Los Angeles 1984 - ABC Broadcast Opening Sequence
Copyright (c) 1984 American Broadcasting Company
52 years on after last playing host in 1932 at the same city, the Olympic Games once again returned to the United States of America as Hollywood have produced one of the biggest 80s summer blockbusters ever: the XXIII Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California that is held from 28 July to 12 August 1984.
After the tragic terrorist attack during Munich 1972, the financial debt problems of Montreal 1976, and various boycotts by National Olympic Committees, few cities by the late 1970s were willing to bid for the Summer Olympics. In fact, only two cities - Tehran in Iran and Los Angeles - were on the running for the 1984 Games, but this low level of interest among potential host cities had been viewed as a major threat to the Olympics' future.
Tehran, however, decided to drop out in 1975 due to lack of funding, which left LA as the only candidate in contention; the city was elected unopposed in 1978, during the IOC's 80th session held in Athens. Los Angeles had unsuccessfully bid for the two previous Summer Olympiads: 1976 and 1980, which respectively went to Montreal and Moscow.
The LA Games featured about 6,800 athletes competing in 221 medal events across 21 sports, including new sports such as rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming (now known as artistic swimming), as well as women's road cycling races and the women's marathon. There were two demonstration sports showcased at LA 1984: baseball - which would eventually be added to the Olympic programme for Barcelona 1992, and tennis - which goes on to be an official medal sport at the next Olympiad four years later in Seoul.
The 1984 Games, however, were boycotted by a total of 14 Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, in retaliation to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the USSR's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Albania, Iran and Libya also chose to not attend for unrelated reasons.
However, a handful of communist countries disregarded the boycott and attended them anyway, among them Yugoslavia, Romania (being the only nation in the Warsaw Pact that had opted to ignore the Soviet demands), and the People's Republic of China (this had significantly marked communist China's first Summer Olympic appearance since 1952, while for the first time, the Republic of China - Taiwan - participated under the politically contrived name of 'Chinese Taipei'). Despite the field being depleted in certain sports due to the USSR-led revenge boycott, 140 countries had taken part, and it was a record number at the time.
As Carl Lewis emulates the achievement of Jesse Owens at Berlin 1936 by picking up four golds, the American hosts took advantage of the Soviet boycott and then topped the Olympic medal count for the first time since 1968, collecting 174 medals overall that included 83 golds - a record for the US at the Games. Romania puts on their best-ever showing in an Olympics by settling for second place in the tally after snatching home 20 golds and 53 medals in total, and they finished ahead of West Germany, which placed third with 17 golds, although they are ranked second in the overall count, having garnered 59 medals.
These Games of LA are widely considered to be the most financially successful modern Olympics ever, and these were perhaps the first Games of a new era to make a profit; as a result of low construction costs, due to the use of existing sport infrastructure, coupled with a reliance on private corporate funding, the 1984 Games generated a profit of over US$250 million. Following the 1984 Games' success, cities began to show a renewed confidence and interest in bidding to become host again; LA 1984 and Montreal 1976 are seen as examples of best and worst practices in organizing an Olympics, and serve as valuable lessons to prospective host cities.
In its legacy, the Games' organizing committee, led by Peter Ueberroth, used these profits to create the LA84 Foundation in order to manage Southern California's endowment from the 1984 Olympiad. Its mission is to promote and expand youth sports opportunities in Southern California and to increase knowledge of sport and its impact on people's lives. Since inception, the Foundation has invested more than $225 million in Southern California by awarding grants to youth sports organizations, initiating sports and coaching education programs, and operating the world's premier sports library.