Did the 1980 Olympic boycott destroy Track and Field ?

"Destroy" is a strong word. I would not go that far but it did show us that the federal government apparently has the right to stop athletes from competing any time it chooses. Up to that point, I had the naive assumption that we were living in a free country. The boycott sure made a lot of athletes think long and hard about devoting their lives to training if they could be prevented from competing in the Olympics for purely political purposes. The whole idea of the Olympics is that for a few weeks every four years the nations of the world forget the bs politics and let the people of the world come together and compete. Thats a high sounding goal which has no basis in reality. Everyone was hurt by the boycott, not just the elite runners.

Didn't Kenya suffer through two boycotts???

You missed my point in that many feel T-F isnt what it used to be and in the 70s it was still a thriving sport. However, since the 70s the popularity of T-F has fallen, can the fall of track and field be attributed the 8 year abscence in the Olympics ?

Can any oldtimer tell us of a athlete who career was ended or was poised for greatness but never came through after the boycott ?

up all night wrote:

Didn't Kenya suffer through two boycotts???

1976 and 1980. And Ethiopia skipped 3 of 4 (76, 84, and 88). And people wonder why in the 90s there was an explosion of African talent.

I did some research on this for a class. The end of Cold War hurt track, particularly in the US. We no longer cared about our international athletic performances.

Where is Kenny Moore when you need him ?

Speaking as an old timer, the boycott hurt the popularity of track in the US, but it was not cataclysmic.

Track and field went on a slow fade through the late fifties and sixties as its amateur approach was outdone by the professional approach of basketball, baseball, and football.

I disagree. Track and Field didn't fade until the mid 70's.

There were a number of factors that helped push track and field out of fan appeal.

1. College basketball (Big East) grew very quickly in popularity and filled up arenas that used to be half empty in the late 60's early 70's. I still remember when St. John's was thinking of dropping the Holiday Classic in MSG because it didn't draw. Five years later, MSG was sold out as the Big East became a major player in college basketball.

2. Cost of running indoor meets at major arenas became too much for track meets to cover and make money. bringing in Olympians from Europe and Russia became too expensive.

3. Indoor tracks grew to 200 meter banked and larger making small 11 lapped banked tracks user "unfriendly"

4. Outdoor meets between major college teams lost many fans when scholarships were cut from 32 to 18 and eventually 12.6. Many teams could no longer field full, competitive squads. The big meets between USC and UCLA, USC and Tennessee, etc. disappeared. Even the major Relay carnivals, once packed with fans, died back with only Penn Relays and Drake Relays having big crowds.

The 1980 boycott was traumatic and certainly left a bad taste for many of our Olympians, but that changed when the 1984 Olympics were held in LA, despite the no show of the Russians.

5.

If you look at the Olympics 1976 and before, then look at the Olympics 1984 and after, the only logical conclusion is that it hurt USA track and field. Throw in the tragic death of a running superstar and its called fade away.

I'd have to say TAC's tragic mismanagement of the sport in the 80s was a much bigger factor than the 1980 boycott.

jsquire, care to share more ?

The boycott did hurt the top athletes in 1980, but it didn't kill the sport.

What is killing the sport is that TV executives have not found a way to broadcast a track meet with a lot of excitment. There is nothing like a high flying dunk or grandslam home run in track that can occur at any moment.

Commercial breaks and lack of a real team feel make it too disjointed.

Two runners that I remember being poised for greatness before the 1980 Olympics were U. of Oregon runners Rudy Chapa and Bill McChesney. Both were high school standouts--their H.S. two mile times were similar to that of Prefontaine, Craig Virgin, and Dathan Ritz. I remember McChesney making the Olympic team and then getting down on his hands and knees and kissing the track, as the boycott was imminent. I don't remember if Chapa made the team. Never heard a word about either of them after that (except Chapa's son is running for, who?, Stanford or Oregon?).

Bill Rogers was going to wear a black arm band during the Boston Marathon that year too, but some people talked him out of it.

If I remember correctly, I think NBC or ABC had already paid the Olympic committee millions for the TV rights when President Carter first announced the boycott. I assume that money was lost. The nightly news wouldn't even cover the Olympics in 1980--except one night they showed a guy in the stands in Moscow waving an American flag.

Boycotts sometimes help you win in a struggle, as the Alabama bus boycott did in 1955, but it is doubtful that boycotts help to change hearts--which gets you further in the long run. Boycotting the 1980 Olympics made everything worse.

And for those who are interested, Kenya did boycott in Olympics ('72 and '76 as I remember) in the 1970's to protest South African Aparthied.

perspective wrote:

Speaking as an old timer, the boycott hurt the popularity of track in the US, but it was not cataclysmic.

Track and field went on a slow fade through the late fifties and sixties as its amateur approach was outdone by the professional approach of basketball, baseball, and football.

As another old timer, I agree. The '80 boycott was a body blow to US t&f, but the '84 Olympics in LA stimulated a new (if temporary) flurry of interest. However, the long-term trends were clear: amateur sports were dropping steadily in the consciousness of the American public.

How bad was Julie Browns career hurt by the boycott ?

Technically, the USOC voted not to go albeit under a great deal of pressure from President Boob.

However, the ideal of the Olympics stopping wars was a legend. In reality, athletes were let to pass, but wars did not stop.

Finally, there are limits in any free country even when it comes to travel. Tried to go to Cuba lately?

Kenya boycotted in 76 (to protest NZ playing a rugby match in South Africa) and again in 1980 (to go along with the US).

Remember Kip's 3kSC gold in 72?

And Ethiopia boycotted in 76 (as did all of Africa), 84 (with the Soviets) and again in 88 (with N Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua).

In '68, Smith and Carlos were kicked out of the olympics for their political activism. Twelve years later, Carter made the ultimate politcal statement in the realm of athletics w/ the boycott of the Moscow olympics. I viewed the boycott as a sign of weakness on our part.

justthefacts wrote:

4. Outdoor meets between major college teams lost many fans when scholarships were cut from 32 to 18 and eventually 12.6. Many teams could no longer field full, competitive squads. The big meets between USC and UCLA, USC and Tennessee, etc. disappeared. Even the major Relay carnivals, once packed with fans, died back with only Penn Relays and Drake Relays having big crowds.

This is not exactly true. The USC-UCLA dual meet this year would have filled most of Hayward Field. Mt. Sac still has large crowds, as does the Texas Relays. Kansas Relays, according to the official figures, had roughly 30,000 this year.

Title IX