1984 Summer Olympics

After the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists in Munich (1972), the significant financial debts of Montreal (1976), and boycotts, few cities by the late 1970s were willing to bid for the Summer Olympics. Only two cities (Tehran and Los Angeles) made serious bids for the 1984 Summer Games, but before the final selection of a "winning" city in 1978, the bid from Tehran was withdrawn as a result of Iran's policy changes following the Iranian Revolution and a change in the country's ruling system. Hence, the selection process for the 1984 Summer Olympics consisted of a single finalized bid from Los Angeles, which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepted. The selection was officially made at the 80th IOC Session in Athens on 18 May 1978.[7]

Los Angeles had unsuccessfully bid for the two previous Summer Olympics, for 1976 and 1980. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) had submitted at least one bid for every Olympics since 1944, but had not succeeded since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, the previous time only a single bid had been issued for the Summer Olympics.

The 1984 Olympic Torch Relay began in New York City and ended in Los Angeles, traversing 33 states and the District of Columbia. Unlike later torch relays, the torch was continuously carried by runners on foot. The route covered more than 9,320 mi (15,000 km) and involved 3,636 runners. Noted athlete O.J. Simpson was among the runners, carrying the torch up the California Incline in Santa Monica. Gina Hemphill, granddaughter of Jesse Owens, carried the torch into the Coliseum, completed a lap around the track, then handed it off to the final runner, Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics. With the torch, he touched off the flame which passed through a specially designed flammable Olympic logo, igniting all five rings. Johnson became the first person of African descent to light the cauldron in Olympic history.[8] The flame then passed up to cauldron atop the peristyle and remained aflame for the duration of the Games.

The Opening Ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

John Williams composed the theme for the Olympiad, "Olympic Fanfare and Theme". This piece won a Grammy for Williams and became one of the most well-known musical themes of the Olympic Games, along with Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream"; the latter is sometimes attached to the beginning of Olympic Fanfare and Theme. Composer Bill Conti also wrote a song to inspire the weightlifters called "Power". An album, The Official Music of the XXIII Olympiad—Los Angeles 1984, featured three of those tracks along with sports themes written for the occasion by popular musical artists including Foreigner, Toto, Loverboy, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Christopher Cross, Philip Glass, Paul Engemann and Giorgio Moroder.[9]

The Brazilian composer Sérgio Mendes also produced a special song for the 1984 Olympic Games, "Olympia," from his 1984 album Confetti. A choir of approximately one thousand voices was assembled of singers in the region. All were volunteers from nearby churches, schools and universities.

Etta James performed "When the Saints Go Marching In" at the Opening Ceremony.[10]

Vicki McClure along with the International Children's Choir of Long Beach sang "Reach Out and Touch".

Lionel Richie performed a 9-minute version of his hit single "All Night Long" at the closing ceremonies.[11]

The 1984 Summer Olympic program featured 221 events in the following 21 sports:

All times are in Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7); the other two cities, Boston and Annapolis use Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1984 Games.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
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
Totals (10 nations)		190	147	137	474

Participating nations

Number of athletes

Athletes from 140 nations competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Eighteen nations made their Olympic debut: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Grenada, Mauritania, Mauritius, North Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and the United Arab Emirates. Zaire had previously competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics as Congo-Kinshasa. The People's Republic of China made its first appearance in a Summer Olympics since 1952, while for the first time the Republic of China team participated under the politically contrived name of Chinese Taipei.

The Soviet Union led the Warsaw Pact members and other Communist countries in a boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, in retaliation for the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics four years earlier (over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979). The pretexts for the 1984 Soviet-led boycott were concerns over security, "chauvinistic sentiments" and "an anti-Soviet hysteria ... being whipped up" in the United States.[15] However, a handful of countries disregarded the boycott and attended the Games anyway, among them Yugoslavia (host of the 1984 Winter Olympics), the People's Republic of China, and Romania (the only Warsaw Pact country that had opted to ignore the Soviet demands). The Romanian team received a particularly warm reception from the United States; when the Romanian athletes entered during the opening ceremonies, they were greeted by a standing ovation from the spectators, who were mostly U.S. citizens. This would turn out to be Romania's most successful Olympic Games – they won 53 medals, including 20 golds.

In the table below, the number of athletes representing each nation is shown in parentheses.

Countries that boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics are shaded blue

Fourteen countries took part in the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics:[16]

• Afghanistan
• Angola
• Bulgaria
• Cuba
• Czechoslovakia
• East Germany
• Ethiopia
• Hungary
• Laos
• Mongolia
• North Korea
• Poland
• Soviet Union
• Vietnam

Albania, Iran and Libya also boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics, citing political reasons, but these countries were not a part of the Soviet-led boycott. Albania and Iran were the only two countries to boycott both the 1980 and 1984 Summer Games.

• Albania
• Iran
• Libya

Newspaper vending machine announcing the 1984 Olympics.

Following the news of the massive financial losses of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the only two cities to express a genuine interest in hosting the 1984 Games were Los Angeles and New York. Given that only one city per country is allowed to bid for any one Games, the USOC vote for the American bid city was effectively the deciding vote for the 1984 Olympics host city. In this case, the Los Angeles bid received 55 votes compared with New York's 39 votes – this is the closest that the city of New York has ever come to being selected to host the Olympic Games, coming closer in 1984 than they did in their 2012 bid (when they lost to London).[17]

The low level of interest among potential host cities for the 1984 Games had been viewed as a major threat to the future of the Olympic Games. However, after the financial success of the Los Angeles Games, cities began to show a renewed interest in bidding to become host again. The Los Angeles and Montreal Games are seen as examples of best and worst practice when organizing the Olympics, and serve as valuable lessons to prospective host cities.

Ambitious construction projects for the two previous Summer Olympics, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980, had burdened organizers with substantial debts as expenses greatly exceeded revenues. Furthermore, the 1976 and 1980 Olympics were entirely government funded. Unlike Montreal and Moscow, Los Angeles 1984 was privately funded, with strict controls imposed on expenditure; rather than constructing new venues with overly ambitious designs, the organizers chose instead to utilise existing venues and facilities wherever possible. The main example of this was the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which was also the Olympic Stadium for the 1932 Summer Olympics.[18] The only two new venues constructed specifically for the 1984 Summer Olympics were secured with the backing of corporate sponsors: the Olympic Velodrome was largely funded by the 7-Eleven corporation and the Olympic Swim Stadium by McDonald's.

In addition to corporate support, the Olympic committee also used the income from the exclusive television rights, and for the first time these contracts would prove to be a significant source of revenue. Adjusted for inflation, the Los Angeles Games secured twice the amount of income received by the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics and four times that of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics.[19][17]

Following the success of the 1984 Games, the Los Angeles OCOG, led by Peter Ueberroth, used the profits to create the LA84 Foundation for promoting youth sports in Southern California, educating coaches and maintaining a sports library.

The games were the subject of the 1983–84 United States commemorative coin series.

McDonald's ran a promotion titled, "When the U.S. Wins, You Win" where customers scratched off a ticket with the name of an Olympic event on it, and if the U.S. won a medal in 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. The promotion became more popular than expected due to the Soviet boycott which led to the U.S. winning far more Olympic medals than expected.[20]

This promotion was parodied in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word", where Krusty Burger runs a similar offer. The promotion was intended to be rigged so that prizes would only be offered in events dominated by the Eastern Bloc, but the Soviet-led boycott causes Krusty to personally lose $44 million. He vehemently promises "to spit in every fiftieth burger," to which Homer retorts "I like those odds!" Chief Wiggum also exclaims that he could kiss Carl Lewis, who won four gold medals at the Games.

On NCIS, Tim McGee has an obsession with jet packs, stemming from having attended the 1984 Olympic ceremony as a child and having Bill Suitor fly over his head in his jet pack.[21] This storyline is based on the real experience of executive producer and writer Jesse Stern.[22]

Pop punk band Bowling for Soup references the games in the song "I Can't Stand LA". During a section showing appreciation for the city, the song states, "thank you for hair metal and the '84 Olympics."

Jilly Cooper's novel Riders has a storyline set at the show jumping event at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

In the Seinfeld episode "The Gymnast", Jerry dates a woman who competed in the 1984 Olympics and won a silver medal for Romania.

In the same week that the Games began, British pop star Howard Jones released a single called Like to Get to Know You Well which eventually made number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA. On the sleeve, the record was "dedicated to the original spirit of the Olympic Games".

• 1984 Summer Paralympics
• 1984 Winter Paralympics
• 1984 Winter Olympics
• Olympic Games celebrated in the United States
  • 1904 Summer Olympics – St. Louis
  • 1932 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles
  • 1932 Winter Olympics – Lake Placid
  • 1960 Winter Olympics – Squaw Valley
  • 1980 Winter Olympics – Lake Placid
  • 1984 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles
  • 1996 Summer Olympics – Atlanta
  • 2002 Winter Olympics – Salt Lake City
  • 2028 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles
• Olympic Games with significant boycotts
  • 1976 Summer Olympics – Montreal – African boycott
  • 1980 Summer Olympics – Moscow – United States-led boycott
  • 1984 Summer Olympics – Los Angeles – Soviet-led boycott
• Summer Olympic Games
• Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• List of IOC country codes
• Use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympic Games — 1984 Los Angeles

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1984 Summer Olympics.

• "Los Angeles 1984". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee.
• Olympic Review 1984 – Official results Archived June 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
• Official Report Vol. 1
• Official Report Vol. 2
• Video of President Reagan declaring games open, and torch-lighting by Rafer Johnson on YouTube

• Dyreson, Mark. "Global television and the transformation of the Olympics: The 1984 Los Angeles Games." International Journal of the History of Sport 32.1 (2015): 172-184.
• Edelman, Robert Simon. "The Russians are not coming! The Soviet withdrawal from the games of the XXIII Olympiad." International Journal of the History of Sport 32.1 (2015): 9-36.
• Henry, Bill. An Approved History of the Olympic Games. ISBN 0-88284-243-9.
• Llewellyn, Matthew, John Gleaves, and Wayne Wilson. "The Historical Legacy of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games." International Journal of the History of Sport 32#1 (2015) : 1-8.
• Llewellyn, Matthew, John Gleaves, and Wayne Wilson, eds. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games: Assessing the 30-Year Legacy (Routledge, 2017).
• Whitakers Olympic Almanack. 2004. ISBN 0-7136-6724-9.