The Olympic Games have long represented ideals of humanity’s highest callings - a universal quest for peace, moral integrity, and an exalted mix of mind, body, and spirit that transcends culture. From the outset of the modern games, its organizers have looked to ancient Greece as the source of those ideals. However, with the integrity of sports now threatened by corruption, commercialism, and doping - not to mention the wider problem of terrorism and war - those ideals appear in peril. Yet were they ever truly real, even in ancient Olympia? Maybe not. Will we see another games boycott this year?

1956 Melbourne Olympics

The games has been boycotted by the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland because of the repression of the Hungarian by the Stalin government of Soviet Union. On the other side of the world, Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the games due to the Suez Crisis (a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel).

1976 Montreal Olympics

The boycott was due to the participation of New Zealand All Blacks rugby union team to play rugby in South Africa early in the year (South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 due to its apartheid policies). Congo’s official Jean Claude Ganga led a boycott of 28 African nations as the IOC refused to bar the New Zealand team.

Some of the nations had already participated, however, as the teams withdrew only after the first day. From Southern and Central Africa, only Senegal and Ivory Coast took part. Both Iraq and Guyana also opted to join the Congolese-led boycott.

1980 Moscow Olympics

The games boycott was part of a package of actions to protest against the December 1979 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. The boycott reduced the number of nations participating to only 81, the lowest number of nations to compete since 1956.

The United States-led boycott was joined in by other sixty-five countries including Japan, West Germany, China and Canada. Notably, the United Kingdom, France, and Greece supported the boycott but allowed their athletes to participate.

The United Kingdom and France sent a much smaller delegation of athletes than usual. Nevertheless, the delegation of the United Kingdom was the largest among Western Europe, with 170 athletes applying to compete. Spain, Italy, Sweden, Iceland and Finland were other principal nations representing Western Europe.

1984 Los Angeles Olympics

The 1984 Summer Olympics took place in Los Angeles, United States of America, with 14 nations missing due to the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and several others for other reasons.

On May 8, 1984 the Soviet Union issued a statement, which the country would boycott the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics due to “chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States”. 13 Soviet allies joined the boycott. Iran was the only country to boycott both Moscow and Los Angeles.

What will happen to the 2008 Beijing Olympics? With the current issues on human rights, will we see another Olympics boycott? For me, we shouldn’t mix politics and sports.

For more information on 2008 Beijing Olympics: Click Here.