West Europe and Athletic Defiance: Cracks in the Western Alliance of the Cold War

            Overall the 1980 Olympic boycott was the largest sporting boycott in the history of the modern Olympic movement. Of the 118 non-Soviet bloc Olympic national committees, 62 of them elected not to send their own teams. However, this seemingly potent number did not come at the behest of the Carter administration and their efforts, but rather in spite of the Americans. Many of the nations who did not attend where not going based on the volition of the American government, but rather boycotted for their own reasons such as Islamic solidarity. In fact the boycott showed a large divide in the Western alliance, as will follow.

If Carter could have chosen any global region to join the boycott, it would have been West Europe. Not only did those nations have some of the strongest international prestige and sporting reputations, but also they were where the heart of the Olympic movement was located. Outside of Los Angeles and Montreal, the only Olympiads hosted outside of Europe had been in Tokyo and Mexico City. The IOC headquarters was located in Belgium. Greece had founded the ancient Olympics upon which the modern games where based. How did Carter and his lieutenants fair in garnishing support amongst the Western nations? Come time for the opening ceremony, only West Germany wasn’t in attendance. Even as early as January 16 the Canadian Olympic Committee had sent a telegram to both the USOC and Lord Killanin of the IOC denouncing the American idea of a boycott as an effective deterrent against Soviet aggression (Congress, 20). As historian Derick Hulme Jr. notes: “Great Britain exhibited the most enthusiasm for Carter’s policies… Canada was supportive, but noncommittal, while West German and Greek reactions where lukewarm at best. France was hostile to the U.S. initiative.” These semi friendly responses weren’t coming from the nations respective Olympic committees they from among the official governments who, unlike the United States, where completely unwilling to corner their own Olympic committees into non-attendance. The Carter administration placed such high importance upon the Olympic boycott that the attendance of almost all West European states severely dented their reputation inside the Carter White House.

Sources

U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation and Commerce. Alternatives to the Moscow Olympics: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Transportation and Commerce of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. 96^th Cong., 2^nd sess., January 30, 1980.

Hulme, Derrick L. The Political Olympics: Moscow, Afghanistan, and the 1980 U.S. Boycott. Santa Barbara, Ca: Preager Publishers, 1990.