Olympic Games and Cold War

Olympic Games and Cold War

Athanasios Dodoglou

Olympic Games

• The modern Olympic games are among the fastest growing and most important social phenomenon of our times. 

• The promoter and organizer of the modern Olympic Games, named Pierre de Coubertin. 

Cold War

• The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc, after World War II.

• The period is generally considered to span the 1947 Truman Doctrine to the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

THE EFFECTS OF THE COLD WAR ON THE OLYMPIC GAMES

• •Olympic Games Helsinki 1952: Existence of two Olympic villages, the capitalist village in Kapylae and the Communist village in Otaniemi.

• •Olympic Games Moscow 1980: Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. Largest and most controversial boycott in Olympic history, leading by the United States of America.

• •Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984: the Soviet Union returning the boycott of 1980 and refused to send its Olympic team to the 1984 Los Angeles games. Soon followed with similar decisions the Eastern bloc, except Romania and Yugoslavia.

Multiple Choice

In the Olympic games 1952 of Helsinki, all participating countries live in the same Olympic village.

• False

• True

Multiple Choice

The United States of America boycotted the Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The Soviet Unions boycotted the Olympic Games of ...

• 1956

• 1984

• 1988