"There are so many athletes who are unknown but perhaps their names would have been known a lot better if they had been in the Olympic Games and competed for gold medals." (Caraccioli)
-Montague, 6
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Williams, Brian, prod. "Athletes’ Scars Still Evident Decades After 1980 Olympic Boycott." Nightly News. NBC. Sochi, 7 Feb. 2014.NBCNews.com. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
"I may forgive, but I'll never forget," said Craig Virgin, now a 40-year-old broadcaster and sports marketer who in 1980 was a world record-holder in the 10,000 meters with a better-than-even shot at winning a medal. "For me, it was just sad, because running was booming, and if I could have brought home a medal that year I would have been on a par with the top professional athletes in the country at the time."
-Smothers, 8
For Anthony Sandoval, then 25 and the leading United States contender in the marathon, 1980 was the year when all the factors in his life and his training were just right. (Smothers, 9) The betting favorite--and maybe the sentimental favorite as well--had to be Tony Sandoval of Athletics West, the 5'8, 115 pound runner who had wound up a heartbreaking fourth in the 1976 Olympic Trial after losing out in the final miles. (Stewart, 2) Many athletes worked for years for the opportunity to represent their country at the Olympics and many never had the opportunity again after the boycott.
For the elite runners, this would be the culmination of four years of training; and when the hard reality of the government's Olympic boycott began to intrude on the runners' dreams last winter, there was no thought of canceling the trial.
-Stewart, 1
"(Carter) used athletes as pawns in a political game," Linzmeier-Dorst said.
-Reid, 1
"(Carter) reached out to shake my hand and he said 'How would you have done in Moscow?'" Vassallo,
a former Mission Viejo Nadadores swimmer recalled. "And I said 'I would have won two golds and a
silver.' And he just gave me this (pained) look. He didn't ask anybody else that question."
-Reid, 2
Vassallo, Linzmeier-Dorst, Sandoval and Virgin are four of the hundreds of athletes who had their greatest opportunity taken away from them, so that an attempt to humiliate the Soviet Union could be made.
"To prepare for the Olympics takes 24 months to build the mental and physical strength, and '79 was a very good training year," he (Don Paige) recalls. His greatest achievement had been at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship, where he had won both the 800 and 1,500m
finals to become one of only a handful of Americans to achieve the feat.
-Montague, 2
"And I hope that at least in the minds of some of you the medal that you might win in competition and the recognition of a grateful nation will at least partially make up for the sacrifice that you’ll have to make this summer in not going to Moscow for the Summer Olympics."
-Jimmy Carter
The athletes who would have gone to Moscow in 1980, as well as the citizens of the United States who were deprived of the pride that comes with the Olympic games, had more taken away by the boycott than the Soviets. While standing up to our country's foe may have seemed like a valiant move, it is seen as a mistake in the eyes of many.
-Smothers, 8
For Anthony Sandoval, then 25 and the leading United States contender in the marathon, 1980 was the year when all the factors in his life and his training were just right. (Smothers, 9) The betting favorite--and maybe the sentimental favorite as well--had to be Tony Sandoval of Athletics West, the 5'8, 115 pound runner who had wound up a heartbreaking fourth in the 1976 Olympic Trial after losing out in the final miles. (Stewart, 2) Many athletes worked for years for the opportunity to represent their country at the Olympics and many never had the opportunity again after the boycott.
For the elite runners, this would be the culmination of four years of training; and when the hard reality of the government's Olympic boycott began to intrude on the runners' dreams last winter, there was no thought of canceling the trial.
-Stewart, 1
"(Carter) used athletes as pawns in a political game," Linzmeier-Dorst said.
-Reid, 1
"(Carter) reached out to shake my hand and he said 'How would you have done in Moscow?'" Vassallo,
a former Mission Viejo Nadadores swimmer recalled. "And I said 'I would have won two golds and a
silver.' And he just gave me this (pained) look. He didn't ask anybody else that question."
-Reid, 2
Vassallo, Linzmeier-Dorst, Sandoval and Virgin are four of the hundreds of athletes who had their greatest opportunity taken away from them, so that an attempt to humiliate the Soviet Union could be made.
"To prepare for the Olympics takes 24 months to build the mental and physical strength, and '79 was a very good training year," he (Don Paige) recalls. His greatest achievement had been at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship, where he had won both the 800 and 1,500m
finals to become one of only a handful of Americans to achieve the feat.
-Montague, 2
"And I hope that at least in the minds of some of you the medal that you might win in competition and the recognition of a grateful nation will at least partially make up for the sacrifice that you’ll have to make this summer in not going to Moscow for the Summer Olympics."
-Jimmy Carter
The athletes who would have gone to Moscow in 1980, as well as the citizens of the United States who were deprived of the pride that comes with the Olympic games, had more taken away by the boycott than the Soviets. While standing up to our country's foe may have seemed like a valiant move, it is seen as a mistake in the eyes of many.
1. New Orleans Times-Picayune
2. Politico Magazine
2. Politico Magazine