The Olympic Games, despite their lofty ideals, have since their inception in ancient Greece intertwined the best of athletic competition with the world of politics. Case in point: The 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, which took place less than a year after the USSR invaded Afghanistan. While there was no way to undo the invasion, the United States wanted to express its disapproval of Soviet actions. It was decided to hit the Soviets where it hurt: their ego. The UK convinced the U.S. to support it in calling for an international boycott of the Olympics. Garnering support for the boycott from within the United States and from other nations as well was not an easy task, especially when the UK and Canada voted in new governments, which then opposed a boycott, and as not-so special envoy Muhammad Ali was himself persuaded by other countries to oppose the very boycott he was supposed to convince them to join.
Nelson Ledsky was made the U.S. Olympics Boycott Coordinator before the Moscow Games of 1980, a role created especially for the games. He was in charge of handling the boycott and all of the chaos that came along with it. Here Ledsky shares his experiences as Coordinator of the boycott, including his efforts to convince the new governments in Canada and the UK to change their positions back in favor of a boycott, and the difficulties he faced persuading the Olympic athletes to stay home. Ultimately, 60 sixty countries, including most European countries and China, chose to boycott the games that year. (The USSR would exact its revenge by organizing a boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.) Ledsky was interviewed by Thomas Stern starting in June 2003.
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