Jump to content

1984 Summer Olympics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.181.14.196 (talk) at 21:44, 30 May 2008 (→Los Angeles as host city). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Sound sample box align right

"Olympic Fanfare and Theme"
composed by John Williams for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Template:Sample box end The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, were celebrated in 1984 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Los Angeles was selected on May 18 1978 on the 79th IOC session at Athens, Greece, without voting, 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 Summer Olympics hosted in Montreal.

In view of the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics caused 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany (but not Romania) to boycott these Olympics. For differing reasons, Iran and Libya also boycotted. 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]. The Los Angeles 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.

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.

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.

Music

John Williams composed the theme for the Olympiad, Olympic Fanfare and Theme. The song won a Grammy Award for Williams and became one of the commonly known musical themes for the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's Bugler's Dream which is still used today as the main theme and 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.

Highlights

  • The Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX was built for the Olympics.
  • The Harbor Freeway, known as State Route 11, was renumbered as Interstate 110 prior to the games. The freeway itself passes Exposition Park, the site of the games. Shortly thereafter, State Route 7 - the Long Beach Freeway - became Interstate 710.
  • George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" was played at the opening ceremony, featuring 88 Baby Grand Pianos aligned around a portion of the perimeter of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
  • 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).
  • All Los Angeles radio and television stations covered the Olympics extensively throughout the event. Pete Arbogast, then an unknown 29-year-old sportscaster, worked his first major assignment by covering the Olympics for both radio station KNX and for the CBS Radio Network. Geoff Nathanson's first major assignment was also the L.A. Olympics.
  • The USC Marching Band performed during the opening ceremonies.
  • L.A. Coliseum public address announcer Dennis Packer served as one of the voices of the events at the historic stadium, including the opening ceremonies.
  • Though a Warsaw Pact country, Romania (then ruled by Nicolae Ceauşescu) did not boycott the Games and finished second in the medal rankings, winning 53 medals, more than in any other Olympics
  • This Olympics marked the first time the President of the United States opened Olympic games held in the United States, although future Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon had opened the 1932 and 1960 Winter Olympics in their roles as Governor of New York and Vice President, respectively..
  • Carl Lewis makes his first of four appearances in the Olympics, and equals the performance of Jesse Owens of 1936 and wins four gold medals in the 100 m, 200 m, 4x100 m relay and the Long Jump.
  • The success of the Los Angeles Olympics led to the 1986 birth of the Los Angeles Marathon, held on the first Sunday of every March.
  • During the women's 3000 meter track final, U.S. contender Mary Decker collides 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 falls 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]
  • 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 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. 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 USA team won gold and then placed 11th in Seoul 88. No other gold medal winning country since 1948 had ever failed to medal at the next Olympiad in which they competed (until China in Athens 2004 when they dropped to 5th).
  • 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. [1]
  • 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, the late 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 last world championships. All 10 of the defending world champions in the 10 weight categories were absent.
  • After the 1984 Games it was admitted that many of the United States cycling team had indulged in "blood boosting" procedures - not illegal at the time but made illegal shortly afterwards.
  • 11 athletes failed drug tests. It was reported that as many as 17 other A samples were found to be positive but as the athletes code numbers went missing no B samples were tested.

Venues

Los Angeles venues

Southern California venues

Other venues

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Demonstration sports

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).

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

Participating nations

Participating nations

Athletes from 140 nations competed at the Los Angeles Games. This was the first Olympics appearance by the People's Republic of China.

Boycotting countries

Boycotting countries shown in red and orange

14 Countries took part in the Soviet led boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games [2]:

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

Los Angeles as 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 Olymnnnnpics. 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. 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).

McDonalds ran a promotion entitled "When the U.S. Wins, You Win" where customers scratched off a ticket and if the US 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.[4] The company lost millions of dollars when the Soviet boycott let the US athletes fare better than they otherwise would have. This was parodied in the Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word" where Krusty Burger runs a similar promotion, although rigged to only offer prizes in events dominated by the Soviets. The Soviet boycott caused Krusty the Clown to personally lose 44 million dollars and vehemently promise "to spit in every fiftieth burger".

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.
  4. ^ ADVERTISING; BIG MAC'S OLYMPIC GIVEAWAY - Free Preview - The New York Times

See also

Olympics with significant boycotts

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1984 Summer Olympics.

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.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1984_Summer_Olympics&oldid=216055245"