BOYCOTT OR NON-PARTICIPATION? ON THE ABSENCE OF CHECHOSLOVAKIA FROM THE XXIIRD OLYMPIAD 1984 IN

by Frantisek Kolar

he leaders of the Czechoslovak Olympic move- but after the military invasion of Tment found that the city, to which the organiza- by forces of the Pact, the Soviet commu- tion of XXIIIrd had been entrusted nists wanted to improve their international image in 1978, did not fully observe its obligations.... to through the Olympic Games. Thus of create conditions adequate for the Olympic Games had priority. And so, as soon as May in conformity with the Olympic idea and its peace 1970, representatives at the IOC Session mission in Amsterdam presented their candidature for "Due to the above-mentioned reason, the the XXIst Olympiad against candidatures of Los Czechoslovak Olympic Committee decided not Angeles and Montreal. In the course of a close to send Czechoslovak athletes to participate in fight where ideological aspects played a certain the Olympic Games. It was not an easy deci- role and where even politicians became involved,6 sion. In no case was it meant as a boycott on the the Olympic Games 1976 were assigned to the Olympiad. On the contrary, this decision repre- Canadian city of Montreal a city that had captivat- sents the determination to protect and to develop ed the world with World Exposition in 1967. Four Olympic ideals."2 years later, in October 1974, at the IOC Session in The first obvious political abuse of Olympic Vienna, there were only two candidates for organ- Games occurred in 1936 when izing the XXIInd Olympiad 1980 - Los Angeles and tried to use the Games in order to promote the Moscow. The capital of the Soviet Union was a fa- Nazi regime. He spared no expense constructing vourite, winning straight away in the first round the most modern sports arenas seen at the time; he with the majority of a third of the votes.7 underwrote the Olympic torch relay and also the The first August day of the following year 1975, production of the first authentic Olympic film.3 In supreme representatives of 33 European coun- 1952, athletes of the Soviet Union arrived at the tries, USA and assembled in to Olympiad in Helsinki and their main task was to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security win and thus to demonstrate the superiority of the and Cooperation in Europe. The Act determined communist way of life.4 principles of further coexistence of countries on Sporting excellence and Olympic victory would this continent. Unfortunately, the signature of the raise the profile of the country and help end their Act did not reflect any change in politics of the isolation from the international community. This Soviet Communists and their allies, on the contrary. was what ULLBRICHT and HONNECKER'S German Therefore, in the course of 1978, voices were heard in Democratic Republic and CASTRO'S intended USA, warning that the Olympic Games in Moscow to do. The games themselves had become so im- would be misused in the same way as it happened portant that serious political abuse escalated in the in Berlin 1936, and that the Games would become 1970s. In Munich in September 1972, Palestinian primarily an "apologist for communism". There was terrorists captured members of the Israeli team as even a request to transfer the Games to another city hostages. They wanted to bring about the release of in another country. What was initially "a silent anti- their comrades from Israeli prisons, yet in a d