The 1980 Boycott

As all the tributes came in for President Carter in the days between his death and his funeral, there was a lot of talk about his legacy.  There's one particular thing about President Carter's legacy that stands out, and it's a decision that he ultimately regretted.  It's something that he'd had a chance to do it again, he wouldn't have.  I'm, of course, talking about the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

While the actual "reason" for the boycott was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it was really just a result of Cold War tensions between the United States and Soviet Union.  Carter gave the Soviets a deadline for withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan, then when they didn't meet it, he called for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics.  He also pushed U.S. allies to join the boycott, which many did.  In all 67 countries joined the boycott completely, while several others that supported the boycott (mostly in Europe) allowed their athletes to compete under the Olympic flag while not officially sending a delegation.

Even though he was the President, Carter didn't actually have the authority to prevent the U.S. Olympic Team from going to Moscow.  Neither could Congress, who overwhelmingly backed him.  Only the USOC could do that.  But they weren't going to go against the President's wishes, so they officially authorized the boycott.  The Olympics would go on as scheduled, but the United States and most other Western nations would not attend.

We all know what happened as a result.  Without Western competition, athletes from the Soviet Union and East Germany dominated the Moscow Games.  Then, four years later when the Olympics were in Los Angeles, the Soviets returned the favor with a boycott of their own and 13 of their Eastern Bloc allies and satellite states joined them.  Which led to the United States having a record medal haul at the 1984 Games.

Despite the fact they wouldn't actually compete in Moscow, the U.S. still held Olympic Trials and announced a Summer Olympic team in 1980.  Carter even honored the team at a White House reception.  A gesture that I'm sure offered little consolation to those athletes whose only opportunity to be an Olympian would've been 45 years ago in Moscow.  (Officially, they are not considered Olympians.)

Boycotting the Moscow Games seemed like the right idea at the time.  History tells us that it was not.  Forcing the USSR to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan was the main objective.  That didn't happen until a decade later.  And, of course, one boycott led to another.  Two straight Olympics where Cold War politics had a direct impact (and a full 12 years without all of the major players together at an Olympic Games).  Geopolitics have been a part of the Olympics ever since.  (Russia's current ban from international sport is a prime example of that.)

Ask the members of the 1980 Olympic team if they think it was a good idea, though.  They can only imagine how they would've done in Moscow.  They never got the chance to find out.  And, again, for some of these athletes, 1980 represented their only chance.  A chance that was taken away not by injury and not because they didn't qualify.  Because the President decided the team shouldn't go.

That weighed heavily on Carter.  It's likely one of the reasons why he came to regret his decision years later.  He would eventually admit it was a "bad decision."  Which is hardly any consolation to the affected athletes.  Some had been Olympians before.  Some would be again.  For others, 1980 was their one and only chance.

The 1980 boycott is a part of Jimmy Carter's legacy.  There's also no denying the impact it had on Olympic history.  In the West, the 1980 Summer Games are basically forgotten.  Nothing more than a footnote between the 1976 Games in Montreal and the 1984 Games in LA.  And the American success at those 1984 Olympics was a direct result of the Soviet Union's counter boycott.

Athletes from nearly 100 countries were caught in the middle of Cold War political posturing at those two Olympics.  And those are just the athletes who couldn't compete.  Those who did went against vastly different fields than they otherwise would have.  Some took advantage of that opportunity and won medals that likely would've gone to athletes from a boycotting country.  So, really, every athlete was impacted.  Those who boycotted and those who didn't.

In fact, it was the entire world that was forced to pay the price of the Olympic boycotts.  The 1980 Olympics were a show for the Soviets and East Germans.  The 1984 Olympics were a show for those who missed out in 1980.  Neither featured all of the world's best athletes competing together against each other.  How would the Americans have done in 1980 or the Soviets in 1984?  We'll never know.  That's perhaps the biggest shame of it all.

There was, of course, still an Olympics in 1980 that featured an American team.  The 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid were held amid the threat of the Summer Olympic boycott that would become a reality a few months later.  And those 1980 Winter Games produced one of the most famous moments not just in Olympic history, but in sports history.  The Miracle On Ice.  (Even if the U.S. had gone to the Summer Olympics that year, nothing they would've done in Moscow would've had any chance of topping that.)

But it was the decision not to participate later that year in Moscow for which Jimmy Carter will always be remembered in Olympic circles.  For all of the foreign policy successes (the Camp David Accords) and failures (the Iran hostage crisis) during his Presidency and all of the tremendous good he did during his four-decade post-Presidency, the 1980 boycott is one of the first things people think of regarding Jimmy Carter.  And it's to his great credit that he realized it was a bad call and later came to regret it.

Was Jimmy Carter trying to screw American athletes in the summer of 1980?  Of course not!  He made a decision as President that was ultimately backed by the U.S. Olympic Committee.  Had the boycott achieved his objectives, history would view it far more favorably.  It obviously didn't work out that way, though.  And the fact that Carter ultimately recognized it was a mistake and took responsibility for it speaks volumes about his character.