Olympic boycotts

HIGHLIGHTS: A roundup of memorable Cold War Olympic moments

By Andy Walton
CNN Interactive

Jimmy Carter didn't introduce politics to the Olympics -- they were old, familiar friends. But after Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan in 1979, then-U.S. President Carter brought that relationship to the forefront. He called for the U.S. team to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The decision stunned Dick Buerkle, a U.S. distance runner who had qualified for the 1980 team -- and who learned of the boycott when he saw it on the news.

"I don't think I saw it coming, no. It was kind of a shock," Buerkle says. "I was angry. I was a Russian minor in college, so ... the thought of going there for an extended period of time was exciting to me."

'Continued aggressive actions'

Early in 1980, Carter called for the Moscow Games to be moved to another city. In a statement on the 1980 boycott released before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Carter said, "I pointed out ... that continued aggressive actions by the Soviets would endanger the participation of athletes and travel to Moscow by spectators."

Carter asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the games, preferably to Greece. Congress and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) supported the move, but the IOC rejected the request. Afterward, the USOC voted to boycott the games.

Though the boycott has often been attributed to the president, Carter's 1996 statement emphasizes that he did not order it alone.

"It should be remembered that in the United States and other free countries, the national Olympic committees were independent of government control," Carter said. "In a few countries, including Great Britain, governments supported the boycott, but Olympic committees made the final decision about whether to send athletes to Moscow."

But Carter pledged to revoke the passports of U.S. athletes who went to the games, backing the boycott with the force of law.

In the end, some 60 teams boycotted the Moscow Games. Among U.S. allies, Great Britain, France, Italy and Sweden attended; some countries did not officially send teams but took no action against athletes who attended. If they won medals, those athletes were greeted on the medal stand by the Olympic hymn and flag, rather than their national anthem and flag.

'Who do you blame?'

Buerkle doesn't blame Carter, or any one else, for his lost opportunity.

"Who do you blame for a traffic accident? Who do you blame for a hurricane? Who do you blame for a heart attack?" he says. "It's just life. It's what happens.

"At the time, I was really angry, but ... looking back, it beats sending 18-year-olds over there with guns," Buerkle says. "It was something [Carter] could do

The U.S.S.R. won 80 gold medals, 195 medals in all, in what critics called the most lopsided Olympics since 1904.

Quid pro quo

In 1984, the Olympics came to Los Angeles. The Soviet Union boycotted, citing concerns over the safety of their athletes in what they called an anti-communist environment. It was widely regarded as a retaliatory move for the 1980 boycott.

As a propaganda stroke, the boycott backfired. Despite the absence of the Soviets and their allies, the Los Angeles Games boasted 140 nations -- more than at any previous Olympics, and up from 81 in Moscow. With the backing of Hollywood and corporate sponsorships, the 1984 Games scored high TV ratings and were the first since 1932 to turn a profit.

The '84 Olympics were a bonanza for the United States in the medal count as well. Without Eastern bloc athletes present, Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman to win the individual gold medal in the combined gymnastics exercises. She also became an overnight sensation, appearing on cereal boxes and endorsing everything from batteries to drug store chains.

The U.S. team won 83 gold medals and 174 medals overall. Diver Greg Louganis, runner Carl Lewis and the advertising slogan "the official (fill in the blank) of the Olympics" all came into the public eye in 1984.

In a crowning bit of Cold War irony, while the Soviets boycotted, China returned to the Olympics in 1984 after a 32-year absence.

'Positive political force'

Buerkle, now a high school teacher and coach in suburban Atlanta, says reading about World War II gave him a sense of perspective. "This is not the worst thing that's ever happened in the world," he says. "Although at the time when it occurred to me, I thought it was. I just thought it was unjust, unfair, it just was wrong."

Buerkle accepts that politics is part of the Olympics -- "It's the way they've always been," he says -- and believes that the games can be a positive political force, as with a 28-year ban against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

"The Olympics did not change South Africa; it took a lot of forces to do that," he says. "But they were a force."

The ban on South Africa from 1964 until 1992 "embarrassed that country, and eventually caused them to open up their playing fields to black and white," Buerkle says. "It had an impact. The Olympics not letting them compete had an impact."