The Olympics nobody remembers

Perhaps in time, many will forget the extraordinary events that surrounded these Tokyo Olympics. After all, regardless of circumstances, participation is always a matter of choice. Japan and the International Olympic Committee are pushing on, and imposing strict protocols for all who attend. In the future, people will first recall the sterling triumphs at the games, more than anything else. There are many previous Olympics where the unusual happened, which people no longer seem to recall. After all, it has only been during world wars (1916, 1940, 1944) that the Olympics have been cancelled.

For this list, we’re not talking about terrible events that happened during the competition, like the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972, or the bombing in Atlanta 20 years later. Rather, we’re discussing events that took place prior to the hosting of the Olympics that could have hurt the actual staging. There have been moments that tainted the quadrennial spectacle, but have since been forgotten.

The close call: Berlin, 1936. In 1920, Germany was disinvited from the Antwerp Olympics for starting World War I, the first such occurrence in Olympic history. Sixteen years later, Adolph Hitler would host the Games in Berlin, but under the Nazi flag. A Catholic coalition in the US called for a boycott. But US Olympic Committee head Avery Brundage, an admitted Germophile, did the opposite, sending the largest American delegation in history at that point, making up 10 percent of all participating athletes. As a side note, the Philippine Islands was cheated out of a possible gold medal (twice) at the inaugural Olympic basketball tournament.

Massacre in Mexico, 1968. Ten days before the opening of the Summer Games in Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on unarmed student protesters, killing hundreds, perhaps thousands, in a section of Mexico City itself. Ironically, the Tlatelolco Massacre, as it was called, stood in harsh contrast to the theme of peace of those Games. Symbolic dove icons dotted the surroundings. Even while medals were being contested, students were disappearing or allegedly being tortured. The IOC kept mum on all the oppression, and people remember the “Black Power” salute of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, more then anything else.

US boycott, Moscow, 1980. This was largely a result of NATO condemning the USSR the previous December for invading Afghanistan. But calls to boycott Moscow for Soviet human rights violations started as early as 1975. US president Jimmy Carter joined Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov’s plea to boycott the Games. This gave broadcast mogul Ted Turner the opportunity to stage his own neutral version of the Olympics, which he called “The Goodwill Games.” Basketball fans remember this because Isiah Thomas did not get to play in those Olympics.

Soviet boycott, Los Angeles, 1984. In retaliation, the Soviet bloc, made up of 17 countries, was called upon to skip the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Of course, this inevitably did not make that big an impact, given Peter Ueberroth’s genius at organization and marketing. Instead, LA became known as “16 Days of Glory,” and the first modern Olympics to make money, not lose a ton of it. It also heralded the ascendancy of a certain Michael Jordan.

All those events couldn’t stop the Games from going on, but give one pause.