How One Remembers An Event

“Our nation does not know us as Olympians. Our sublime moments of exertion and triumph do not exist. We have no memories and you have no memories of us” (DeFranz, qtd. in Caraccioli 17). In 1980, the United States led a 61 nation boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics. President Jimmy Carter called for the boycott to protest the Soviet Union Invasion of Afghanistan. Many people have debated whether the United States should have boycotted the games, which impacted President Jimmy Carter’s diplomatic relations and had serious consequences for athletes around the world. The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics was problematic for both cultural and political reasons. The United States should not have participated in or led the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics because the US government was blending the spheres of athletics and politics, government officials were solely concerned with the international reputation of the US and its relations with other nations, and the athletes preparing to participate in the games to represent the US were treated unfairly.

The Olympics have shown over the decades that they can be affected by political conflict. However, it seems that this is the point of the Olympics, to illustrate national pride, by competition. Bloodshed should not be the way for pride of one’s country to be shown, but it should be shown through competition, in the words of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de

Ever since its inception in 1896, the Modern Olympics has hosted an invisible sport: politics. The Olympics calls for “a halt to all conflicts … [and to] strive towards a more peaceful world,” but politics soon spoiled its biennial message. “As the Olympics continue to dissolve into … a political competition … they no longer … justify the time and trouble,” Dave Anderson, Pulitzer Prize winner for his sports column, wrote in the New York Times in 1984. The Olympic spirit has routinely been used as an outlet for political agendas. With political and Olympic ambitions intersected, the great international sports festivity negatively affects all nations involved.

The Olympics are held every four years and are used as a global stage for many thousands of sportsmen and women who come from many different countries around the world to demonstrate their abilities ranging from running to rowing. In theory, the Olympic Games are supposed to be free from any politics and be purely about the athlete’s competition and celebrations. It is supposed to be non-gender, non-religion and non-race biased to show the accomplishment of the athletes that compete. Sporting officials are also supposed to be un-biased offering equal opportunities to all athletes.

The “Miracle on Ice,” where the United States defeated the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York will forever be known as one of the greatest moments in American sports history. This game was about more than just sports though, it signified American strength, even when faced the greatest adversities. The United States was suffering through Vietnam, Watergate, and the wrenching upheavals of the 1960s. Many believe this game was even the beginning of the end for the Cold War. The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in six of the seven previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience

Furthermore, sports and success within the sports world are what many Americans perceive to be the equivalent to success or domination within the realm of politics, economics, and militarily. The ideology of success in sports coinciding with political, economic, and military success is evident when analyzing the “Miracle on Ice;” the United States Men’s Hockey team’s defeat of Russia in the 1980 Winter Olympics. By default, this Olympic victory for the United States’ perpetuated the perspective that Russia’s beloved Communism form of government was inefficient, added unprecedented support regarding the Cold War, and stimulated our economy as result of the added encouragement for American capitalism and a free market. For many Americans, this event was the start of the modern coexistence between American globalization, capitalism, and sports. Essentially, this is where sports became more than just a game; where corporations such as Nike; athletes such as Michael Jordan; and sports such as American Football, and Baseball were presented the opportunity to dominate socially and

In a nutshell, the Olympics have been massively affected over the time span from 1892 to 2002. Factors that enabled this metamorphosis to take place include: political tensions between countries, economic opportunities that arose, and the social impact through the endorsement of Women’s

Throughout this journey, many factors had an impact on the Olympics. Some of the factors that changed the modern day Olympics are women competitors, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions. An increase of women's rights was given, pride for the nations was shown, wars still occurred, and economies have flourished. The longer the Olympic Games have aged, the closer the world’s state is to Pierre’s

The olympics were shaped due to social reasons. Document 1’s author, Pierre de Coubertin, who is the founder of the modern Olympics, is a reliable asset to pursuing ideal peace with many other countries. The reason why he wants peace is because he wants to have the “disappearance of war” to be “utopians” which shows that he believes that the olympics one of the best answers to his goal. Similarly, in document 6, the Soviet Union’s Olympic organizing Committee also want to take part with “peace, democracy, and social progress.” This shows how more and more countries, even those with bad ties with others,

As a sporting mega-event, the Olympic Games have numerous social impacts on the people, not only on those from the host country, but on individuals all over the globe.

In the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States would play out on the basketball court. The controversial calls by the officials would create a conflict to be dealt with by the IOC, resulting in the USSR winning the gold medals. There would be no compromise on the part of the Americans as they, still to this day, refuse to accept their silver medals. This questionable game would eventually lead to a transformation of the International Olympic Committee.

When we consider the Russia Olympic Committee (or the Russia society) and the reasoning behind why this activity is occurring, we note a number of what Matza and Sykes call “Techniques of neutralization”. These techniques look at how people “neutralize” the conventional values through “techniques” such as the denial of responsibility and appeal to higher loyalties (Ferrell et al. 2008). The Russian Olympic Committee continues to state that they are not responsible for the possible threat of terrorist’s attacks; they also continue to blame “open” athletes as being part of the problem. Russia’s anti-gay law outlaws gay propaganda around children. President Putin states in a The Atlantic article that the athletes would stay safe if they stayed away from the children. Here we are able to see appeal to higher loyalties from them stating that it is not their fault if something happens, its someone else’s (or the states) fault.

The purpose of this study is to analyze extensively the role that Cold War tensions played in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. The analysis seeks to understand the effect that politics, have on the organization, implementation and eventually success of sporting events such as the Olympics. In order to do so, the analysis will address the events leading up to, during and after the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 will be addressed to help place the games into perspective. Also, exchanges between the two nations before, during and after the games will be analyzed to understand if and to what extent they affected the games. To investigate the issue, the study will address the

Synopsis: When the USSR hockey team took on the United States in the 1980 Olympics, more than just a gold medal was on the line. Probably one of the most political games in history, this particular game symbolized one of many “battles” of the Cold War. In the, movie Miracle, this story of the underdog is told over, with a strong focus on American coach Herb Brooks and his relationship with his team. The movie highlights the extremely hard work done by the team and the demanding Coach Brooks unrelenting passion to win no matter what. The crux of the movie lies within the game with the Soviet union and those stomach wrenching moments before the game even started, as players knew that at this point it was make it or break it.

The lessons about perception that are derived from this case would be located in stage three, “storage and retention” in event memory. The storage and retention phase is where long term memory takes place. “Long-term memory is made up of three compartments (or wings) containing compartments of information about events, semantic materials, and people” Kreitner & Kinicki (2013). Event memory is a compartment of storage and retention. These are memories that recall appropriate actions in well-known and familiar settings including job interviews. .in the case study the entire setting was over job interviewing. As stated in the text “the weakness question represents the most stressful one posed during interviews” Kreitner & Kinicki (2013). As potential