The Shadow of the Late Cold War over Los Angeles’s Olympic Torch

Considerable attention has been paid to the United States-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. The Carter administration’s determination that the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan warranted a range of diplomatic sanctions has long been a source of controversy among scholars of sport, international relations, and the history of the late Cold War as well as the athletes who could not participate and fans of sport everywhere. The return of the Summer Olympic Games to Los Angeles in 2028 offers an opportunity to revisit the decision by the Soviet Union and some of its allies to engage in a boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Soviet leaders articulated concerns about the security of their citizens at the games, but many factors, including rising Cold War tension on many fronts and frustration at the 1980 boycott, shaped the decision. Based on archival research at the International Olympic Committee Historical Archives in Lausanne, Switzerland and California-based collections such as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Mayor Tom Bradley’s Administrative Papers, this paper will explore the context in which new Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko made his determination, the support offered by Warsaw Pact and nonaligned states for the boycott, and the international, national, and local efforts to ensure full participation in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.