1984 Summer Olympics boycott
On March 2, 1984, the Soviet's proposed-Olympic attaché, Oleg Yermishkin, was denied an entry visa from the U.S. State Department, which identified him as an operational officer of the KGB.
"[10] In addition, the Soviet NOC stated that it "intended to participate in the Games of the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles under the condition that the Olympic Charter is enforced".
"[10] 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.
[12]: 90 The Soviet Union announced its intentions to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics on May 8, 1984,[13] claiming "security concerns and chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States".
[14] After the announcement, six more Soviet Eastern Bloc satellites joined the boycott, including Bulgaria,[15] East Germany (on May 10),[16] Mongolia and Vietnam (both May 11),[17] Laos, and Czechoslovakia (both May 13).
Hungary claimed the lives of its athletes would be put in danger if they were to spend time in Los Angeles, while Poland said the United States was engaging in a "campaign aimed at disturbing the Games".
Ethiopia's NOC added to the Tass statement that their boycott was also "a resolute protest in connection with the British government's refusal to cancel England's rugby union tour of South Africa".
[25] North Korea was the fourteenth nation to boycott the Olympics on June 3, giving their reason as being a lack of security for their and other socialist countries' athletes.
[26] Angola, which had been the very last country out of 142 nations to officially accept their invitation to participate in the Summer Olympics, reversed course on June 27, announcing that they were pulling out because "the United States authorities are turning the Games into an arena of confrontation".
Similar to Ethiopia, Upper Volta—which changed its official name to Burkina Faso on August 4, 1984—stated their reason as being due to England's rugby union tour of South Africa.
[28] Iran had decided in 1983 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".
[32] In a meeting with Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin on May 10, 1984, Secretary of State Shultz addressed each point brought up in the Soviet boycott announcement:"They have alleged through TASS that at the April 24 Lausanne meeting, the IOC found the complaints of their Olympic Committee to be just and substantiated; that U.S. authorities continued to interfere in affairs within the exclusive competence of the Los Angeles Committee; and that U.S. authorities were conniving with extremist organizations which aim to create 'unbearable conditions' for their delegation and athletes.
During the 15 months of Andropov's leadership, both in the Soviet Union and in other communist countries, preparations by their individual Olympic committees continued to progress with all-apparent intention of attending the 1984 Games.
[7]: 99–100 However, with Andropov's death in February 1984, the role of General Secretary was taken over by 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.
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.
[40] Among those subscribing to the "revenge hypothesis" was Peter Ueberroth, who expressed his views in a press conference on May 11, 1984,[41] where he stated that the Soviet Union "withdrew from the Olympics to give America a taste of its own medicine".
[42] 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".
[45] On April 30, 1984, Sergei Kozlov, a visiting Soviet mathematician who had been in the United States for three months, had what was described as a "nervous breakdown" at Dulles International Airport just before he was scheduled to board a flight to London.
A telegram from Warren Zimmerman at the American Embassy in Moscow sent to the State Department in Washington theorized that the incident at Dulles Airport had ramifications for the Soviet leadership, by hastening the date of their announcement of a decision which, since April, had been inexorably moving towards a boycott of the Games:"The Kozlov incident coincided with the final stage of Moscow’s consideration of whether or not to attend the Olympics—a decision which would have had to be made [no later than] June 2.
The potential for similar embarrassment of turning loose an entire team of young, world-class athletes amid the temptations of Los Angeles may thus have taken on an immediacy for Soviet policymakers it did not have before Kozlov’s refusal to embark.
The Hungarians, for example, told United States 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.
"[51]A document 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 existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements.
Three months before the start of the L.A. Games, President Reagan made a six‑day state visit to China where he met with Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and was warmly received by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
Athletes from the one European 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.
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".
