Olympic Games
History-1984
The Los Angeles Games: the boycotts continue
The Soviet Union-led boycott left a huge athletic gap as Soviet bloc sports powerhouses like East Germany and the Soviet Union stayed home
Last Updated: Friday, August 7, 2009 | 2:51 PM ET
CBC Sports
Victor Davis in action during the men's 200-metre breastroke final where he won a gold medal and set a world record. (Getty Images)
Like its predecessor in 1980, the 1984 Olympics may be remembered more for who didn't show up than for who did.
Fifty-two years after the 1932 Los Angeles Games, the Summer Games returned to American soil, and once again, Los Angeles was the host city. But this time, boycotts left their indelible mark.
The Soviet Union-led boycott, a retaliation for the absence of the U.S. and its allies four years earlier in Moscow, left a huge athletic gap as Soviet bloc sports powerhouses like East Germany and the Soviet Union stayed home. Romania was the only Warsaw Pact nation to attend and made the most of not being overshadowed by its more powerful allies, finishing third overall with 53 medals.
Nineteen countries boycotted the Games, not nearly as extensive as the 1980 boycott, but those 19 nations had accounted for 58 per cent of the medals in 1976. As a result, the host Americans benefited the way the Soviets did from the Western powers' absence in 1980; the U.S. raked in 174 medals, including 83 gold, 24 more medals than the second-place West Germans.
Indeed, the Cold War and the prospect of boycotts deterred many countries from vying for the hosting rights to the 1984 Games in the first place. Los Angeles was the only city to bid for the Olympics, and for the first time since 1896, no government funding was needed.
Corporate underwriting
The Memorial Coliseum -- the main stadium used in the 1932 Olympics -- was completely renovated and other venues were built around the Los Angeles area. Peter Ueberroth, the president of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee, ushered in a new era of corporate financing and full-blown commercialism at the Olympics.
The Los Angeles Games would be fully financed by the private sector and became a colossal merchandising opportunity with everything from soft drinks to computers prominently on sale The corporations' bottom line became more important than who crossed the finish line.
Whatever the misgivings of the corporate influence over the Games, Ueberroth's organization of the world's largest sporting event earned him Time magazine's Man of the Year, and more importantly, the Los Angeles Games recorded a profit of $150 million (US).
Profits were not the only thing that increased. Twelve women's events were added in Los Angeles, including the marathon, cycling road race, rhythmic gymnastics (won by Canadian Lori Fung) and synchronized swimming. Baseball and tennis were added as demonstration sports.
Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis raises his arms as he crosses the line to anchor the USA team to victory in the 4x100-metre relay during the 1984 Olympic Games. (Steve Powell/Getty Images) The Los Angeles Games belonged to one man - Carl Lewis. After a total of two minutes and 26 seconds of competition in the Coliseum, the 23-year-old Lewis equalled the impressive record set Jesse Owens, in 1936 in Berlin - namely winning four gold medals in the same events during a single Olympiad: 100 metres and 200m, 4x100m relay, and the long jump.
Lewis's conquest began with an event in which he was not even considered the favourite - the 100m. Having competed in the qualifying round, the quarter-final, and the semi-final, Lewis took his first gold medal with a time of 9.99 secs ahead of compatriot Sam Graddy. With all of the 100m heats combined, Lewis spent a total of 40.49 seconds on the track.
The second of his events was the long jump. And he gave his adversaries something to reflect upon when he registered the first of his jumps in the first round (8.30m). His first jump of the two permitted in the final was good, an improved 8.54m, the second being illegal. That was enough, however, to give Lewis his second gold medal, with Gary Honey trailing behind. Overall, he spent about 18 seconds in action.
After winning the 200m, the American sprinter finally won his historic fourth gold medal when featuring in the 4x100m relay team, alongside teammates Sam Graddy, Ron Brown and Calvin Smith. Throughout his three runs, Lewis was in possession of the baton for around 26.40 seconds, namely an average of 8.80 seconds in each of his relay heats.
Lewis finally displayed his emotion when he threw himself into the congratulatory huddle of his teammates, not only Olympic champions, but the men who set the only track world record at the Games, and as happy as Lewis to have gained such a spectacular result.
Lewis lit up Los Angeles and the track in the Coliseum which, henceforth, would be remembered, for some, as the Carl Lewiseum.
Careers start in LA
More Americans began legendary careers in Los Angeles. Greg Louganis won gold in the platform and springboard diving events, becoming the first to accomplish the feat since 1928. And while he wasn't the best-known athlete in LA, Michael Jordan starred for the victorious American basketball team, prior to his rise as one of the world's most popular athletes.
The Americans, however, had lots of company on centre state. Romania's Ecaterina Szabo won four gold and added a silver in women's gymnastics. China's Li Ning went one better, capturing six medals in men's gymnastics, including three gold, two silvers and a bronze.
Even in gymnastics, though, the Americans made huge gains with the Soviets on the sidelines. The U.S., China and Japan (the Soviet Union's archrival in men's gymnastics) pretty evenly divided the men's gymnastics medals, with the American men, led by Bart Conner, Peter Vidmar and Mitch Gaylord, won three gold (including the team event), three silver and two bronze.
It was the best showing by the American men in decades, but it was overshadowed by the eternally perky, pint-sized Mary Lou Retton, whose perma-grin made her a fan favourite. Retton won medals in five of the six events, including the all-around gold.
Canadian highlights
It turned out that no one had more to gain from the absence of the Soviet bloc than the Canadian team. For the previous several Olympics, Canada had been mired around 25th place in the medal standings, averaging about six medals per Games.
No Canadian had even won a gold medal since 1968, although there had long been quiet griping that Canada's futility was due to going up against athletes whose national federations had them pumped up on performance-enhancing drugs.
All that changed dramatically in L.A. Canada won 44 medals in 1984 -- fourth overall and its highest total ever. Canada did have one of its strongest teams in history, but the absence of the Eastern Bloc countries no doubt inflated its medal haul, although the Canadian world-record performances in the swimming pool, in particular, suggest that this was indeed a team that could take on the world.
The Canadian flagbearer at the opening Ceremony would prove more than worthy of the honour. Alex Baumann swam to gold in the 200m individual medley and broke his own world record in the 400m individual medley, earning his second gold.
Victor Davis added gold and a world record in the 200m breaststroke and won a couple of silvers, one in the 100m breaststroke and another as a member of the 4X100m relay team. Anne Ottenbrite led the women in the pool with a breaststroke gold, a silver and a bronze.
In one of the closest races in Olympic cycling history, Steve Bauer was edged out for gold in the 190-kilometre road race. There was another silver lining for Canadian boxers, who had to make do with silver medals to light middleweight boxer Shawn O'Sullivan and heavyweight Willie DeWitt, both of whom lost controversial decisions in their gold medal bouts.
It seems like a footnote now in the bigger stories of the L.A. Games and the doping scandals of the track and field world since, but four years before the infamous drug scandal in Seoul, sprinter Ben Johnson won bronze in the 100 metres. He got to keep that medal.
