American Decades
The Olympics: 1980
The Winter Games.
The XIII Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, New York, from 12 to 24 February and included athletes from thirty-seven nations. It was the second time the Winter Games were held in the tiny upstate New York town, the first time being in 1932. Despite horrendous transportation problems the 1980 Winter Games were, as described by one observer, "a glistening festival in which superb athletes performed their feats in superb surroundings." Fortunately, the United States-led movement to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan had virtually no effect on the competition. Instead, the most noteworthy political controversy of the games was the absence of the Taiwanese team, who petitioned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to be excused from the games due to the presence of a team from the People's Republic of China. Politics aside, the 150-member U.S....
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1980's Sports
