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 6,797
(5,230 men, 1,567 women)
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:
Peter Ueberroth organized the 1984 Summer Olympics
Peter Ueberroth organized the 1984 Summer Olympics
Official Olympic souvenir program
Official Olympic souvenir program
President Ronald Reagan was from the host state of the Olympics
President Ronald Reagan was from the host state of the Olympics

The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, were held in 1984 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Los Angeles was selected on May 18, 1978 on the 80th IOC session at Athens, Greece, without voting, because it was the only city to bid to host the 1984 Summer Olympics. Many blamed this on the financial losses that hit Montreal two years earlier, when it massively overspent on the 1976 Summer Olympics.

In view of 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 these Olympics. The USSR announced its intention not to participate on May 8, 1984, citing security concerns and stating, that "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States"[1], but some saw it as revenge for the boycott of the Moscow Games. The L. A. boycott influenced a large number of events that were normally dominated by the absent countries. Boycotting countries organized another major event in July-August 1984, called the Friendship Games.

The host state of California was the home state of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who opened the games. The official mascot specially designed for the 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, DC. 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.

[edit] Highlights

  • The Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX was built for the Olympics.
  • George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was played at the opening ceremony
  • The organizers of the Los Angeles Olympics, Chief Executive Officer Peter Ueberroth and Chief Operating Officer Harry Usher, were able to produce a profit of over $200 million. The 1984 Games were the second to make a profit, after only the 1932 Summer Olympics (also in Los Angeles).
  • Though a Warsaw Pact country, Romania (then ruled by Nicolae Ceauşescu), did not boycott the Games and won a national record of 53 medals.
  • This Olympics marked the first time an American president opened an Olympic games held in the United States. The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City were the first Winter Games to be opened by an American president.
  • Carl Lewis makes his first appearance in the Olympics of 4 and equals the performance of Jesse Owens of 1936 and wins four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x400m relay and the Long Jump.
  • During the women's 3000 meter track final, British runner Zola Budd cuts in front of U.S. contender Mary Decker. Her close proximity to Decker causes the American to stumble, make contact with Budd's back, and fall onto the infield, eliminating her from the competition. Budd led briefly, but amidst a loud and hostile crowd reaction to the incident 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."[2] At first, Budd was disqualified, but the disqualification was reversed only an hour after the race when the jury had seen that she had not purposely done anything to stop Decker, which was what had been claimed by the American team officials.[3]
  • Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco becomes the first female Olympic champion of an Islamic nation, and the first of her country in the 400 m hurdles.
  • A marathon for women is held for the first time at the Olympics, won by Joan Benoit. The event is also noted because of Swiss runner Gabi Andersen-Schiess, who - suffering from heat exhaustion - stumbles through the last lap, providing dramatic images.
  • Synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics debut in Los Angeles as Olympic events, as does wind surfing.
  • Following the IOC agreement to designate the Republic of China (Taiwan) "Chinese Taipei", the People's Republic of China appears in the Olympics as "China" and wins 15 gold medals. In weightlifting, athletes from the Chinese Taipei and China teams win medals at the same event.
  • Tennis returns for the first time since the 1924 Summer Olympics, this time as a demonstration sport. Baseball is held as an exhibition for the sixth time.
  • Steve Redgrave wins his first title in rowing of the record five he would go on to win in five Olympic competitions.
  • Daley Thompson apparently misses a new world record in winning his second consecutive gold medal in the decathlon; the next year his score is retroactively raised to 8847, giving him the record.
  • Victor Davis sets a new world record in winning the gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke in swimming.
  • Mary Lou Retton becomes the first gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the gymnastics all-around competition.
  • France wins 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. This tournament is widely credited with planting the seed for the United States to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the rise of American soccer.
  • John Williams composes the theme for the Olympiad, Olympic Fanfare and Theme. It goes on to win a Grammy Award for Williams and becomes one of the commonly known musical themes for the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's Bugler's Dream which is still used.
  • 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 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.

[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 ten nations that won medals at these Games:

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States United States (host nation) 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

Articles about Los Angeles Summer Olympics by nation:

[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]:

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

[edit] Los Angeles - Host City

Following the news of the massive financial losses of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, few cities wished to host the Olympics. 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 prospectant 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. Since then, additional object lessons have been drawn from Atlanta in 1996 (the need to avoid excessive commercialization) and Athens in 2004 (the need to organize and build to schedule).

[edit] Trivia

The famous Brazilian composer Sergio Mendes composed a special song for the 1984 Olympic Games Olympia from his 1984 album Confetti. [2]

The Official Snack is the Snickers chocolate bar.

McDonalds ran a promotion where customers scratched off a ticket and if the US won that event then they would be given a free menu item. The company lost millions of dollars when the Soviet boycott let the US athletes fare better than they otherwise would have.

The above incident involving McDonalds was parodied in the Simpsons episode, Lisa's First Word. In this episode Krusty runs a promotion where Krusty Burger is the "Official Meat-Flavored Sandwich of the 1984 Olympics". In the promotion, scratch off tickets are given out and if the US wins the event indicated on the ticket then the holder of the ticket wins a free burger. The promotion however was rigged so only events where communists usually win are given out. After the Soviet Union boycotts the games Krusty loses 44 million dollars.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Burns, John F. Protests are Issue: Russians Charge ‘Gross Flouting’ of the Ideals of the Competition. New York Times, 9 May 1984
  2. ^ "Zola Budd in race trip controversy", BBC ON THIS DAY, 11 August (1984). Accessed January 29, 2007.
  3. ^ "Los Angeles 1984", Official Website of the Swedish Olympic Committee, English version. Accessed January 28, 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] Olympics with significant boycotts

[edit] External links


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