Carter reflected on 1980 Olympic boycott: ‘A bad decision’

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — It was a decision that robbed hundreds of athletes of their once-in-a-lifetime chance at Olympic glory, and for more than four decades, it weighed heavily on the man who made it — Jimmy Carter.

Carter’s passing Sunday has unearthed memories from his 1977-1981 presidency. Somewhere between his greatest foreign-policy success (the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt) and his greatest failure (the Iran hostage crisis) sits the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

It was Carter who called for that boycott — a Cold War power play intended to express America’s disdain for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In his 1980 State of the Union Address, Carter said the invasion “could pose the most serious threat to world peace since the second World War.”

The boycott garnered more than two-thirds support from the 2,400 members of the unwieldy U.S. Olympic Committee house of delegates, the governing body that made the official move to keep the athletes out of Moscow. In short time, that move came to be seen as the textbook example of the risks, confusion and low success rate of injecting politics into sports.

“We were not allowed to go for a not-so-clear reason,” said Edwin Moses, the hurdling great who won 122 straight races between 1977 and 1987, which included the Olympic gold-medal contests in 1976 and 1984.

For decades, members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team — recognized as Olympians at home but not by the International Olympic Committee abroad — told stories about opportunities missed and dreams unfulfilled because of the trip to Moscow they never took. Of the 474 athletes who had qualified for the team in 1980, 227 would not get another chance to compete in the Olympic Games.

Many athletes told stories of meeting Carter at a White House visit in the summer of 1980 that served as a tepid substitute. In Washington, the athletes received the highest honor civilians can receive from Congress: the Congressional gold medal. But those medals were only gold-plated bronze, not pure gold, and they weren’t recorded in the Congressional record until a push was made nearly three decades later.

Swimmer Jesse Vassallo, a reigning world champion in multiple events at the time, told Swimming World Magazine about meeting Carter in the reception line.

Carter “reached out to shake my hand and he said ‘How would you have done in Moscow?’” Vassallo 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.” Wrestler Jeff Blatnick, a champion on the 1984 Olympic team, met Carter on an airplane years later. According to an essay written by the late USOC spokesman Mike Moran, Blatnick said: “He looks at me and says, ‘Were you on the 1980 hockey team?’ I say, ‘No sir, I’m a wrestler, on the summer team.’ He says, ‘Oh, that was a bad decision, I’m sorry.’”

In his 2021 biography on the 39th President, Kai Bird writes that the boycott was a byproduct of a hard line Carter decided to take against the Soviets at the urging of his national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who had been in a long-running struggle with the less-hawkish Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, to influence Carter’s thinking. "History would prove Vance correct; Brzezinski’s ‘Carter Doctrine’ never amounted to much more than a cover for wasteful arms exports,” Bird wrote.

And Carter’s boycott did nothing to deter the Soviets. They stayed in Afghanistan for another nine years, while further disrupting the Olympic movement and America’s own turn as an Olympic host four years later. The Soviets and 13 other countries, mostly from the Eastern Bloc, boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 in retaliation for what the Americans had done to Moscow four years earlier.

Forty-four years after Carter’s fateful decision, the Olympics remain every bit as politicized and polarized as they were back then. And for the past several years, the world has grappled with Russia’s place in international sports in the wake of another invasion — this time, into neighboring Ukraine.

How that war is resolved will help define Russia's role when the Olympics come back to Los Angeles in 2028.

FILE - Flag and sign bearers march around Moscow's Lenin Stadium during closing ceremonies of the XXII Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, on Aug. 3, 1980. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Passersby examine the new Olympic billboard reading, "Sport Serves Peace," erected after the United States announced it was boycotting the games in Moscow on April 23, 1980. (AP Photo/Yurchenko, File)

FILE - Anita DeFrantz, spokeswoman for the U.S. Olympic Committee's Athletes Advisory Council, flanked by Larry Hough, left, and Fred Newhouse right, answers questions from reporters outside the White House in Washington on April 4, 1980, after White House officials rejected a proposal that would have allowed American athletes to compete at the summer Olympic Games in Moscow. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - F. Don Miller, executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, reads a resolution adopted by the U.S. Olympic Committee's House of Delegates to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 12, 1980. At left is Robert Kane, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

FILE - From left, Belgian representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Prince Alexandre de Merode, President of the Belgian Olympic Committee Raoul Mollet, General Secretary of the U.S. Olympic Committee Col. F. Don Miller, and President of the West German Olympic Committee Willi Daume, are seen during a meeting of officials from 18 Western European Olympic committees to discuss a possible boycott of the MOscow Olympic games on March 22, 1980, in Brussels. (AP Photo/Pierre Thielemans, File)

FILE - A wide-angle lens captures the assembled members of Congress in the House Chamber for Carter's State of The Union address in Washington on Jan. 23, 1980. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - President Jimmy Carter pauses during a speech to applaud the U.S. Olympic Committee's stand on the Moscow Olympics, Feb. 1, 1980, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson, File)

Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love is expected to start Thursday against sixth-seeded Penn State, enabling the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish and their trademark ground game to operate at — or near — full capacity in the first College Football Playoff semifinal.

Love re-injured his ailing right knee late in the third quarter of Notre Dame's 23-10 Sugar Bowl victory over second-seeded Georgia. He went into the medical tent twice before returning to the sideline with a hefty brace protecting the knee.

But when coach Marcus Freeman spoke with reporters Saturday, Love did not make the team's injury report.

“The only injury update from the game is Cooper Flanagan will be out for the remainder of the College Football Playoff with a foot injury,” Freeman said, referring to a backup tight end. “We'll miss Coop and love him, but other than that, everybody else was clean. Pretty clean game in terms of injuries.”

That means Love and quarterback Riley Leonard are expected to continue to lead the ground game while backup running backs Jadarian Price and Aneyas Williams provide reinforcements as the Irish (13-1, No. 3 CFP) chase their first national championship game appearance since the end of the 2012 season.

Love did not speak with reporters Saturday and is not scheduled to address the media before facing the Big Ten runner-up Nittany Lions (13-2, No. 5). Price is expected to talk later Saturday.

How critical has Love been to Notre Dame's offense?

He leads the Irish with 1,076 yards and 16 touchdown runs, averages 7.3 yards per carry and set a school record by rushing for scores in 13 consecutive games. The streak ended against Georgia.

Love also set the tone in Notre Dame's first-round victory over 10th-seeded Indiana when he sprinted 98 yards for the first score. It was the longest TD run in playoff history and came on a day Love when was fighting both the flu and the sore knee he hurt in the team's regular-season finale at Southern California.

But stats and his on-field feats don't provide a complete accounting of Love's impact.

He has hurdled 10 defenders this season, including an attempt against the Hoosiers on which he aggravated the knee injury, and his ability to play well despite injury or illness has given the Irish a toughness that resonates throughout the locker room. And his strength and breakaway ability only make Leonard a more dangerous option on the ground.

The result: Notre Dame needed just 90 yards passing to beat the Southeastern Conference champion Bulldogs in New Orleans.

So having Love on the field seems like a must if the Irish are to end their national championship drought at 36 years — the longest gap between title-winning seasons since the Irish captured their first in 1924.

But even if Love isn't at full strength, the Irish have other options.

Leonard already holds the single-season school record for TD runs by a quarterback (15) and needs 169 yards rushing to record his first 1,000-yard season. Price also can be both a breakaway threat and a workhorse back and Williams, a freshman, has worked his way into more action by logging half of his 32 carries over the last four games.

“He came here with a lot of ability, but he had to earn trust,” Freeman said, referring to Williams. “All he's done is continue to earn more trust throughout the season. You can put him in there in any moment — run game, pass game, get the ball in his hands, throw the ball to him, he's going to protect. He's a tough guy and I love it.”

The combination has caused plenty of consternation for Notre Dame opponents during a 12-game winning streak that already has produced the first 13-win season in the school's history.

Now Penn States faces another concern — the health of All-American defensive end Abdul Carter. He left the 31-14 Fiesta Bowl victory over third-seeded Boise State with an apparent left arm injury. Coach James Franklin indicated Saturday that Carter could play, though he may be limited.

“He’s doing great, his attitude is great, his mentality has been really good,” Franklin said. “Really it’s going to come down to how he feels and how much practice he gets. I don’t think at this point there’s anything stopping him from playing; it’s how he is able to play.”

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Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts (0) celebrates with teammate Armel Mukam (88) during the second half against Georgia in the quarterfinals of a College Football Playoff, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)