look back at the three most significant boycotts of the Olympic Games

Some events have already started, but the Beijing Winter Olympics officially begin on Friday February 4 with the opening ceremony. An event that will be shunned by American diplomacy and its Anglo-Saxon allies, in particular the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. These countries have decided on a diplomatic boycott in order to protest against human rights violations in China and the repression against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region. This boycott implies the absence of any official political representative but the athletes will be present for the events. Unlike other boycotts that some Olympic editions have experienced in the past and that franceinfo invites you to (re)discover.

Montreal 1976: a continent protests against apartheid

It is one of the most misunderstood episodes of the Olympic Games in Olympic history despite its importance. In 1976, many African countries boycotted the Olympic Games held in Montreal. This boycott is not the first of its kind, Olympism is accustomed to sporting or political scandals. In Melbourne in 1956, six countries boycotted the Olympics. Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon protest against the Franco-British occupation of the Suez Canal, while Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland express their disagreement with the Soviet intervention in Hungary.

This time in Montreal, the boycott is massive and unprecedented, underline the researchers Catherine and Éric Monnin, authors of the Political boycott of the Montreal Olympics, at the Presses Universitaires de France. It’s almost a whole continent that refuses to participate in the Olympic events. African countries denounce the presence of New Zealand. They blame the rugby team of this southern hemisphere country, the All Blacks, for having toured South Africa where apartheid is in place. The International Olympic Committee refuses to exclude New Zealand because “Rugby is a sport that is entirely beyond the control of the International Olympic Committee”. On July 16, the day before the opening ceremony, some countries like Nigeria repatriate their delegation and national athletes. Other countries will participate in the opening ceremony but not in the sporting events.

In all, 22 Olympic delegations, mostly from African countries, will boycott these OJ due to “obstinate refusal of the IOC President to recognize the merits of the African request” : Algeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Guyana, Upper Volta, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, People’s Republic of Congo, Sudan, Swaziland, Chad, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia. It is the disappointment for some athletes who were the favorites to win the gold medal. “A whole generation of African athletes is compromised by a purely political decision”, write researchers Catherine and Éric Monnin. Among them, the Tanzanian Filbert Bayi out of 1,500 m and the Ugandan John Akii-Bua, holder of the Olympic title in the 400 m hurdles, obtained in Munich in 1972.

Moscow 1980: the Cold War imposes itself on the OJ

The boycott of the Moscow Olympics is a better known story, at least for its official version. The United States refuses to participate in these Olympics planned in the Soviet Union. In question, the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets. Other episodes of the Cold War were more tense between the two powers such as the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, but the president of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter, wants to use the Olympics to issue an ultimatum to the USSR to withdraw its troops. The answer will of course be negative, and in February 1980, the United States withdrew from the Moscow Olympics, six months before the start of the Games.

The Americans manage to attract in their wake about fifty countries. In Europe, only West Germany and Norway will boycott these Games. France, Italy and Great Britain maintain their participation but under different conditions. Some countries will participate but under the Olympic banner. Others, like France in particular, will refuse to participate in the opening ceremony. More than 60 nations will not participate in the Moscow Olympics as the magazine the Express will nickname “Games of Shame”.

But this decision not to go to Russia in the summer of 1980 seems to have been taken well before the invasion of Afghanistan. In reality, the boycott decision was made long ago and influenced by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. “He identified, from the summer of 1978, the Moscow Games as a first-rate diplomatic tool to trap the USSR”, explains Patrick Clastres, professor at the University of Lausanne and specialist in the history of the Olympic Games. The aim is to denounce the human rights situation in the Soviet Union. The invasion of Afghanistan is only a pretext which allows “to make understandable, by American and world public opinion, this decision to boycott this edition in Moscow”, continues the specialist in the history of the Olympic Games.

Los Angeles 1984: Soviet revenge

Four years later, it was the turn of the USSR to boycott the Olympic Games organized by the American enemy. To justify this absence, the Soviets invoke the security conditions of the athletes. They wouldn’t be together in a city like Los Angeles. Another reason given by the USSR, the foreign policy of the United States is considered too colonialist and would therefore violate the Olympic Charter.

But for many, this absence is explained by a desire for revenge on the part of the Soviets. Other countries from the Soviet bloc are boycotting these Games in Los Angeles, in particular East Germany, Angola, Bulgaria, Cuba, Ethiopia, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia or Vietnam. Together, these countries accounted for 58% of the gold medals at the 1976 Olympics.

But despite this boycott, these Los Angeles Olympics are considered a success with a record number of 140 participating countries, the sporting exploits of the athletes and in particular Carl Lewis. American track and field star wins gold in 100m, 200m, 4×100 relay m and the long jump. A feat that had only been achieved 48 years earlier, during the Berlin Games. In 1936, the United States had also considered boycotting these Olympics to protest against the Nazi regime, before participating and leaving Jesse Owens to mark history forever.