Sports and politics have always walked side by side. AND Olympic movement, who tried to distance itself from political passions, during the 20th century, has repeatedly become hostage to international conflicts.
In the early 1980s, the situation escalated so much that the question arose of whether the Olympic Games would even exist in the future.
In 1972, the Munich Summer Olympics were marred by a terrorist attack that killed Israeli athletes. In Montreal 1976, more than twenty African countries did not participate in the Olympics due to New Zealand's violation of the ban on sports contacts with South Africa, where the apartheid regime existed.
Victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack. Photo: flickr.com / The Happy Rower
And in 1980, the conflict reached the level of the two leading political and sports powers of the world - the USSR and the USA.
After the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in December 1979, the US government expressed its intention to boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Actually, the idea was not even a boycott, but disrupting the Olympics, transferring it to another country.
The International Olympic Committee, however, refused to move the Games anywhere. And then the American authorities made every effort to turn the Olympics in Moscow into an insignificant event from a sports point of view.
True, there was one problem - before the Olympics in Moscow, winter Games in the American Lake Placid. That is why officially US President Jimmy Carter announced his intention to boycott the Moscow Olympics only after the successful completion of the Winter Games.
The efforts made by the Americans really turned out to be large-scale - athletes from 64 countries officially refused to participate in the Games. True, many states have allowed their athletes to compete in Moscow individually, under the Olympic flag.
Despite everything, the Games took place in Moscow, and their sporting results were very successful - the athletes set 74 Olympic, 39 European and 36 world records, which in total turned out to be more than the achievements of the previous Montreal Olympics.
Soviet athletes, of course, won an unconditional victory, winning 83 gold medals, although this result was largely due to the absence of a number of strong rivals.
However, the most affected were American athletes, who were deprived of the opportunity to speak at the main start of the four-year period due to the political ambitions of the US leadership.
Olympic boycotts map. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The USSR did not plan "retaliation"
As a symbolic gesture envisaged by the protocol announcing the next Games, the flag of the state in which the next Olympics will take place is usually raised at the closing ceremonies of the Games. The 1984 Olympic Games were to be held in Los Angeles, USA. At the closing of the Games in Moscow, not the American flag was raised at the stadium, but the city flag of Los Angeles, and already in this many saw a hint that the next Olympics would also have serious political problems.
However, the Soviet leadership, apparently, did not initially plan to act according to the "tit for tat" scheme.
All documents from that period indicate that throughout the entire Olympic cycle, Soviet athletes were actively preparing for the Olympics in Los Angeles.
IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, naturally, fearing Soviet "revenge", in December 1982, during a visit to Moscow, asked the member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee who hosted him Heydar Aliyev whether the USSR is planning to get even with the Americans with a retaliatory boycott. “We are preparing for the Los Angeles Games. And although we hear about a possible boycott from our side, we will never stoop to Carter's level, ”the politician replied.
The Soviet leadership really had no time for a boycott. Regular deaths began in the elderly elite of the USSR, which went down in history as the "era of great funerals." Died in November 1982, Brezhnev was replaced by a seriously ill Yuri Andropov, which died in early 1984. He was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, whose state of health left no doubt that the next funeral was just around the corner.
Souvenirs from the Los Angeles Olympics. Photo: flickr.com / CSUF Pollak Library
Retired actor's political reprises
However, in the same period, the international situation sharply deteriorated. The former who succeeded Jimmy Carter in the presidency Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan was, as they say, "turned" on the idea of a crusade against communism.His aggressive rhetoric and no less aggressive policy led to the serious aggravation of relations between the USSR and the United States.
In this situation, the Soviet leadership expected large-scale provocations at the Olympics. Moreover, there were difficulties with the organizers. The United States refused to accept charter flights with Soviet athletes in Los Angeles, demanded that detailed data be provided for each participant, which was a direct violation of the Olympic Charter, and did not allow the Georgia motor ship, which was the floating base of the USSR Olympic team, to arrive at the port of Los Angeles.
And yet, until the fall of 1983, there was no particular doubt that the Soviet national team would perform in Los Angeles.
However, everything changed after September 1, 1983, when a South Korean passenger Boeing was shot down over the territory of the Soviet Union. All the circumstances of what happened then are still not clear, including the role of the United States, but Ronald Reagan used this story to promote a new round of anti-Soviet hysteria.
The Soviet Union was proclaimed an "evil empire", and the situation in the world became so tense that the possibility of starting a full-scale world war was seriously considered.
And then there was the US government refused to provide written security guarantees to participants in the Olympics from socialist countries.
Performer Grams
Nevertheless, until the spring of 1984, the preparation of the Soviet team for the Los Angeles Olympics continued.The formal initiator of the boycott of the Games is the chairman of the physical culture and sports under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the head of the NOC of the USSR Marat Gramov, on April 29, 1984, sent a note to the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the current situation in connection with the Olympic Games in Los Angeles."
There is a version that the matter is not at all about politics, but about Gramov's fears for his career. At the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, the USSR national team in gold medals lost to the GDR team, and the functionary was afraid of another failure in Los Angeles.
However, most experts agree that Gramov turned out to be only the executor of the will of the political leadership, with whom he had neither the opportunity nor the desire.
A week after Gramov's note, a resolution was issued by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which said: “To consider the participation of Soviet athletes in the Los Angeles Olympics inappropriate due to the flagrant violation of the Olympic Charter by the American side, the lack of proper security measures for the USSR delegation and the anti-Soviet campaign launched in the United States. ".
On May 8, 1984, the plenum of the USSR National Olympic Committee unanimously approved the decision to boycott the Games in Los Angeles.
IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch frantically rushed between Moscow and Washington, trying to change the situation, but achieved nothing. In Moscow, the ailing Chernenko had no time for conversations with Samaranch, but Reagan, embarrassed by such a turn of the matter, was pressured by representatives of his administration, who urged not to make concessions to the “reds”.
As a result, Samaranch capitulated.
The boycott of the Olympics was supported by the socialist countries (except for Romania, Yugoslavia and the PRC), as well as a number of developing countries.
In terms of the number of countries participating in the boycott, it turned out to be not as large-scale as the boycott of the Games in Moscow, but from a sports point of view, no less tangible. In Los Angeles, there were no athletes from the USSR and the GDR, the two leading sports powers, and representatives of other countries of the socialist camp were very strong: take, for example, the Cubans, who dominated amateur boxing.
As a result, the US team won 86 gold medals in Los Angeles, surpassing the Soviet record in 1980, but this achievement also had a rather bitter aftertaste. American athletes understood perfectly well that without rivals from the Soviet Union, the struggle was not at all the same.
Coins dedicated to the Los Angeles Olympics. Photo: flickr.com / Los Angeles Olympics
Lost victories and broken fates
From the standpoint of the past years, sports experts consider the boycott of the Olympics in Los Angeles to be a mistake. From an ideological point of view, the USSR had every chance to inflict a crushing blow on the United States, inflicting a sporting defeat on the Americans in their lair.
Based on the results international competitions In 1983, the USSR national team at the 1984 Olympics could claim 60-62 gold medals, which guaranteed an unconditional victory. The huge investments in the form of new sports facilities and arenas made before the Olympics in Moscow in Los Angeles could turn into perhaps the most grandiose triumph of Soviet sports.
Souvenir tents for guests of the Olympics-84. Photo: flickr.com / Los Angeles Olympics
But it’s not just the lost medals. For dozens of Soviet athletes, the boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics turned into a collapse of sports hopes, shattered dreams.
It would take a very long time to list those who were hit by the boycott. One of the planet's greatest swimmers Vladimir Salnikov, a three-time Olympic champion, in Los Angeles could replenish his piggy bank with two or three more gold awards. Two-time Olympic champion in hammer throw Yuri Sedykh, the undisputed favorite of the 1984 Olympic season, the boycott prevented him from winning a third gold medal. Legendary weightlifter Yuri Vardanyan in 1984, at the Druzhba-84 competition, which replaced the Olympics for Soviet athletes, he lifted a total of 50 (!) kilograms more than the Los Angeles Olympic champion. How was it for him to see that his "gold" went to someone else because of politics? Young pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, who sensationally won the World Cup in 1983, claimed a gold medal in Los Angeles, but his Olympic dreams had to be postponed for four years.
Gymnast Dmitry Bilozerchev he will win his three Olympic gold medals in Seoul-1988, but on the eve of the Games in Los Angeles, the undisputed world champion in 1983 also claimed the highest awards. Alas, they went to others ...
And for one of the strongest gymnasts in the world of the early 1980s Olga Mostepanova the boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics was the collapse of all Olympic hopes. She never managed to perform at the Olympics in her life. The boycott of the Olympics in Los Angeles ruined the career of not only Mostepanova, but also dozens of other Soviet athletes ...
After 1984, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch managed to turn the tide, and today there are large-scale boycotts sporting events not happening. Although, on the eve of the 2008 Games in Beijing and before Sochi-2014, talks about a possible boycott were very active.
The politicians' hands are itching. But, as one well-known Russian thinker used to say, scratch someone else's itch. Leave the sport to the athletes.
Soviet writer, author of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered. Both Ostrovsky's main novel, depicting the formation of a revolutionary, and the personality of the author (who wrote despite a serious illness, paralysis and blindness) in the Soviet Union were surrounded not only by the official cult, but also by the sincere popularity and veneration of many readers. N.A. Ostrovsky was born in the village of Viliya, Ostrozhsky district of Volyn province (now - Ostrozhsky district of Rivne region, Ukraine) in the family of a distillery worker Alexei Ivanovich Ostrovsky and a cook. He was admitted to the parish school ahead of schedule "because of his outstanding abilities"; He graduated from school at the age of 9 (1913) with a certificate of honor. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Shepetovka. There Ostrovsky from 1916 worked for hire: in the kitchen of the station restaurant, cuber, material warehouse worker, assistant fireman at the power plant. At the same time he studied in a two-year, then a higher primary school (1917-1919). He became close to local Bolsheviks, during the German occupation he participated in underground activities, was a liaison of the Revolutionary Committee. On July 20, 1919, he joined the Komsomol, on August 9, he volunteered for the front. He fought in the cavalry brigade of G.I. Kotovsky and in the 1st Cavalry Army. In August 1920 he was seriously wounded in the back near Lvov (shrapnel) and was demobilized. Participated in the fight against the insurgency in the special forces (CHON). In 1921 he worked as an assistant to an electrician in the Kiev main workshops, studied at an electrical engineering school, and at the same time was a secretary of the Komsomol organization. In 1922, he built a railway line for the supply of firewood to Kiev, while he caught a bad cold, then fell ill with typhus. After his recovery, he was the commissar of the Vseobuch battalion in Berezdovo (in the border area with Poland), was the secretary of the Komsomol district committee in Berezdovo and Izyaslav, then the secretary of the Komsomol district committee in Shepetovka (1924). In the same year he joined the CPSU (b). Ostrovsky's health was affected by his injury and difficult working conditions. His joints ached. The final diagnosis of N. Ostrovsky - Progressive ankylosing polyarthritis, gradual ossification of the joints. In the fall of 1927, he began to write an autobiographical novel "The Tale of the" Kotovtsy ", but six months later the manuscript was lost in transit. 
From the end of 1930, with the help of a stencil he invented, he began to write the novel How the Steel Was Tempered. The manuscript sent to the magazine "Molodaya gvardiya" received a devastating review: "the derived types are unreal." However, Ostrovsky achieved a second review of the manuscript, regarding which the party organs were instructed. After that, the manuscript was actively edited by the deputy editor-in-chief of Molodaya Gvardia, Mark Kolosov, and the executive editor, Anna Karavaeva, a well-known writer of that time (the writer Yuri Buida even credits her with the real authorship of the novel). Ostrovsky recognized the great participation of Karavaeva in the work with the text of the novel; he also noted the participation of Alexander Serafimovich, who "gave me whole days of his rest." In TsGALI there are photocopies of the manuscript of the novel, which recorded the handwriting of 19 people. It is officially believed that Ostrovsky dictated the text of the book to "voluntary secretaries". Professor V.V. Musatov asserts that "the very process of creating the text of the novel was precisely of a collective nature." In doing so, he refers to the testimony of M.K. Kuprina-Iordanskaya, who transmitted the words of the literary critic Heinrich Lenoble (died 1964), who called himself one of the co-authors of the novel. According to her, Lenoble said “that seven people did the novel“ How the Steel Was Tempered ”. The author's version of the novel was completely unreadable. " Kuprina-Iordanskaya asked Lenoble: "Why did you go for this deception?" N. Ostrovsky in his letters tells in detail about his work on the novel, there are memoirs of his contemporaries - witnesses of the writer's work on the book. Textual research confirms the authorship of N. Ostrovsky. In April 1932, the Molodaya Gvardiya magazine began publishing Ostrovsky's novel; in November of the same year, the first part was published as a separate book, followed by the second part. The novel immediately became very popular. 
In 1935, Ostrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin, a house in Sochi and an apartment in Moscow were presented to him, and the title of brigade commissar was conferred on him; For the past few months, he has lived on the street of his name (formerly Dead Lane), hosting readers and writers. He made a commitment to write new romance"Born by the Storm" (under the same title as the lost early novel, but on a different plot) in three parts and managed to write the first part, but the novel was recognized as weaker than the previous one, including by Ostrovsky himself. The manuscript of the novel was typed and printed in record time, and copies of the book were presented to loved ones at the writer's funeral. Died in Moscow on December 22, 1936. In 1940, the Nikolai Ostrovsky House-Museum in Sochi and the Memorial Museum in Moscow were opened. A street in the Zheleznodorozhny District of Kursk is named after him. Ostrovsky's works have been translated into the languages of the peoples of the USSR and many foreign languages. In 1935 Ostrovsky was awarded the military rank of brigade commissar. He was awarded the Order of Lenin. Laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1966). Memorial museums of Ostrovsky are located in Moscow (since 1940) and in Sochi (since 1937), where Ostrovsky lived in 1928-1936 (with interruptions), as well as in the writer's homeland. Essays: Works. (Introductory article by V. Ozerov), volumes 1-3, Moscow, 1968; Works (Introductory article by S. Tregub), volumes 1-3, Moscow, 1969. Literature: Vengerov N., Nikolay Ostrovsky, 2nd edition, supplemented and revised, Moscow, 1956; Timofeev LI, On the artistic features of N. Ostrovsky's novel "How the Steel Was Tempered", 2nd edition, Moscow, 1956; Nikolay Ostrovsky, photographs, documents, illustrations, (text by S. Lesnevsky. Compiled by R. Ostrovskaya, E. Sokolova), Moscow, 1964; Tregub S., Live Korchagin, 2nd edition, Moscow, 1973; Anninsky A., "How the Steel Was Tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovsky, Moscow, 1971: Russian Soviet prose writers. Biobibliographic Index, Volume 3, Leningrad, 1964.
XXIII Summer Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, California, USA from July 28 to August 12, 1984.
City selection
After reports of large financial losses of the organizers (the payment of a debt of $ 5 billion. Canada finished only in 2006), only Los Angeles and New York expressed interest in hosting the 1984 Games. The rules of the International Olympic Committee prohibit participation in the election race of cities from one country. Therefore, the US Olympic Committee held internal elections, as a result of which the host city of the Olympics was determined. The vote ended with Los Angeles winning.
Boycott of the Games
On May 8, 1984, the USSR Olympic Committee announced a boycott of the Games in the United States. In fact, it was the USSR's response to the American one, but the official reason was the danger that threatened Soviet athletes in the capital of California. The Soviet media reported that professional gangsters from all over Canada, Latin America and Japan flock to Los Angeles. The police are afraid to even appear in many areas of the city that are completely controlled by organized gangs. Moscow's decision to boycott was supported by almost all countries of the social bloc (Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, East Germany, Hungary, North Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Poland, Upper Volta, Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Yemen), with the exception of Romania. As a result, the Romanian delegation became the second after the United States in terms of the number of gold medals won. A Ronald Reagan again received additional votes after a powerful PR campaign, in which the successes of the Americans at the Games played an important role, and won the 1984 presidential election.
Even now, twenty years later, it is difficult to say whether this boycott was a carefully planned action or whether it was decided at the last moment. On the one hand, there are, for example, the well-known words of a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee Heydar Aliyev spoken by him on December 20, 1982 at a meeting in the Kremlin with the President of the IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch: “We are preparing for the Los Angeles Games. And although we hear talk of a possible boycott from our side, we will never go down to Carter's level ”(in 1980, at the call of US President Jimmy Carter, 36 countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics).
Dozens of folders with documents have been preserved in the Russian Olympic Committee, leaving no doubt that Soviet athletes were preparing to participate in the Games-84 and huge funds were invested in this preparation ...
But in the same folders you can find many "recommendations" and "action plans" sent to the then chairman of the USSR Sports Committee Marat Gramova from the Central Committee of the CPSU and the KGB. A kind of guidelines for action during the preparation for the Olympics: relentlessly criticize the organizers of the 84 Games with all available means.
Seven months before the aforementioned statement by Aliyev, Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee Vitaly Smirnov from the rostrum of the 85th session of the IOC unleashed a flurry of criticism on the hosts of the upcoming Olympics. They, in his opinion, set too high prices for the accommodation of athletes in the Olympic Village, which called into question the possibility of a trip to Los Angeles for teams from Eastern Europe and Africa. He called the caller Smirnov and the decision of Los Angeles not to hold pre-Olympic competitions ...
In October 1983, a Soviet delegation headed by the Deputy Chairman of the USSR Sports Committee flew to the United States. Anatoly Kolesov.
The impressions brought from there, most likely, decided the fate of the Soviet Olympians-84.
For some reason, the organizers of the Games did not allow the Soviet delegation to fly to Los Angeles on Aeroflot charter flights. Only to New York with a transfer to American planes. They also refused to accept in the port of Los Angeles the Soviet motor ship "Georgia", which intended to dock there during the Games (as was the case, for example, in 1956 in Melbourne or in 1976 in Montreal). Finally, they categorically demanded that lists with the names of all members of the Soviet Olympic delegation be sent to the US Embassy in Moscow in advance. In the USSR, this demand was regarded as a direct insult, since, according to the existing Olympic rules, the participants of the Games enter the country - the host of the Games not with visas, but with Olympic certificates.
View of nightlife Los Angeles, teeming, according to the Soviet press, "gangsters from all over Canada, Latin America and Japan"
However, the main argument that influenced the mood of the Soviet guests of the organizing committee of the Olympics-84 was, according to Kolesov, the absence of written guarantees (at the state level) of safety for the Olympians from the USSR.
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
Chairman of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Marat Gramov sent a note to the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the current situation in connection with the Olympic Games in Los Angeles."
It outlined the main requirements for the organizers of the Games-84: a written guarantee of security at the state level, the prevention of blackmail and hostile actions.
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Konstantin Chernenko signed a decree of the Politburo on the non-participation of the Soviet team in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The historical document consisted of four points:
1. To consider the participation of Soviet athletes in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles inappropriate due to the flagrant violation of the Olympic Charter by the American side, the lack of proper security measures for the USSR delegation and the anti-Soviet campaign launched in the United States.
2. The departments of propaganda, foreign policy propaganda, the International Department, the Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, together with the Sports Committee of the USSR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and the KGB of the USSR, shall prepare the relevant documents of the National Olympic Committee of the USSR, with the intention of publishing them at the end of May 1984. Develop propaganda measures that would allow create a favorable public opinion for us in the world and convincingly show the responsibility of the United States for the non-participation of Soviet athletes in the Olympic Games.
3. Confidentially inform the Central Committee of the fraternal parties of the socialist countries about our position and make a request for its support.
To hold in May 1984 in Moscow a working meeting of representatives of the Central Committee of the fraternal parties of the socialist countries.
4. To take a positive attitude to the proposal of the USSR Sports Committee to hold sports competitions in the socialist countries in 1984 in Olympic program... Submit this issue for discussion at the meeting of representatives of the Central Committee of fraternal countries.
More than 400 participants in the plenum of the NOC of the USSR unanimously voted not to send Soviet Olympians to Los Angeles. This decision, of course, was made "at the request of the workers" and "amicably supported by all Soviet athletes." However, it is not difficult to see revenge behind him for the refusal of the Americans from the 1980 Olympics, the desire of the Soviet authorities to retaliate, to avenge the offense four years ago. In Russian it is called "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
REAGAN COULD SAVE THESE GAMES
Remembers Anatoly Kolesov:
You should have seen how the participants in the plenum voted! After Gramov's words: “Who is for not participating in the Games?” I looked into the hall - everyone raised their hands, but lowered their faces. It was a shame ... We felt like criminals. First of all, before the athletes who put their own health into being selected for this Olympics. In amateur sports, there is nothing higher than the Olympics, and we took it away from these young people. A whole generation of athletes died then. Many have lost their fortune ...
Remembers Lyudmila Kondratyeva, Olympic champion-80 in running 100 meters:
I learned that the Games in the USA would be held without us from the team's masseur at the pre-Olympic training camp in Bulgaria. First reaction: it can't be! Immediately she turned on the radio, and there they just broadcast an official message that the Soviet Union had refused to travel to the Olympics.
From that moment on, the season ended for me, all desire to train was gone. Okay, I have already had the Olympic Games in my life, but what was it like for those who were just going to become an Olympian! It was scary to look at them ...
We returned home, and there a powerful anti-Olympic campaign with the involvement of famous athletes was already in full swing: they say, it’s the right decision, it’s unsafe to go to Los Angeles and other nonsense. By the way, they also connected me. The journalists wrote the lyrics, and we signed. What was to be done? The time was like that. But to be honest, neither then nor now I know a single athlete who really thought so ...
Lyudmila Kondratyeva
Remembers Juan Antonio Samaranch:
On the morning of May 8, I was at the New York airport. I was waiting for boarding a flight to Washington, where I arranged a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan: I hoped to get official security guarantees from him for the Olympians. When I was informed that a plenum of the NOC was urgently called in Moscow, I immediately realized that the worst was about to happen. Indeed, an hour later, in Washington, I learned about the boycott. Reagan was upset too. “Let me personally invite Chernenko to lead the opening ceremony of the Games in Los Angeles with me,” he unexpectedly suggested. It was, in my opinion, a salutary decision, and I seized on it: "If you write such a message to the Soviet leader, I am ready to fly to Moscow today to convey it." But at that moment, one of Reagan's aides intervened: “This is a very delicate decision, Mr. President,” he said. "Before accepting it, it would be nice to consult with the Secretary of State ..."
Then we began to talk on other topics, and when, saying goodbye, I reminded the president of Chernenko's letter, I heard, alas, a diplomatic answer ...
Samaranch flew to Moscow, hoping to meet with Chernenko. Four years ago, when the Moscow Olympics were boycotted, he was received Brezhnev, but this time instead of the general secretary, the marquis was offered the deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Nikolay Talyzin, which had nothing to do with the issue under discussion. This was in itself offensive to the President of the IOC. The high Soviet official was given a clear and unique task - to announce the decision of the Politburo. Therefore, he behaved accordingly. Here is a short excerpt from the transcript of the conversation.
Samaranch: "Do you have anything to do with international sports ties?"
Talyzin: “I have. My functions in the government are as follows: I am in charge of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Within the CMEA framework, only economic issues are resolved. We are jointly organizing major economic projects. At one time, through joint efforts, we built an oil pipeline from Siberia to the socialist countries, a gas pipeline, and a number of other facilities ... Mr. Samaranch, we do not have a specific meeting order. Maybe first you yourself will say ... "
A week later, the offended IOC President will say: “I knew that this would not work. I went to Moscow just for history. I had to show that I did my best. " And even later, they say, in a private conversation with his loved ones, Samaranch summed up the Soviet boycott: “Go to hell. The losing side is they. "
CHERNENKO PLAYED FOR AMERICANS
Remembers Viacheslav Platonov, former senior coach of the USSR national volleyball team:
We were taught for a long time: sport is out of politics. It was inspired by those who themselves lived according to the laws of double morality. In 1980, their sport was out of politics, and in 84 it was the other way around ... I have no doubt that the chairman of the USSR State Sports Committee, Marat Gramov, himself did not want to take the team to Los Angeles. In the winter of 84, he lost on gold medals at the Games in Sarajevo, and the second major defeat in a row (not even to the Americans, but to the East Germans) would certainly have cost him his post. This "thrown into sports" deputy head of the Central Committee, whose stock of sports terms consisted of words like "volletball" and "forest specialist", could not care about anything else.
Marat Gramov headed the USSR Olympic Committee from 1983 to 1990 and managed to cross out the careers of many Soviet athletes.
Remembers Vladimir Parfenovich, three-time Olympic kayak champion:
I retired from sports in 1984 at the age of 26 because I lost my faith. Politicians took the Olympics away from us. This news in the full sense of the word knocked me down. After all, big sport is bitter sweat that you swallow for one goal - the Olympic Games. I left because I could not believe that I would live as an athlete until the next Games. And he doubted: once they took it away - where is the guarantee that they will not do something like this a second time?
Remembers Konstantin Volkov, silver medalist of the 1980 Olympics in pole vaulting:
We were at the training camp in Sochi when they announced to us that we would not go to the Olympics. For everyone it was a blow, sorry, much below the belt. We all spoke out openly against such a decision, against ridiculous arguments - especially since not long before that, many athletes had returned from America. But nobody listened to us. The national team became practically uncontrollable, no one wanted to train. Many, what to hide, just washed down.
Remembers Anatoly Kolesov:
I would not say that Gramov was categorically against our participation in these Games, but he hesitated and treated everything with great caution. It was possible to understand him: colossal pressure was exerted on him from above. Almost every week directives were received from the Central Committee of the CPSU and the KGB.
I constantly convinced him that it was imperative to fly to Los Angeles, since the situation was then clearly in our favor. After the 1980 Olympics, we received excellent funding, we had state-of-the-art sports facilities, equipped training facilities. The results of the sports season-83 indicated that at the Games-84 the Soviet team could actually reach 62 gold medals (against 40 of the GDR national team and 36–38 of the American ones). Our victory in Los Angeles would have canceled everything! Everything else would seem like a trifle ... I was sure that we would win. The games of 1988 in Seoul later confirmed my innocence: there "on the old yeast", by inertia we smashed everyone to smithereens ...
But, alas, Gramov was a dependent person. Shortly before the decision to boycott in Prague, on the initiative of Samaranch, a meeting of the leaders of the NOC of the socialist countries was held, where we reiterated our readiness to speak in Los Angeles. After that, I took a week's leave, and when I went to work and saw Gramov, I immediately realized that it was a matter of seams. It was darker than a cloud ... The NOC plenum, which took place a few days later, became an empty formality ...
The words of the announcer sounded sad irony at the Olympic Stadium in Los Angeles during the closing of the XXIII Olympiad:
Thank you, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Comrade Chernenko, for winning more gold medals for the United States than any athlete in history ...
Konstantin Chernenko
By the way, in 1998 in Hungary all the athletes who were forced to be outside the Olympics-84 received monetary compensation for moral damage.
In addition to the countries of the socialist bloc, Libya and Iran were among the participants in the boycott of the XXIII Olympic Games in Los Angeles - the latter, thus, missed both Moscow-80 and Los Angeles-84. An additional difficulty for Iran's participation in the Olympic movement was its tough stance on boycotting any sports in which Israel participates.
However, it was in 1984 that the PRC national team took part in the Summer Olympics after a 32-year absence, which had previously boycotted the Olympic movement due to partial international recognition Taiwan, and also resumed their participation in the games and the Taiwan national team under the name of English. Chinese Taipei and a special non-state flag. In total, athletes from 140 countries took part in the American Olympics.
As a result of two mutual boycotts of the Olympic Games by the USSR and the USA on the initiative of Ted Turner the Games of Goodwill arose, which have now been discontinued. And in the IOC charter, at the suggestion of the then IOC President Samaranch, additional articles were introduced on serious sanctions against the NOC of a country that would try to boycott, up to the disqualification of the respective national team for one or more future Olympics, suspension of membership or complete exclusion of the country from the International Olympic Committee ...
Symbolism
16 famous artists designed 15 posters for the XXIII Summer Olympics. Subsequently, the posters were signed John Baldessari, Jennifer Bartlett, Jonathan Bofsky, April Greyman and Jamie Augers, Raymond Saunders and Harry Winogrand.
The main image on the emblem and posters of the Olympics was the star of red, white and blue colors - the symbolism of the US national flag recognized throughout the world.
Mascot
Eaglet Sam became the mascot of the XXIII Summer Olympic Games. The eagle is the national symbol of the United States of America. In addition, this talisman also contains another image, thanks to which it got its name. The Walt Disney Company painted an eagle wearing a top hat painted in the colors of the American flag, just like the one on the famous Uncle Sam.
Games Result
In the absence of the USSR national team, as well as other national teams of the socialist camp, claiming a sufficient number of awards (GDR, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cuba), the US team won the unofficial medal standings by a huge margin. American Athletes in Los Angeles won 83 gold, 61 silver and 30 bronze medals, which is three times higher than the result of the closest pursuer - the Romanian team (20-16-17).
Thus, the Americans won 3 more gold medals than the national team (in terms of the total number of awards, the Americans lost 21 medals to the record of the Soviet national team). The American record for the most gold medals remains the highest achievement in Olympic history and is unlikely to be broken for the foreseeable future.
Ancient Greece is. In an original and rich state, these competitions were part of a religious cult. More than two thousand years have passed since then, but the tradition of holding the Olympic Games every four years has not faded away. Each time, the number of countries wishing to participate in these competitions is growing.
Venue of the competition
In 2014, the winter ones were held in the Russian city of Sochi. Eighty-eight countries took part in this event. This is almost twice as much as in Sarajevo, where the Winter Olympics 1984 year. At that time, this city was the capital of Yugoslavia. Sarajevo could hardly be called a modern metropolis. Rather, it was a huge village with narrow streets, houses in which were comfortably located on the hills and hills. Until that time, the capital of Yugoslavia was famous for only one event: it was here that the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was killed. This event became a turning point in tensions in the West, and as a result, the First World War began.
The first winter Olympics on the territory of a socialist country
Then, until the end of the 70s of the 20th century, this city did not show itself in any way. In 1978, at a regular session, it decided that the 1984 Winter Olympics would be held in Sarajevo. In order to carry out the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, as well as for some competitions in the city, the largest sports stadium, Asim Ferhatovich-Khase, was reconstructed. It is noteworthy that the 1984 Winter Olympics was the first event of this scale held on the territory of a socialist country.
Games start
The opening ceremony of the competition took place on a frosty February day on the eighth. Some think otherwise. According to a small mass of people, the beginning of competitions in a particular sport was the day when the 1984 Winter Olympics actually started. Hockey was the first game of the fourteenth games. This happened on the seventh of February. On that day, the USSR national team successfully passed to the next stage, beating Poland brilliantly. The Soviet Union team became the champion of that year. The second place was taken by the national team of Czechoslovakia.
The 1984 Winter Olympics offered ten sports disciplines to the attention of spectators and athletes: figure skating, hockey, ski jumping, luge, biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, bobsleigh, speed skating and skiing... In total, thirty-nine sets of medals were played.
Medal credit
It is noteworthy that it was at these competitions that many new names were opened. Athletes-skiers especially distinguished themselves. There was no limit to the delight and joy of the inhabitants of hospitable Yugoslavia when their compatriot, twenty-two-year-old Yure Franko, took a silver medal in the giant slalom competition. As the newspaper "Oslobodzhene" later noted, this victory became a worthy reward for the years of hard work and preparation for the "white" games.
The 1984 Winter Olympics were officially closed on 19 February. The medal standings of the competition are as follows. In terms of the number of valuable prizes, the first place on the podium is occupied by the USSR. In total, the athletes of the national team won 25 awards. However, in terms of the number of gold medals, the largest socialist country was inferior to the GDR. won three more yellow awards. The 1984 Winter Olympics gave the United States only eight prizes. Norway received 9 medals, and Finland - 13. It is noteworthy that this time the Austrian national team performed absolutely unsuccessfully. As a rule, this country has always achieved excellent results in winter sports. But not at this time. Austrian athletes took away only one bronze medal.
Boycott by the countries of the socialist camp
In 1980, the Olympics were held in Moscow. 1984 gave the world (in addition to the "white" games) summer games as well. They were held in the United States of America - Los Angeles. It is noteworthy that these competitions were boycotted by the socialist states. The reason for this lies in the strained relations between NATO and the countries of the socialist bloc. It should be noted that initially in 1980 republics with democratic systems boycotted the Olympics in Moscow. Thus, the absence on summer games 1984 of the national teams of the USSR and other countries was a reciprocal move to America.
Of course, good reasons are needed to boycott such an event. Formally, the socialist cell of the countries refused to participate in the 1984 competitions due to the refusal of the leadership of the organizing committee of the games to provide athletes with safety guarantees.
It should also be noted that the boycott of the 1984 Olympics is a kind of step against the "Carter Doctrine." That, in turn, implies assistance to anti-Soviet insurgents in Afghanistan.
Aeroflot does not fly, Georgia does not fly ...
Back in the fall of 1983, the government of the Soviet Union sent a sports delegation to the United States in order to determine the state of sports facilities and places for the future location of guests. Having identified a huge number of shortcomings, the leadership of the countries of the socialist camp expressed concern about this. The greatest excitement was caused by the refusal of the US government to moor the ship "Georgia" off the coast of the city. It was planned that a delegation from the USSR would live on board the ship. The second negative point was the ban on the landing of Soviet aircraft of the Aeroflot company.
A few months later, a Politburo resolution was issued, which contained clauses describing the inexpediency of the USSR national team attending the 1984 Summer Olympics held in the USA. The pages of the document also contained measures aimed at suppressing discontent among the people and creating a favorable image of the Soviet Union (in comparison with the countries of the democratic bloc). Neighboring socialist countries were also invited to take part in the boycott. Instead of summer Olympics In 1984, the Friendship-84 competition was held in Moscow. If we compare the effectiveness of the two events, then the Soviet analogue gave the world several times more world records than games in the United States.
After the boycott of the 1984 Olympics, he issued a decree on sanctions against states that decided to continue to interfere with this kind of competition.
The Los Angeles Games, like the Moscow Olympics, were boycotted by some NOCs in central and southeastern Europe.
Moscow stated that the absence of the Soviet national team was due to the unsatisfactory level of security at the Games. However, the move was seen as a response to the American non-participation in the 1980 Moscow Games.
Athletes from the USSR, the GDR and their allies did not participate in the Games, which significantly reduced the sports level of the Olympics.
Huge sums of money have been poured out for television rights, and some critics have argued that the Games, once a celebration of amateur sports, are becoming increasingly commercial in nature.
& nbsp & nbspThe unofficial Organizing Committee headed by P. Huberroth, who was the first to lead the Games of the Olympiad, not only managed to make the Games profitable, but also ensured their high organization, excellent information. Unfortunately, the city, where the first Olympic village was established in 1932, abandoned it in 1984 and settled the Olympians in the hostels of the local university.
However, perfectly organized celebrations could not save the athletic face of the Games of the Olympics. The absence of the best athletes in the world has turned competition in most sports into mere spectacles. 125 world champions could not take part in the competition. No matter how we analyze the Games, it is easy to see that in the case of athletes from most socialist countries, the names of 7 out of 10 champions of the Los Angeles Olympics would be different. And the number of world records set speaks about the relatively weak sports side of the Games: there were only 11 of them.
At the same time, very high results were demonstrated in a number of sports, a number of athletes entered the Olympic arena, who for many subsequent years became leaders in world sports.
The first place was won by the USA teams (83 gold, 61 silver and 30 bronze medals).
Repeated the success of the famous Jesse Owens his compatriot won the 100 and 200 meters, the 4x100 meters relay and the long jump. 
Much later, in an interview, he replied: - Which of the nine Olympic victories do you remember with the greatest pleasure? - First gold medal, won in 1984 in Los Angeles at a distance of 100 meters - it was something special. And, of course, the last one, received for the long jump at the Games in Atlanta. That was my farewell to the top of world sports.
Became threefold Olympic champion Pertti Johannes Karppinen, Finnish athlete in rowing in singles races. Prior to these Games, he was the owner of gold medals at the Olympic Games in Montreal (1976) and Moscow (1980).
In swimming in 9 out of 15 disciplines among men and in 11 out of 14 womens, the victory went to the hosts. They were able to resist Michael Gross(FRG) - 2 gold and 2 silver and A. Bauman(Canada).
O an American became the limpid champion in the Greco-Roman wrestling tournament (in the weight category over 100 kg) Jeff Blatnik.
Jeff Blatnik's biography is the story of a person's struggle for survival, an impressive example of coping psychology.
Jeff learned that he had Hodgkin's disease in 1982, on the eve of his 25th birthday. He was already a member of the national Olympic team in 1980, but did not participate in Olympic tournament, since the United States boycotted the Olympics in Moscow. He began preparations for the 1984 Olympics while already suffering from cancer. He knew that exercise could negatively affect his health, but he continued to train, despite the acute pain in the neck. The biopsy showed that he had an early stage of cancer ... In theory, Jeff should have prepared himself never to go out on the wrestling mat again. Instead, he felt the need to compete and applied for the National Games in New York.
Upon learning of the terrible diagnosis, Jeff followed the doctors' recommendations and began a course of radiation therapy. He battled the side effects of fatigue, as radiation treatment had drained his strength for months. “I could feel good right after one treatment, but after many weeks of repeated tests and the whole course of treatment, it was impossible to stay fit due to the side effects.
Despite the fact that D. Blatnik decided to prepare for the 1984 Games, he was forced to take breaks in training. “After the procedures, there were always blisters and cracks. There were more than 20 places on my neck where they could appear. The doctors prepared a special ointment for me, but it was immediately absorbed after being applied to the skin, since the skin was hot as after a sunburn. calming effect and promoted wound healing, allowing at least for a while to get rid of the feeling of dry skin during movement. "
Perhaps the most difficult thing for D. Blatnik in overcoming the disease was studying the capabilities of his own body, determining the limits of patience. He needed to master a new training regime and adapt to the real feeling of fatigue after training ... Those who could watch Jeff when he received the Olympic gold medal and see tears on his face will probably never forget this extremely touching moment of him. personal celebration.
Because of the pain, Blatnik suffered physically, but the emotional and psychological components of his difficult struggle were also very significant. He often took walks, trying to get his body to work. He wanted the body to quickly get rid of the dead cells that appeared as a result of radiation therapy.
“Once I didn’t have the number of white blood cells required for chemo-therapy. A certain minimum is required here, otherwise there is a risk of getting an internal infection. Because of this, the doctors refused to subject me to the procedure on Friday.
I said, "Okay, I'll be back Monday." The doctor explained to me: "No, you will need at least a week. Come on Thursday." But I repeated, "I'll be here on Monday!" And I did come on Monday and had the number of white blood cells I needed. This situation demonstrates the close connection between the mind and the body. I could just sit down and concentrate, imagining myself recovering. I could imagine how healthy cells fill me up and my body becomes stronger. I could picture myself during training and feel fine. You know, this feeling is when you get up and your heart starts pounding, you look at your hands and you feel - no one can do it the way I do. It really helps, and it helped me increase my white blood cell count. "
Blatnik's psychological strength played a big role in the most difficult days for him.
Jeff Blatnik won the Olympic gold medal in 1984 in the Greco-Roman wrestling tournament. At the closing ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics, he was entrusted with flying the US national flag.
The Olympic champion fighting life-threatening disease is a living embodiment of courage and willpower! Perhaps one of the most powerful emotional moments in Olympic history- these are tears of joy and satisfaction on the face of this fearless athlete after winning the gold Olympic medal at the 1984 Games.
The 400m hurdles were second to none Edwin Moses.
Edwin Corley Moses, American track and field athlete, 400 m hurdler. From 1977-1987 he participated in 122 races without losing. For the first time he broke the world record in 1976, in 1983 he showed a record time, having run the distance in 47.02 minutes. He won the Olympic title twice (1976, 1984) and twice the world title.
Absolute champions in artistic gymnastics became Kojin Gushiken (Japan) and Mary Lou Retton (USA).
