8th May 1984 USSR pulls out of Los Angeles Olympics

In retaliation for the USA’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games the Soviet Union announced on 8th May 1984 that they would not send a team to Los Angeles. Both sides traded accusations of using sport for political purposes. The entire episode should be seen in the context of the renewed tension between the Superpowers during the early 1980s, the strategy of the Reagan administration and the paralysis of the Soviet leadership brought about by the entrenched gerontocracy that ruled until the rise to power of Gorbachev in 1985.

Read more on the Soviet announcement here