The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games were held from July 28th to August 12th. Los Angeles didn’t have any competition no one else was putting in a bid. {Tehran, Iran withdrew their bid before the voting, can you imagine an Ayatollah Games?}  The Soviet Union got their revenge for the Carter Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games by boycotting the 84 Games. The Eastern Bloc countries followed their lead. There were still a record number of countries attending-14o. There would be 221 events in 23 different sports at these games. The sports that were hurt most by the boycott, women’s swimming-the chemically inhanced East Germans wouldn’t be there, gymnastics, weightlifting and wresting. 6797 athletes would participate in the games, 1567 being women.

American President Ronaldus Magnus opened the games on July 28th. The great decathlon champion Rafer Johnson lit the torch. These Olympics differed from other games in that they got no government money, they depended on existing facilities, such as the Los Angeles Coliseum were the opening and closing ceremonies would take place and the track and field events. These games relied on corporate funding. They Los Angeles Organizing Committee received a lot of criticism for their methods but in the end they turned a profit of $223 million. The critics changed their tune after that and the LA Games became the model for future games. This was the first games to go without government funding since the 1896  Athens Games.  This would also be the first games held in the US since the 1932 Los Angeles Games.

For the first time a women’s Marathon was held, won by American Joan Benoit. Mary Lou Retton in gymnastics would become the darling of the Olympic Games.  Carl Lewis matched the great Jesse Owens 1936 performance by winning gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and the 4X100 relay. Sebastian Coe would once again win the 1500 meters becoming the first repeat winner of that event in Olympic history. Daley Thompson of Great Britain repeated as Decathlon Champion.

The final medal count was the United States coming in first with 83 gold and a total of 174. Romania came in second with 20 gold and 53 total. In third place was West Germany with 17 gold and 59 total. Fourth place was China with 15 gold and 28 total and finishing in 5th place wa Italy with 14 gold and 32 total.

The 1984 Olympics were a very successful games even without the Evil Empire and its satellites.