Sports during the cold war

    The Cold War was a tense time between the Soviets and Americans. This was ever so evident in sports. Sports were a way for the two sides to display power over one another. The olympics was a great stage for politicians to use sports as a strategic move in the Cold War. President Jimmy Carter became very involved in the summer olympics of 1980 that were held in Moscow, Russia. The 1980 olympics were very important from a political aspect because a record 65 countries boycotted the event because of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  Jimmy Carter decided that the US was going to boycott the olympics because he saw no drawbacks of boycotting. This only showed that the US wasn't afraid to pull out of major events to show the world that they did not support what the soviets were doing. Before the 1980 summer olympics was the winter olympics that took place in February of 1980. Yes, in 1980 there was both a summer and winter olympics held, this is because up until 1992 the summer and winter games were held on the same year.

    The 1980 winter games played a huge role in the tension between the Soviet Union and Americans. Specifically the hockey tournament. The Soviets came into the games as the number one team that was supposed to win the gold. The soviets had won 6 gold medals of the last 7 olympic games. Needless to say the well decorated soviets should have walked all over the American team that was made up of college players. When the US beat the USSR 4-3 in a match it was a huge upset and boasted the morale of the Americans. The Americans went on to win gold and Soviets Silver, although the players of the Soviet team refused to have their names engraved on the medals because they were too humiliated of second place. This did not help how the world viewed the USSR. 

     The olympics provided another platform for the two superpowers to fight their battles. Although some nations argue that the US boycott of the 1980 games was strategically pointless it did further the mistrust between the two powers and set the foundation for the 1984 games that were held in Los Angeles. The Soviets boycotted this games in part because of the US boycott four years earlier and they did not think that the soviet athletes would get proper security while in the states. 

    Sports have always been and will continue to be a way for countries to display dominance and earn a sense of pride but during the Cold War each win seemed more important, and tensions ran deeper.

Sources: 

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/the-global-history-sport-the-cold-war 

http://www.euronews.com/2015/06/09/sports-in-the-cold-war-climate-how-moscow-and-the-west-muscled-it-out/

http://www.historytoday.com/christopher-r-hill/cold-war-and-olympic-movement