10 Famous Sporting Protests
3. 1980 Olympics Boycott
In 2017, Donald Trump whines on social media about the democratic right to protest of his American Citizens. In 1979, a U.S President initiated a protest which spread to 65 countries.
The Jimmy Carter administration objected the Soviet invasion into Afghanistan and the war against mujahideen forces, which were backed and armed by the United States. This was the beginning of the strained Cold War relationship between the two superpowers and thus Carter did not feel it acceptable for his country to go to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
The boycott of the Games was first discussed within two weeks of the Soviet invasion and when U.S demands to pull out of Afghanistan were not met, Carter withdrew the American athletes from the games and began to put pressure on his international allies to follow suit.
In the end, 65 countries joined the boycott - the largest in Olympic history. West Germany, Canada, China and Japan all sat it out, although, interestingly, Afghanistan did not.