Monday, August 3, 2009

1984 L.A Olympics Mascot:








1984 L.A Olympics Logo:








1984 L.A Olympics Stadium (Rose Bowl):


[was the venue for the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final too.]


USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2005-04-13-brennan_x.htm



USA Today:


"President Jimmy Carter ordered the boycott after Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. Viewed through the prism of international history, you tend to forget that there were people hurt by this decision, hundreds of young athletes, torn between supporting their president in an international crisis even as they wondered how their lifetime dream had been shattered by an invasion on the other side of the world."


"Some U.S. athletes sued the USOC over the decision but lost. There was nothing more they could do. The Games went on without the Americans and athletes from 64 other countries that joined the U.S.-led boycott."


""People forget what happened in 1980," said Craig Beardsley, a New Jersey kid who set the world record in the 200-meter butterfly 10 days after his Olympic race went off without him. "You meet people, and once they find out you were a swimmer, they usually ask, 'Did you go to the Olympics?' It's never an easy answer, and there's always a footnote. When they ask, 'Oh, did you get a medal?' it's kind of hard to tell them that I was not there because then you have to go into the whole story, and the last thing I'm looking for is sympathy. I just try to avoid the question and change the subject. Kind of like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. ... What do you think of Michael Phelps?'"


"He didn't go to the Olympics, never won the gold medal that certainly could have been his, never reaped the benefits that could have been coming to a U.S. swimmer winning a big race behind the Iron Curtain. He says there is no way to know if he would have won an Olympic gold medal in Moscow on July 20, 1980, the day his race was held, but we do know that on July 30, 1980, he set the world record at the U.S. nationals, swimming a second and a half faster than Sergei Fesenko of the Soviet Union, who won the Olympic gold medal in Moscow.

Beardsley kept training, graduated from the University of Florida, waited four years for another chance at the Olympics. Then, at 23, he missed making the 1984 Olympic team by .36 of a second. "I was devastated," he said. "I felt I owed it to so many people who had stuck with me.""


"The Soviets and East Germans returned the favor in 1984, boycotting L.A. and lessening the competition at the 1984 Games. In a 1991 interview, Russian swimming legend Vladimir Salnikov said he still lamented not facing the Americans in Moscow in 1980, and again in L.A. in 1984. The matching boycotts robbed an entire generation of athletes on both sides of the Iron Curtain of their greatest competition on the world's grandest stage."

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/sports/olympics/14olympics.html


NY Times:


"Ueberroth, the leader of the Los Angeles organizing committee, was asking China to defy a Soviet Union-led boycott that was announced four days earlier. The Soviets said the boycott would keep 100 countries away from the ’84 Games. If the Soviets succeeded, Ueberroth said flatly, “we were done.”



"In 1984, the stakes were higher. The Soviets were recruiting countries to retaliate for the United States’ decision to stay away from the 1980 Moscow Games, a boycott that 61 other countries joined. The Soviets announced on May 8, 1984, that their team would not come to Los Angeles because of fears for their athletes’ safety, claiming they had agreements from 100 countries to do the same.

Ueberroth said he saw the list. At the top was China."



"“People think of the Olympics as a corporate structure,” said Bob Ctvrtlik, who played for the United States volleyball team at the ’84 Games and is now a member of the International Olympic Committee. “It really is not. It relies on relationships. It relies on trust. It relies on people who can cut through cultural differences and find common ground. That was the brilliance of that program.”"

1984 L.A Olympic Games (BBC News)







BBC News:



"The announcement made on Russian TV blamed the commercialisation of the games and a lack of security measures, which amounted to a violation of the Olympic charter."


"The Soviet Union accused the United States of using the games "for political purposes" and "stirring up anti-Soviet propaganda" and of having a "cavalier attitude to security of Russian athletes". "


'Consequences':

"The Russians' withdrawal will devalue the Los Angeles Games far more than the US boycott as it seems certain that top-class athletes from the Eastern Bloc will also be prevented from taking part. "

a record 140 nations did turn up - including China which had not taken part since 1932 - the level of competition was somewhat lopsided with the absence of so many world-class athletes.

As a result the USA won a record 83 gold medals."








SINGAPORE:




Should Singapore support any form of boycott in future Games?





No. Boycotting have many negative consequences, such as that when participating in boycotting our very own athletes can not participate in the most pretigious Games which only occur only once every 4 years.

For instance, Athletes have trained so hard for the day which they dreamt of bringing back medals for their country will be shattered just because we participate in boycotting.

Boycotting strain relationships between countries, and this will put Singapore at risk. This means that we are putting our national security at stake just by participating into any forms of boycott.

Singapore economy depends mainly on their ability to maintain good relationship with other countries. Olympics is about fostering friendship with other countries. Their act of boycott may not give singapore opportunity to excel in the economy due to weakened relationship.


In conclusion, we felt that Singapore should not participate in any forms of boycott.