Most hurt by boycott

[eldrick]

we know sanford was best runner of the time & such an effortless sprinter, but he got injured in '80 & likely woudn't have qualified thru trials for moscow, so we have to go with stanley spearheading the american challenge

[mump boy]

anna quirot and javier sotomayor in 88

and what could Dinsamo could have done in the marathon

[mojo]

I totally get the gist of this thread but I would like to say that ALL the athletes who made it to these games and didn't go were victims as much as the stars.

I will never forget the day a friend of mine found out that Canada would not be going. She had made the team obviously and I was the first person she saw after getting the news. She was very distraught; it was as if someone had died. She didn't carry on much longer in the sport after that.

So yes many of the stars of the sport were robbed by those boycotts but I feel even more for those for whom just getting to an Olympic games once was a major achievement.

[tandfman]

Very good point, mojo.

[Justin Clouder]

we know sanford was best runner of the time & such an effortless sprinter, but he got injured in '80 & likely woudn't have qualified thru trials for moscow, so we have to go with stanley spearheading the american challenge

He DIDN'T qualify through the trials - Floyd, Harvey Glance and Mel Lattany did, with Carl Lewis 4th. That's why I mentioned him as an aside, since he isn't one who was boycott-affected.

Mojo's point is a good one. It's not just about the athletes who might have won but those for whom simply qualifying would be the pinnacle of their career. There are undoubtedly dozens of such...

Justin

[eldrick]

one aside is whether carter announced the boycott before the trials or not I i can't remember )

if before the trials, it's possible some of the athletes may not have tried completely flat-out in trials knowing they weren't likely going to go to moscow even if they made the top 3

if he announced the boycott after the trials, then obviously they all tried their utmost in the trials believing top 3 were going to moscow

[bijanc]

The Man From Plains

He anncounced it long bef. Trials.

BCB

[HL]

According to Wiki, the official announcement was March 21. I actuallly thought it was before the 1980 Winter Games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-l ... r_Olympics

[Justin Clouder]

I assume that some of the denizens of the board were at those trials. What was the atmosphere like? It must have been a bit surreal, 'qualifying' for a mythical team.

Justin

[steve]

Skeets. He would have won.

It's not just getting an OG win. If he won he may have found staying in track to be more viable than going to football. No football, and his track success could have involved hurdles (maybe even 400h) and flat sprints (showed speed on that Penn 200 anchor).

[tandfman]

According to Wiki, the official announcement was March 21. I actuallly thought it was before the 1980 Winter Games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-l ... r_Olympics

Wiki's got it wrong. It was in April.

[tandfman]

I assume that some of the denizens of the board were at those trials. What was the atmosphere like? It must have been a bit surreal, 'qualifying' for a mythical team.

Exactly. Everyone there, athletes and fans alike, knew that nobody who "qualified" was going to the Olympic Games. It was still a terrific track meet, but it was nothing like a real Olympic Trials meet.

I am convinced, by the way, that if it had been a real Trials meet with no boycott, some of the results would have been different. But that's one of those imponderables. We'll never know.