Britain and the Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics

Abstract

This article explores the background, development and consequences of the controversy in Britain over the 1980 Olympics. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979, support steadily grew for an American-led boycott of the Moscow games. But in Britain, although Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a staunch advocate of supporting the boycott, she was unable to persuade the British Olympic Association or the majority of Olympic competitors to follow her lead. By tracing the main stages through which the bitter dispute between the government and the sporting authorities developed in the first half of 1980, the account which follows assesses why Thatcher's policy met with such stiff resistance; questions whether with different handling British athletes might have been persuaded to stay away from Moscow; and casts light on the evolving relationship between sport and politics in the second half of the twentieth century.