Andropov to Chernenko.
The Bethesda based Advanced International Studies Institute, which was associated with the University of Miami, stated on May 13, 1984, that the Soviet decision to boycott was probably made by Chernenko sometime in April 1984. According to the Institute, that was the month when a concerted Soviet press campaign began, designed to lay the groundwork for their boycott announcement, showing that American streets were "jungles" and that Soviet athletes and spectators would be "the prey of the beasts that the U.S. government allows to run loose in those streets." One example among many, according to the Institute, was the Soviet newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya, which in April 1984, began publishing seamier representations of the Games' host city:
"Los Angeles was nicknamed murder city long ago. ... The bloody statistics are mainly the work of juvenile gangs. ... These degenerate young people who smoke marijuana and hide a knife down their right trouser leg have two-thirds of all street crimes on their conscience. The outrageous crime rate, for which the city is known, would cast a bloody glow over the Olympic flame."
— Sovetskaya Rossiya, April 15, 1984
Soon after the boycott was announced, officials at the US State Department linked the KGB to a series of hate leaflets purporting to be from the Ku Klux Klan which were sent to the Olympic organizing committees in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Malaysia and China, all countries which failed to join the Soviet boycott. State Department spokesman Alan Romberg said the leaflets "bear all the hallmarks of a disinformation campaign" and noted the thrust of the messages in the leaflets "dovetails neatly with the Soviet justification for their withdrawal" from the Summer Games. The threatening leaflets reportedly used stilted syntax, suggesting they were written by non-native speakers of English.
Among those subscribing to the "revenge hypothesis" was Peter Ueberroth, the chief organizer of the 1984 L.A. Games, who expressed his views in a press conference on May 11, 1984, where he stated that the Soviet Union "withdrew from the Olympics to give America a taste of its own medicine". Ueberroth later added that the Soviet-led boycott might have been avoided if organizers of the Summer Games had communicated with Konstantin Chernenko when he took over his country's leadership, saying "In retrospect, we can be criticized for not recognizing that change in leadership, from an Andropov to Chernenko," and that the organizing committee "should have tried to redouble our efforts to make certain there were no problems that could have opened the door to the Soviet-led boycott by 14 nations," adding that "we have tried in every possible way to not have 1980 happen again in 1984, but it did happen."
As for reasons why the Soviets' East European satellite countries agreed to go along with the boycott, a memorandum prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency suggests that at least some of those countries chose to agree with an unpopular decision in order to foster "bloc loyalty" at a time when there were other, more-important issues warranting a break with the Soviets that they could undertake:
"Other East European states, although unhappy with the Soviet decision, probably view participation in the boycott as a useful way to demonstrate bloc loyalty on an issue of less direct significance to them at a time when they have been resisting Soviet initiatives in more important areas. They also realize that heeding the boycott does not seriously affect their vital interests vis-a-vis the West. The Hungarians, for example, told US Embassy officials after the Soviets rejected Budapest’s proposal to send a small team to the games that, in the end, this was not the issue on which to make a stand."
— CIA memorandum, June 26, 1984
Soviet doping plan
Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements. The communication, directed to the Soviet Union's head of track and field, was prepared by Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture. Portugalov was also one of the main figures involved in the implementation of the Russian doping program prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Bryan Fogel, director of the 2017 film Icarus, has said that stricter doping controls might have been the main reason for the Soviet boycott.
Boycotting countries
Listed in the chronological order of their withdrawal, not by alphabetical or any geographical order.
Soviet Union
Bulgaria
East Germany
Mongolia
Vietnam
Laos
Czechoslovakia - In 2014, the Czech Olympic Committee issued a formal apology to those athletes who were denied access to competition at the L.A. Games due to Czechoslovakia's decision to boycott, saying "Today we can, unclouded by feelings of bad will, assess what went on in our country during the second half of the 20th century, without emotion, but with fairness in mind," adding that "we must find the courage to say out loud what was right, what was wrong and what was downright deceitful."
Afghanistan
Hungary
Poland
Cuba
South Yemen
Ethiopia
North Korea
Angola
All the Asian countries above also boycotted the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea.
Four other countries also boycotted the Games, citing political reasons, but were not part of the Soviet-led boycott:
Further to this, Kampuchea did not yet have its recognized National Olympic Committee and was not authorized to send athletes.
Non-boycotting socialist countries
Sixteen communist and socialist-leaning countries (ten from Africa) did not join the Soviet-led boycott and instead sent teams to the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Algeria
Benin
Burma
China was somewhat hostile towards the Soviet Union at the time, but had been experiencing a cordial relationship with the United States. In 1980, China had sent a team to the Winter Olympics in the United States, while boycotting the Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union.
Congo
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Madagascar
Mali
Mozambique
Nicaragua
Romania was the only member of the Warsaw Pact that did not boycott the Games, drawing a loud cheer from the crowd when its delegation appeared at the opening ceremonies. Its leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu publicly demonstrated opposition to several Soviet policies and took an open position on these issues. In 1985, he was awarded the Olympic Order.
Seychelles
Somalia By 1978, the USSR and Somalia had broken relations after the former's support for Ethiopia in the Ethio-Somali War.
Syria
Yugoslavia was a non-aligned country that acted independently of the Soviet Union and shared friendly relations with both the Soviet Union and the United States. One of the reasons for the country not boycotting the Games may have been that it had just hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics.
Alternative events
The Soviets organized the Friendship Games, a full-scale multi-sport event, for boycotting countries. The Games were contested in 22 Olympic disciplines (all except association football and synchronized swimming), and in non-Olympic table tennis, tennis, and sambo wrestling. The Soviet Union dominated the medal table, winning 126 gold and 282 total medals.
See also
Notes
- The issue of commercialization did gather some criticism from foreign delegations who were unfamiliar with the trend of profit-making in the Olympic movement. The XXIII Olympiad ended up being the first Olympics since 1932 to make a profit on behalf of the host country. The IOC later recognized the LA Games as "a model for future Olympics" due to its surplus of US$223 million, its use of private funding (unlike the Moscow Olympics which were state-funded), and its reliance upon existing venues instead of building new ones.
References
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- ^ Kobierecki, Michał Marcin (September 1, 2015). "Boycott of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games as an Example of Political Play–Acting of the Cold War Superpowers". Polish Political Science Yearbook. 44 (1): 93–111. doi:10.15804/ppsy2015008. S2CID 55665999.
- Tosches, Rich (March 2, 1984). "Travel Visa Denied to Soviet Olympic Attaché". UPI.
- Thatcher, Gary (April 10, 1984). "US-Soviet Standoff May Trip Up Summer Olympics in L.A." Christian Science Monitor.
- Miller, David (2008). The Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC: Athens to Beijing, 1894-2008. Edinburgh: Mainstream. p. 275. ISBN 9781845961596. OCLC 183917051.
- Congelio, Brad (2014). Before The World Was Quiet: Ronald Reagan, Cold War Foreign Policy, And The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games (Ph.D. thesis). London, Ontario, Canada: University of Western Ontario. ISBN 9798841597070.
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The Romanians, the only Eastern bloc nation to defy the Soviet boycott, were greeted with a standing ovation.
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In the long run, what keeps Romania—the most repressive state of Europe—on its present course is a commitment to national independence. And in the short run, although he may hope to be rewarded for it, Ceausescu's Olympic decision was aimed less at us than at his athletes and at his own popular standing (now lower than ever).
- Reagan, Ronald (2023) . "Letter From President Reagan to Yugoslav President Špiljak". In Taylor, Melissa Jane; Rasmussen, Kathleen B. (eds.). Foreign Relations of the United States 1981-1988 Eastern Europe (PDF) (Report). Vol. X. p. 641 (print) p. 682 (pdf).
Americans have watched the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo with great interest. The Yugoslav Olympic Committee did an outstanding job in putting the games together, and the United States is proud to co-host these 1984 events.
- Špiljak, Mika (2023) . "Letter From Yugoslav President Špiljak to President Reagan". In Taylor, Melissa Jane; Rasmussen, Kathleen B. (eds.). Foreign Relations of the United States 1981-1988 Eastern Europe (PDF) (Report). Vol. X. p. 645 (print) p. 686 (pdf).
We have been honored by your interest in and compliments for the recently concluded Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo which, we believe, were held in the spirit of the noble Olympic ideals of friendship and sportsmanship. We hope that the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles will be a full success.
- "Ten East Bloc Countries Agree to Hold Their Own Summer Games". UPI. May 24, 1984.
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