1980 Summer Olympic Protest

The 1980 Summer Olympic protest was wrong of all countries participating because politics should never interfere with athletics. The protesting of the olympics demonstrated that it hurts the athletes the most and harms the game itself. The first instance of politics affecting the Olympics was in 1936 when Germany hosted and tried to promote the idea of superiority with its Aryan race. Adolf Hitler used the Olympic’s as a platform to show how great Germany was after being rebuilt after the Treaty of Versailles. The German national team had a strict Aryan only policy for athletes and the United States nearly boycotted the Olympics but the United States Olympic Committee didn’t so the athletes would not be deprived of the opportunities to compete for their country. The hero of the games for the United States was sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, he was african-american who was a winner in his four olympic events. The four events he won were the one hundred meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter relay, and set the world record in long jump that day. Jesse Owens by himself destroyed the political goals of Hitler during the Olympics by showing that the Aryan race was not the dominant force that would reign over the games (Ockerman). In 1968 during the Mexico City Olympics with the host country of Mexico two olympic medalist …show more content…
President Carter harmed jeopardized the Olympic movement and destroyed the careers of the Olympic athletes denied the opportunity to compete in Moscow. In Moscow only 80 countries participated (Coldwarhist), in 1976 the number of countries participating was 92, and 140 countries participated in the 1984 olympics. The Olympic competition in 1980 was not as intense compared to other games because the games were missing top athletes from other countries due to the