1984 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Host city Los Angeles, California, USA
Nations participating 140
Athletes participating 6,829
(5,263 men, 1,566 women)[1]
Events 221 in 23 sports
Opening ceremony July 28
Closing ceremony August 12
Officially opened by President Ronald Reagan
Athlete's Oath Edwin Moses (athlete)
Judge's Oath Sharon Weber
Olympic Torch Rafer Johnson (decathlete)
Stadium Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Music sample:

"Olympic Fanfare and Theme"

composed by John Williams for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
Problems listening to the file? See media help.

The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984. Los Angeles was selected as the host of the Games on May 18, 1978 on the 79th IOC session at Athens, Greece, without a vote, because it was the only city that entered a bid to host the 1984 Summer Olympics. Many blamed this on the massive cost overruns of the 1976 Games, staged in Montreal.

In response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany (but not Romania) boycotted the Games. For differing reasons, Iran and Libya also boycotted. The USSR announced its intention not to participate on May 8, 1984, citing security concerns and "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States"[2]. The Los Angeles boycott influenced a large number of events that were normally dominated by the absent countries. Boycotting countries organized a rival event in July-August 1984, called the Friendship Games.

California was the home state of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games. He had served as governor of the state from 1967 to 1975. The official mascot of the Los Angeles Games was Sam the Olympic Eagle.

Contents

[edit] Torch Relay

The 1984 Olympic Torch Relay began in New York City and ended in Los Angeles, traversing 33 states and Washington, D.C. Unlike later torch relays, the torch was always carried by runners on foot. It covered more than 9,320 mi (15,000 km) and involved 3616 different runners, including 200 runners from the sponsoring company AT&T. O.J. Simpson was among the runners, carrying the torch up the California Incline in Santa Monica.

Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics, was the final torch relay runner. He used the Olympic torch to activate a specially-built Olympic logo, whose flame would circle around the five Olympic rings. The cauldron above the logo was later activated by a switch used inside the press box of the Coliseum.

[edit] Music

John Williams composed the theme for the Olympiad, "Olympic Fanfare and Theme." This piece won a Grammy for Williams and became one of the most well-known musical themes of the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's Bugler's Dream; the latter is sometimes attached to the beginning of Olympic Fanfare and Theme. The famous Brazilian composer Sergio Mendes also composed a special song for the 1984 Olympic Games, "Olympia," from his 1984 album Confetti. A choir of several hundred voices was assembled of singers in the region. All were volunteers from nearby churches, schools and universities.

[edit] Highlights

  • Though a Warsaw Pact country, Romania (then ruled by Nicolae Ceauşescu) did not boycott the Games and finished third in the medal rankings, winning 53 medals, more than in any other Olympics.
  • Carl Lewis made his first of four appearances in the Olympics, equalled the performance of Jesse Owens of 1936, and won four gold medals in the 100 m, 200 m, 4x100 m relay; and the Long jump.
  • During the women's 3000 meter track final, U.S. contender Mary Decker collided with the lead runner Zola Budd representing Great Britain, causing the American to stumble and fall onto the infield, unable to continue. Amidst a loud and hostile crowd reaction to the incident, Budd fell back to a 7th place finish. Zola Budd told journalists that she tried to apologise to Decker in the tunnel leading away from the track after the race, but was told abruptly, "Don't bother."[3] At first, Budd was disqualified, but the disqualification was reversed one hour after the race when the jury decided that she had not purposely done anything to stop Decker, which was what had been claimed by the American team officials.[4]
  • The first gold medal to be awarded at the Los Angeles Olympics was also the first-ever medal to be won by an athlete from China when Xu Haifeng won the 50 m Pistol event.
  • Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco became the first female Olympic champion of a Muslim nation, and the first of her country in the 400 m hurdles.
  • Carlos Lopes, from Portugal won the Marathon (2:09.21- still the marathon olympic record). It was the first Gold Medal ever to Portugal.
  • A marathon for women is held for the first time at the Olympics (won by Joan Benoit). The event considered notable because of Swiss runner Gabi Andersen-Schiess, who - suffering from heat exhaustion - stumbled through the last lap, providing dramatic images.
  • Synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics debuted in Los Angeles as Olympic events, as did wind surfing.
  • Following the IOC agreement to designate the Republic of China (Taiwan) Chinese Taipei, the People's Republic of China appeared in the Olympics as China and won 15 gold medals. In weightlifting, athletes from the Chinese Taipei and China teams won medals at the same event.
  • Steve Redgrave won his first title in rowing of the record five he would go on to win in five Olympic competitions.
  • Daley Thompson apparently missed a new world record in winning his second consecutive gold medal in the decathlon; the next year his score was retroactively raised to 8847, giving him the record.
  • Victor Davis set a new world record in winning the gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke in swimming.
  • Mary Lou Retton became the first gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the gymnastics all-around competition. Only 1 of the 11 women who won gold medals at the 1983 World Championships competed because of the boycott.
  • In men's gymnastics the American team won the Gold Medal.
  • France won the Olympic soccer tournament, defeating Brazil 2-0 in the final. Olympic soccer was unexpectedly played before massive crowds throughout America, with several sell-outs at the 100,000+ seat Rose Bowl.
  • The opening ceremony featured the arrival of Bill Suitor by means of the Bell Aerosystems rocket pack (also known as a Jet Pack).
  • Professional wrestler Samoa Joe (then aged 5) appeared at the opening ceremony as a dancer. Another pro wrestler, Chris Adams appeared as an advisor to the British Judo squad, traveling concurrently between Los Angeles and Dallas during the competition.
  • The Soviet-led boycott affected weightlifting more than any other sport: 94 of the world's top 100 ranked lifters were absent, as were 29 of the 30 medalists from the recent world championships. All 10 of the defending world champions in the 10 weight categories were absent.
  • Eleven athletes failed drug tests at the Los Angeles Games. It was reported that as many as 17 other "A samples" were found to be positive but, as the athletes' code numbers were missing, no "B samples" were tested[citation needed].

[edit] Venues

[edit] Los Angeles venues

[edit] Southern California venues

[edit] Other venues

[edit] Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

[edit] Demonstration sports

[edit] Medal count

Main article: 1984 Summer Olympics medal count

These are the top medal-collecting nations for the 1984 Games. (Host country is highlighted) and (Highest amount in bold).

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States United States 83 61 30 174
2 Romania Romania 20 16 17 53
3 West Germany West Germany 17 19 23 59
4 China China 15 8 9 32
5 Italy Italy 14 6 12 32
6 Canada Canada 10 18 16 44
7 Japan Japan 10 8 14 32
8 New Zealand New Zealand 8 1 2 11
9 Yugoslavia Yugoslavia 7 4 7 18
10 South Korea South Korea 6 6 7 19

[edit] Participating nations

Participating nations
Participating nations

Athletes from 140 nations competed at the Los Angeles Games. The following countries made their first Olympic appearance in 1984: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, People's Republic of China, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Grenada, Mauritania, Mauritius, North Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Soloman Islands, Tonga, and the United Arab Emirates.

[edit] Boycotting countries

Boycotting countries shown in red and orange
Boycotting countries shown in red and orange

14 countries took part in the Soviet led boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games [1]:

Flag of Iran Iran and Flag of Libya Libya also boycotted the games, citing political reasons, but were not a part of the Soviet led boycott.

[edit] Los Angeles as host city

 This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Following the news of the massive financial losses of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, only Los Angeles and for a brief time Tehran expressed interest in hosting the 1984 games. This was seen as a major threat to the future of the Olympic Games. However, with the financially successful Los Angeles Games, cities began to line up to be hosts again. The Los Angeles and Montreal Games are seen as examples of what to do and what not to do when organizing the Olympics, and serve as object lessons to prospective host cities. While Montreal organizers ran up a substantial debt eight years earlier by constructing many new, overly ambitiously designed venues, the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee relied heavily on the use of area venues that were already in existence. The Olympic Velodrome and the Olympic Swim Stadium, funded largely by the 7-Eleven and McDonald's corporations respectively, were the only two new venues constructed specifically for the L.A. Games. The resulting low construction costs, coupled with a heavy reliance on private corporate funding, allowed the Games to generate a profit of more than $200 million, making them by far the most financially successful in history. [5]

[edit] In popular culture

McDonald's ran a promotion entitled "When the U.S. Wins, You Win" where customers scratched off a ticket and if the U.S. won that event then they would be given a free menu item: a Big Mac for a gold medal, an order of french fries for a silver medal, and a Coca-Cola for a bronze medal.[6]

This promotion was parodied in the Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word", where Krusty Burger runs a similar offer. The promotion was intended to be rigged so that prizes would only be offered in events dominated by the Eastern Bloc, but the Soviet-led boycott causes Krusty to personally lose 44 million dollars. He vehemently promises "to spit in every fiftieth burger", to which Homer retorts "I like those odds!" Chief Wiggum also exclaims that he could kiss Carl Lewis, who won four gold medals at the Games.

The games were mentioned at beginning of the game show, Press Your Luck since the show was based in California and several Olympic-Themed Whammies would appear if a player stopped the board on them including one carrying the Olympic Torch among others.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Games of the XXIII Olympiad". International Olympic Committee.
  2. ^ Burns, John F. Protests are Issue: Russians Charge 'Gross Flouting' of the Ideals of the Competition. New York Times, 9 May 1984
  3. ^ "Zola Budd in race trip controversy", BBC ON THIS DAY, 11 August (1984). Accessed January 29, 2007.
  4. ^ "Los Angeles 1984", Official Website of the Swedish Olympic Committee, English version. Accessed January 28, 2007.
  5. ^ "LA the Best Site, Bid Group Insists; Olympics: Despite USOC rejection", Los Angeles Times (Jul 25, 2004). Retrieved on 2008-08-17. 
  6. ^ ADVERTISING; BIG MAC'S OLYMPIC GIVEAWAY - Free Preview - The New York Times

[edit] See also

[edit] Olympics with significant boycotts

[edit] External links

  • Whitakers Olympic Almanack 2004 ISBN 0-7136-6724-9.
  • Bill Henry,An Approved History of the Olympic Games,ISBN 0-88284-243-9.
  • Greg Andranovich, Matthew J. Burbank, Charles H. Heying, "Olympic cities: lessons learned from Mega-Event Politics", Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 23-2, 2001.
Preceded by
Moscow		 Summer Olympic Games
Host City
XXIII Olympiad (1984)		 Succeeded by
Seoul
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