Books | Sports

August 3, 2008

The Olympians Who Weren't

The Brothers Caraccioli cataloged the shattered hopes and broken dreams of the US athletes who didn't make it to Moscow in 1980.

Max Lakin

Last December, members of the 1980 US Olympic team received honorary Congressional gold medals, a hollow reminder of what could have been, 27 years prior.

Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games is an account of those would-be Olympians, competitors who made it to the doors of athletic heaven and were turned away, forced to play an unwitting part in President Jimmy Carter's attempt to stave off Soviet aggression—athletes like Sue Walsh, who, as a teenager in 1979, swam the fastest 100-meter backstroke and never got to show the world, missing the 1984 qualifier by 0.01 second. At that ceremony in December, Walsh said she didn't understand the politics today any more than she did then.

Boycott is an analysis of the political imbroglio that led to Carter's decision, full of facts and twists that continue to be uncommon knowledge. Boycott dissects what Carter's infamous decision meant to 18 of those athletes, and what it still means today.







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- Books
- posted on Mar 04, 10
Yaneth C.

Why do you boycott?

Article by Max Lakin

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