US athletes come to terms with 1980 boycott

NEW YORK • The athletes who would have represented the United States at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow are an older crew now, two generations removed from missing what for some was a once-in-a-lifetime chance in the spotlight.

Some are retired or semi-retired from their post-athletic careers. Some are grandparents. Life has happened.

And yet no one in a position of authority has ever made a formal apology for what even President Jimmy Carter, who ordered the American boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, has said was a mistake.

Olympic Games past and present are on a lot of minds, since the Tokyo Games would have been going on now had they not been postponed until next year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

So on July 19, the 40th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the Moscow Games, the chief executive of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), Sarah Hirshland, posted a letter that came awfully close to an apology.

In the letter, addressed to "the athletes of the 1980 US Olympic team," she wrote: "It's abundantly clear in hindsight that the decision to not send a team to Moscow had no impact on the global politics of the era and instead only harmed you - American athletes who had dedicated themselves to excellence and the chance to represent the US.

"We can clearly state you deserved better. You deserved the support of an inspired nation, to be celebrated for representing our country with pride and excellence."

Her letter came after former vice-president Walter Mondale delivered a partial apology.

"I think we did the right thing," Mondale told The Wall Street Journal in April. But I'm sorry about how it hurt them."

The effect has been mixed. For some athletes, there was a degree of appreciation, but as Benn Fields, the US champion in the high jump that year, put it, "It's a little too late, 40 years later."

That is not the fault of Hirshland, who has been in her job for just two years.

Also, the USOPC, which promoted the 1980 athletes recently on TeamUSA.org, considers them Olympians, though the International Olympic Committee does not.

The 1980 boycott was the result of several months of ultimatums and ultimately failed negotiations after President Carter began to push hard for it early that year.

The USOPC dared not defy the president, who tried to garner support from as many allies as possible. Ultimately dozens of countries, including Canada, Singapore and West Germany, joined the boycott.

But in the decades since, most international sports officials and many political leaders have fought to discourage Olympic boycotts, arguing they merely sacrifice an athlete's right to compete and make a living, and do not lead to changes in policy.

Some of the athletes did not see the Hirshland letter, which was posted on the USOPC website and Twitter, and also distributed by the organisation's alumni group.

But it turns out 40 years has helped heal some scars.

"I haven't seen the letter, and I've moved on from 1980," Renaldo Nehemiah, 61, a former world record-holder in the 110m hurdles who was considered a favourite for gold in Moscow said.

"No words can change history. Fortunately, 1980 didn't define me or my career."

Nehemiah did not wait for 1984, deciding instead to pursue a career in the National Football League at a time when the Olympics were basically an amateur-only affair and training four more years meant passing on earning income.

Others did wait.

Steve Scott, who ran the mile, and Edwin Moses, the 400m hurdles champion, competed at the 1984 and 1988 Games. Tracy Caulkins picked up three gold medals in swimming in 1984.

And yet even for those who got another chance, missing 1980 still sticks in their craw, and Hirshland's letter was something of a salve.

The winning time in Moses' absence in the event in Moscow was 48.70sec, more than a second slower than the winning time he ran in 1976.

"I could have done a cartwheel at the end of the race in 1980 and still won," said Moses, 64, who also received a personal letter from Susanne Lyons, the chair of the USOPC, acknowledging the unfortunate decisions of 1980.

"I appreciated that," he said of the letter.

NYTIMES