Tom and Jerry Caraccioli’s Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Olympic Games (New Chapter Press) is a history of the athletes who lost their opportunity to compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when President Carter chose to withdraw in protest of the Soviet-led invasion of Afghanistan. Many US Olympic hopefuls had trained hard all their lives to qualify for the summer games, and were bitterly disappointed when their hopes died on the vine. This book examines the tense politics of the situation while paying belated tribute to the spurned athletes.
Of the eighteen profiled in Boycott, some athletes were extremely angry at Carter for allowing politics to influence sports, realizing they’d probably never get another chance to compete in the summer games. Many still feel bitter. But the single emotion shared by every athlete profiled is disappointment. The book presents varying opinions from a myriad perspectives.
Boycott’s foreword is written by former Vice President Walter F. Mondale. In it, he apologizes to the athletes, and attempts to explain the tense political backstory. Military countermeasures were impossible, Carter felt restricted to reducing trade and cultural exchanges. The 1980 summer Olympic games were to take place in Moscow, so Carter used the opportunity to punish the Soviet Union by withdrawing US support and participation. The Caracciolis blend the athletes’ memories with analysis of political conditions motivating the boycott into an empathetic study of the ones whose dreams were stolen.
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