Talk:1980 Summer Olympics

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i think we should, along with the 1985 olympics, include a list of countries that boycotted it/did not boycott it because of the invasion of afghanistan by the russians. Lockeownzj00 17:12, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 ¿Neutral? 2 Another mistake in the article 3 Socialism/Communism 4 AAFLA 5 Costs 6 New Zealand Boycott 7 Iceland in Moscow 1980.

[edit] ¿Neutral?

This only talks about the bad parts of this Olimpiad, and not of the perfect organization and the hig amounts of records beaten.

Agreed. The American propaganda's POV article. I could add USSR propaganda's POV there, but I don't want to be like those who wrote that example of "goodwill and unpoliticized Americanview on the Olympic Games". I just suggest them to read an article on the Official Website of the Olympic Movement [1] to learn how to write NPOV articles. Cmapm 10:52, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

They should also read the following excerpt from above mentioned website ([2]) (a very good piece of it marked by me):

THE AMERICAN BOYCOTT

The Olympics were disrupted by another, even larger boycott, this one led by U.S. president Jimmy Carter, part of a package of actions to protest the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Carter engaged in extensive arm-twisting to gain support from other nations. Some governments, like those of Great Britain and Australia, supported the boycott but allowed the athletes to decide for themselves whether to go to Moscow. No such freedom of choice was allowed U.S. athletes, as Carter threatened to revoke the passport of any athlete who tried to travel to the USSR. In the end, 65 nations turned down their invitations to the Olympics; probably 45 to 50 did so because of the U.S.-led boycott. Eighty nations did participate - the lowest number since 1956. Cmapm 11:11, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Article reorganized:propaganda stuff removed, additional info from the Official Olympics Website [3] confirmed by other sources added. People's Republic of China removed as "the country that joined boycott":it did not participate for 30 years before. Although, the bad part of the Games in the section American-led boycott (which was moved to the end of the article, see other Games as an example:sports highlights first, surrounding politics next) still prevails: for example, no memorable moments of both opening and closing ceremony mentioned yet. Cmapm 11:11, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, but the boycott was a huge part of the Games (as was the Soviet boycott in '84 and the Munich massacre in '72) and should not be buried at the bottom where many readers may not see it. Funnyhat 21:49, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Well, I partially agree (although the great part of the Games are always sports events, not political surroundings). I'll find time in future to either dedicate an entire section to the Soviet boycott in the 1984 Summer Olympics article (I'll try to make it as large as in this article) or to move the section about boycott here to the separate article, leaving a link to it and a mention in highlights section (like with scandals in 2004 Summer Olympics. Cmapm 12:07, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

You are wrong. USSR called itself socialist state (see its Constitution), dubbed as such. I've also added a new template and created a separate article dedicated to American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics and left a link to it and a mention in highlights section (like for Scandals of the 2004 Summer Olympics in the article about 2004 Summer Olympics). Cmapm 11:49, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Another mistake in the article

"This marked only the second time in which some Olympic events were held in a city other than the official host;".

I've looked into the Official Report submitted by the Organizing Committee of the 1976 Summer Olympics to the IOC [4] (20.42M pdf, section "Facilities outside Montreal") and found, that some events were held in many other cities, including Toronto, Kingston and Ottawa. May be in other prevous games, not only 1956 Summer Olympics, was the same situation (as this is permitted by the Olympic Charter), I just didn't look for it.

To be honest, I also made one mistake, saying "Although most of the countries, which boycotted 1976 Summer Olympics, participated in these ones". Actually, 10 of 22 participated, i.e. approximately a half.

I'll fix all this stuff in a while. Cmapm 17:02, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Oh how I do love the AAFLA site. -- Jonel 18:30, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

I do too :-), but "unfortunately" :-) there are not as many reports on Winter Olympics there so far as for Summer Olympics. Cmapm 19:29, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Socialism/Communism

You cannot say it was the first time an olympics was held in a "socialist" country as socialism is such a broad term meaning any from Maoist-communism to Moderately left leaning democratic parties in Western Europe. London Olympics 1948 was at the time of a "socialist" Labour government. Although the Soviet Union did use the word socialism, refering to it as a socialist state is a perjorative phrase in the west, used by those who generally right leaning. It was the first "communist" country to host the olympics. Dainamo 13:23, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

That sentence was from the IOC website. USSR was declared socialist country and previous states had socialist governments sometimes, but where never declared socialist countries. Well, if you dislike POV of the IOC, then, as at least USSR called itself "socialist country" and never "communist country", you cannot say "communist country" too - to avoid POV.Perhaps it should not be said at all. Cmapm 28 June 2005 10:51 (UTC)

I'm in favor of not mentioning it at all, as it doesn't really seem relevant to anything except the boycott, which is covered sufficiently without this. -- Jonel | Speak 28 June 2005 14:39 (UTC)

At the same time, how many countries are declared capitalist countries? Any country with a communist party, however small, cannot be said to be declared capitalist country, as governments can change. It could be called a communist government

[edit] AAFLA

BTW, for fans of AAFLA :), official report on the Games appeared there this month (as well as the one of Lake Placid 80'). I'll add a link to Reports' page here in a while. Cmapm 28 June 2005 22:54 (UTC)

Is that all of the Summer Games reports up to 2000? No games in '16 or '44... so the only years they seem to not have are '20 and '64. I think I remember reading something about there not being a report in '20 though... -- Jonel | Speak 29 June 2005 00:48 (UTC)

I suppose, that they will scan an almanac or something like that (if any of them exist) for 1920, like for 1904. Since the project is to be finished to the end of this year, the major advance concerning Winter Olympics is expected (with impatience :-)) at some moment in the nearest future. Cmapm 23:44, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Costs

I added costs of the Games from the Official Report, obtained from AAFLA (link to it is in the article. The following claim moved here until "financial experts" are sourced or costs of other Games are available in respective articles: According to financial experts Moscow 1980 was the cheapest Games ever organized for the economic resources of USSR available in the time and its organization´s capacity. Cmapm 11:31, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New Zealand Boycott

New Zealand actually boycotted the 1980 Olympics, but 4 athletes competed as independents. How do I dispute accuracy of the original article?

NZOC

[edit] Iceland in Moscow 1980.

I made a correction, Suriname did not compete in Moscow in 1980, so the correction is Iceland competed in the Moscow Games. (194.74.156.162 22:39, 14 March 2007 (UTC))

I've checked it, you are right. Thanks for the fix! Cmapm 22:54, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't know how I missed that! I have also updated the infoboxes for ISL and SUR, and I have deleted Suriname at the 1980 Summer Olympics. Andrwsc 23:46, 14 March 2007 (UTC)