Originally published on CampusAttic.com on October 30th, 2013
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| Program for 1980 Olympic Trials |
In 1980, the USA and USSR were at each other’s throats. It was one of the
testiest times of the Cold War, highlighted by the Soviets’ invasion of
Afghanistan (watch “Charlie Wilson’s War” to find out all
about it), the ongoing hostage crisis in Iran (watch “Argo” if you can stand Ben Affleck), and
economic difficulties on the home front (watch “How To Beat The High Cost Of Living”,
because it was filmed in Eugene). Thankfully instead of firing actual shots at
each other, the powers instead repeatedly played out political posturing
through sports.
The Miracle on Ice (yes, there’s a movie about that too – “Miracle”) highlighted the 1980 Winter
Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, a moment that almost didn’t happen, as the USSR
had threatened to boycott the games. Well, the Russians did come, leading to
one of the most memorable moments in athletics. The rest,
as they say, is history.
The 1980 Summer Olympics though, held in Moscow, fell flat by comparison,
because unlike the Russians deciding to participate in the winter games despite
their initial objections, the USA along with other countries didn’t return the
courtesy, holding true to a counter-threat to boycott the Moscow summer games
because of the invasion of Afghanistan. No American
athletes made the trip to Moscow to compete in the Summer Games, which did
little to win any political cache or raise nationalistic pride.
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| Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, USSR circa 1980 |
The
USOC (US Olympic Committee) had decided by a 2-to-1 vote to not send its
amateur athletes to Moscow at the delegates meeting in Colorado Springs, CO on
April 12th, 1980, on the basis that the safety of the athletes could not be
guaranteed in a nation so openly hostile to the USA.
It
was deemed that national security would be seriously affected were the
Americans to compete. Other western countries quickly followed suit, as the
athletic battle lines were drawn similarly along the borders of east and west.
Two
Oregon Ducks almost made it to Moscow though despite the boycott, as Oregon
women’s basketball players Alison Lang and Bev Smith both made the roster for
Team Canada, until the Canadians joined with their southern neighbors in also
boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympic Games.
Yet the Olympic Trials went on, with the track & field portion held at
Hayward Field in Eugene, OR. The USOC declared the Olympic Track and Field
Trials the most prestigious track & field meet in the country, and therefore
necessary to continue with or without participation in the Olympics. Athletes
were encouraged to still participate in the trials regardless, on the guise
that an attractive program of international meets could be arranged so that the
best USA had to offer could still compete head-to-head with the best of other
nations regardless of participation in the Moscow Games.
There was further reason for holding the trials in Eugene, as Oregon’s track
teams were among the absolute elite. The men’s team had captured the NCAA
Outdoor title in 1978 and 1979, as well as four straight cross country national
championships 1976 – 1979. The Oregon women’s squad had done one better,
capturing every NCAA cross country title from 1976 through 1980.
By the time of the opening ceremonies in Moscow July 19th 1980, 60 countries
had joined with the United States of America in boycotting the games, perhaps
most surprising being the People’s Republic of China, while equally surprising
was the participation of France and Great Britain in the games, publicly
supporting the boycott but leaving the decision up to the athletes themselves
if they individually wanted to compete.
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| Rudy Chapa and Alberto Salazar were two of Oregon’s biggest hopefuls for Olympic gold. |
It was a time when international affairs left America standing on shaky ground,
dealing with skyrocketing oil prices, an ongoing hostage crisis in Iran, the
USSR’s Afghanistan invasion, and a crumbling economy leaving the Carter
Administration’s competency in question, despite great political achievements
such as the first effective Arab-Israeli peace treaty and raising political
morality through urging human rights having a place in foreign policy.
Yet many questioned if the boycott was more a means of the executive branch
trying to show political strength amidst tough times rather than a direct
matter of athletics. Regardless of the true reasons behind the boycott, the
ones who suffered the most from it would be the athletes. It wasn’t the first
time nations had walked out citing politics over competition. Just four years
prior at the Montreal Summer Games, 32 nations had left the events. This fight
though, which dragged out from the start of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
in late 1979 through the summer of 1980, seemed particularly testy.
The idea of an Olympic boycott actually began with British Parliament urging
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to lead a worldwide boycott until a more
suitable location could be found for the games. Saudi Arabia would be the first
nation to officially declare their non-participation in the Olympics, citing an
invasion by the Soviets on sacred Islamic land as cause to protest.
The Muhammad Ali Amateur Sports Club, which trained over 30 amateur boxers,
many of whom were thought to be favorites to win medals at the games, also
withdrew all competitors citing the same reasons as Saudi Arabia. Shortly
thereafter, at the January 1980 State of the Union Address in congress,
President Jimmy Carter officially announced his intent for the United States to
also boycott the Summer Olympics. A 386-12 vote in the House of Representatives
confirmed Carter’s decree. Yet the final decision would still technically fall
on the USOC, confirmed in their April meeting.
Muhammad Ali became a political envoy on Jimmy Carter’s behalf, traveling the
world using his position as the most famous and popular athlete in the world,
to convince other nations to join the boycott. It was an odd twist after Ali’s
outspoken stance against the US Government during the Vietnam War, which led to
him being barred from boxing in his prime, his case eventually overturned by
the Supreme Court (yup, there’s a movie about it – Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight). However
despite Ali’s misgivings, he also recognized the world nearing the brink of
nuclear war over the Afghanistan issue was a greater cause than his personal
grudges.
But politics aside, ask the athletes involved, and they just wanted to compete.
Would the boycott get the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan? Doubtful. Would the
political ploy convince the USSR that ending communism was in the nation’s best
interest? Of course not. Would the boycott leave American athletes left out of
what they spent years striving for, to compete on the biggest stage? Most
definitely. Those competing didn’t care about politics, they wanted to compete
as athletes.
Some of the athletes attempted a lawsuit against the USOC over the decision, but
lost. The matter was settled, no American athletes would compete in the
Olympics that year. Politics had trumped athletics.
The other big loser in the boycott was NBC, which had paid $85 million ($60
million of which went to the USSR) for rights to broadcast the games, and had
already sold almost 100% of the advertising slots, resigned to only being able
to broadcast the Olympic Trials to showcase America’s top athletes.
A business-as-usual mentality to the Olympic Trials was attempted, as with
trials held in years past at Hayward, cleaning up the grand old facility in
preparation for the crowds and athletes, but the setting felt understandably
hollow. Making the team was simply a ceremonial honor, earning a place on a
team being barred from competing abroad. With the boycott though came concern
that there may not be enough athletes showing up to qualify, so separate
standards were set for qualification in some events lower than previous trials
where the amount of competitors were thought to be light.
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| Mac Wilkins won Olympic gold in 1976 and 1984. |
The
Oregon Track Club yet again sponsored the events at Hayward held June 21st –
29th, 1980, with many athletes with Oregon roots aspiring for a shot at the
international competition, such as Mary Decker, Mac Wilkins, Tom Hintnaus, Rudy
Chapa, and Alberto Salazar.
Over
the nine day competition, a total of 121,727 packed the stands at Hayward
Field, a tribute to the great track & field fans that have given the Eugene
community the well-deserved moniker of ‘Tracktown U.S.A.’
However, despite the Olympic name draw, for the spectators and competitors
alike, this was essentially just another track meet. No greater goal, no trip
to Moscow, just the thrill of competing in front of the Hayward Field crowd.
Further placing a damper on the events was the weather, as it steadily rained
through the first five days of the events, and winds wreaked havoc on official
race times.
Olympic medal favorites Edwin Moses and Mac Wilkins dominated their events,
while a young promising athlete from Houston named Carl Lewis could only muster
a 4th place finish in the 100m after making a name for himself by beating James
Sanford earlier that year. Sanford was the 1979 AAU national champion, and was
expected to win at the trials, but failed to qualify. Further disappointment
came from Billy Mullins, the so-called “fastest man in the world” coming into
the trials, who was unable to compete due to injury.
Oregon’s reputation for great distance runners was confirmed, as Matt
Centrowitz led the pack on his home track in the 5,000m, capturing first place
in a time of 13:30.62. Fellow Oregon Ducks Bill McChesney and Don Clary
finished 3rd and 5th respectively. Mac Wilkins, one of the greatest throwers in
Oregon history, once again dominated the discus with a throw of 225’4”, more
than two feet further than the rest of the competition.
The boycott hit particularly hard for Rudy Chapa, Oregon’s top track athlete of
the era, who had redshirted in 1980 specifically to train for the Olympics…it
was a year of competition lost at the collegiate level in the hopes of reaching
Moscow, something impossible due to politics rather than his athletic ability.
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Edwin
Moses was the most dominant track athlete in the world for nearly a decade.
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Of
the big names attending the trials, if there was one that met and exceeded all
expectations, it was clearly Edwin Moses. Undefeated since the 1977 ISTAF meet
in Berlin, Moses lived up to his hype, finishing first in the 400m hurdles by
more than a second over the next closest competitor at 47.90. Moses brought
home the gold medal in the event at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, and had he
competed in Moscow he almost certainly would have brought home gold again.
On the women’s side, Mary Decker shined, taking first in the 1500m at 4:04.91,
winning by more than 15 yards. Decker dominated women’s distance running in the
70s and 80s, but with 1980 being at her peak her career would be left void of
any medal, when at the 1984 games during what was realistically her last shot
(she competed in the 1988 Olympics as well) she famously collided with Zola Budd of South Africa in the finals
of the one event Decker chose to run — the 3000m.
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| Mary Decker |
The trials wrapped up at the end of June, marred by bad weather and injuries
forcing some of the top competitors out. Yet the event endured, new records
were set, large crowds cheered on athletes competing for the theoretical opportunity
to prove themselves on the international stage.
The finite window in which an athlete is at their peak being only a matter of a
couple years, losing a chance at the Olympics for many meant that they would
never get a taste of the Olympic experience, others missing out on the chance
for redemption after the 1976 games, or looked to 1984 as their last shot. For
those who would make the team in 1984, it once again was somewhat hollow even
in triumph, with the USSR and all of its satellite nations except Romania
refusing to participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.
Over 30 years later since the 1980 boycott, the what-ifs remain. Of those who
competed to join the Olympic team on Hayward’s track, would their names be in
the record books had they made the trip to Moscow? How many of Oregon’s great
track athletes of the era would have an Olympic medal to their credit, the
ultimate achievement for any track & field athlete. For other hopeful
Olympians, such as Florida Gators swimmer Craig Beardsley, who set a new world
record in the 200m butterfly by a second and a half faster than the gold
medal-winning time set by a Soviet swimmer 10 days earlier at the Moscow Games,
it remains forever a sore subject.
The 1980 Summer Olympics remain the only time American athletes have not
competed in the modern era of the games, but for nine days the top athletes the
USA had to offer competed as if they would, on the hollowed track & field
grounds of Hayward Field.
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| Matt Centrowitz and Matthew Centrowitz (courtesy: The Washington Post/Getty Images) |
Yet a fascinating post script to the events occurred nearly
33 years later, with deep Oregon ties. In 1980 it was Matt Centrowitz leading
the way for Oregon distance runners, denied a chance to compete in the 1980
Olympics in the 5,000m. Though he had competed in the 1976 Olympics, he was
knocked out early before medal contention, but in 1980 he would have been
considered a front-runner for a medal.
In 2013 it was his son Matthew Centrowitz, a star on the Oregon track team as a
distance runner just like his dad, who was in Russia for the World
Championships — a Centrowitz was finally inside Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow
competing against the best in the world. The elder Centrowitz had led Oregon to
six national championships, but missed out on the 1980 games to put a memorable
cap on his career.
In 2012 the younger Centrowitz finished 4th in the 1,500m at the London
Olympics, and in Moscow for the 2013 IAAF World Championships on the track
where his dad should have been allowed to compete, Matthew Centrowitz finished
2nd in the 1,500m in a time of 3:36.78. His time that day would have been good
enough to have won the gold medal by more than a second in the 1980 Moscow
Summer Games.
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| Letter from President Jimmy Carter to the athletes and fans of the 1980 Olympic Trials. |
