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The first Olympic Games the retired partners of KPMG who are still awaiting their gratuity and pension attended was in Moscow, in 1980. Back then, KPMG did not have an office in Moscow. It was not even KPMG yet! It was then known as Peat Marwick Mitchell.
Thirty-six years later, here we are in Rio de Janerio and it was our Russian Partner, Vladimir Putin (no relation of the current President of Russia – just pure co-incidence) who was the first Russian to land on the moon and subsequently qualify as a chartered accountant, that jolted us with an observation which none of us had ever thought of, namely, before every Olympic Games the world is thrown into one crisis after another. Moscow was no exception. Not only did the Americans boycott the Games, they launched a massive campaign to persuade other countries to follow suit. The Americans were so determined to wreck the Games that their President Jimmy Carter offered to persuade American oil companies (Mobil; Chevron; Conoco; Texaco) to build four new oil refineries in Nigeria which would be handed over to Nigeria [Build, Operate and Transfer] after twenty-five years. There was only one condition – Nigeria must boycott the Moscow Olympic Games.
The President of Nigeria declined the offer and insisted on Nigeria’s participation. This was at the height of the cold war. The background was as follows:
“Politics has been a part of Olympic history for a very long time. However, this partnership came to the forefront of public debate in late 1979. In protest for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the American President Jimmy Carter, called for the United States’ team to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He issued this ultimatum saying that if Soviet troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan by midnight February 19 1980, the American team would boycott the Olympic Games. An official announcement of the boycott was made on March 21 1980.
Other countries including Japan, West Germany, China and Canada joined in the boycott whilst others such as Great Britain and France sent a smaller number of athletes than usual. This boycott seriously affected a number of events.
Some of the participating countries – Australia, Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, San Marino, Spain and Switzerland were not represented by their national flags at the opening, closing or medal ceremonies. They competed under the Olympic flag. As a result, there were a few medal ceremonies where three Olympic flags were raised.
Remarkably, although only 81 nations took part, more world records were set in Moscow than in the 1976 games held in Montreal
In 1984, when it was the turn of the United States of America, in Los Angeles, the Russians decided to seek revenge. It was payback time. Hence, they did all they could to wreck the Olympic Games just to spite America.
The background was as follows:
“The boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was after the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The boycott involved 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies, led by the Soviet Union, which initiated the boycott on May 8, 1984. The boycott affected a large number of Olympic events that were normally dominated by the absent countries. Boycotting countries organized another major event, called the Friendship Games, in July and August 1984.
The USSR announced its intentions to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics on May 8, 1984, citing security concerns and “chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States.” A US official said the country had ignored suggestive comments by the Soviets in the weeks building up to the announcement and that, in spite of all the indications, the United States was “absolutely dumbfounded” when the official announcement arrived.
After the announcement, six more nations joined the boycott, including Bulgaria, East Germany (on May 10); Mongolia and Vietnam (both May 11)and Laos and Czechoslovakia (both May 13). China formally confirmed that it would be present at the games in Los Angeles, while the Laotians and Czechoslovaks announced their decision to boycott the event.
Later, Afghanistan also decided to boycott the event, becoming the eighth country to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics. Even later, Hungary (May 16) and Poland (May 17) became the ninth and tenth Marxist 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 24, 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.
Iran had earlier decided to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics 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 not attend 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, along with the 1983 ban upon US exports to Libya and a renewal of bans upon travel to Libya by holders of US passports. Libya and Ethiopia were the only nations to boycott both the 1976 Montreal and 1984 Los Angeles Games.
In addition, Albania did not attend any games from 1976 to 1988, although there was no official explanation for their absence at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and 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 70s, resulting in the Sino-Albanian split. A similar antagonism towards both superpowers 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.
Jimmy Carter declared that the United States would boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, with 64 other countries joining the boycott. This was the largest Olympic Games boycott ever. In 1984, three months before the start of the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles, the Soviet Union declared it would “not participate” in the 1984 games, due to the commercialization of the games and lack of security for the athletes. 13 other countries joined in the boycott. Howard A. Tyner of the Chicago Tribune said “Deep down, it was undoubtedly the hurt and embarrassment of 1980 that lies behind the stunning Soviet decision Tuesday to pass up this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.”
Most of the world’s media interpreted the Soviet boycott as retaliation for the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games,which had been in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion ofAfghanistan. Whereas the state-controlled Soviet media repeated the government line that the boycott was a safety measure to protect their own athletes. However, no threat to Eastern Bloc athletes was ever discovered, and the athletes from the Eastern Bloc country that did attend the 1984 games in Los Angeles—Romania—encountered no problems, and in fact were widely cheered above all other visiting nations at the Opening Ceremonies when they marched into the Coliseum. Romania ended up finishing third in overall medal count at the Games.
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 after the boycott was announced, on the same day that the Olympic torch relay in the United States began in New York City. U.S. President Ronald Reagan later stated his belief that the Soviets feared some of their athletes might defect as well as, President Reagan and his administration agreed to meet all of the demands of the Soviet Union in turn for the Soviet Bloc’s attendance at the 1984 Olympics, marking a stark contrast in Reagan’s “hawkish” views on Cold War foreign policy. 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 (which was the subject of a boycott by sixty nations) in Moscow were among the boycotters, and media analysts noted this would weaken the field of competitors in a number of sports.
Despite the absence of the Soviets and their allies, the 1984 Games had 140 countries competing, with the American team winning over 80 gold medals.
It is ironic to note that whilst the Soviets boycotted the games, China returned to the Olympic stage in 1984 after a 32 year absence.”
- To be continued
J.K. Randle
