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The history of the modern Olympic Games is quite old. Originating from the city of Olympia in Greece, Pierre de Coubertin gave a new birth to these games in the year 1896 and the modern Olympic Games, which started from the city of Athens, have now become the heritage of the whole world. All the astonishing athletes of the world now give everything to bring glory to their country with the dream of winning a medal in the Olympic Games. In this context, the Olympic Games gradually got a new identity with time. At the same time, many countries have boycotted these games a lot of times since 1896. In which the Moscow Olympics of 1980 was the most controversial one. let's know when and why these games have been boycotted since the beginning of the modern Olympics till now. Many times some countries could not play due to the lack of athletes or due to economic crisis.
Ireland boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympics
The 1936 Berlin Olympics were held in Germany, where many countries including India participated. The Olympic Council of Ireland boycotted these games because the International Olympic Committee believed that Irish athletes could only lead the independent Irish state rather than the entire island group. Due to this issue, Ireland boycotted the Berlin Olympics. Apart from this, Spain also could not participate in these games due to the ongoing civil war and the Soviet Union also remained out of these games.
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1956 Melbourne Olympics - From China to Lebanon, many countries boycotted it
The 1956 Olympic Games were held in Melbourne, Australia. Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland refused to participate in these games due to the suppression of the Hungarian rebellion by the Soviet Union. While a cavalry contingent was sent to Stockholm. Apart from this, Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted these games due to the Suez Canal crisis and the People's Republic of China boycotted these games due to athletes coming from Taiwan participating under the Republic of China.
1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics were also boycotted
For the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics, several African countries jointly threatened the International Olympic Committee to ban South Africa and Rhodesia from participating due to their isolationist rule. New Zealand was also included in this episode because its rugby players had toured South Africa amidst all this. In this case, the IOC agreed to the first two votes but did not ban New Zealand because the game of rugby was not included in the Olympics. But despite this, fulfilling the condition of their threat, twenty African countries along with Guyana and Iraq withdrew from the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. This was the first time since the 1896 Olympics that 34 countries had boycotted an Olympic Games
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65 countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics
During the 1980s, the Cold War was going on between America and the Soviet Union. Due to this America and 65 other countries boycotted the Olympic Games to be held in Moscow city of Russia on a large scale because the Soviet Union had attacked Afghanistan. Albania withdrew without giving a reason and China did not participate in separating Taiwan. Due to this a total of 67 countries could not participate in it. In this way, for the first time, the modern Olympic Games were boycotted on such a large scale and only 80 countries participated, which became the smallest Olympics played among countries since 1956. After this, when the Olympics were held in Los Angeles, America in 1984, a total of 15 countries including the Soviet Union boycotted it while 19 countries could not participate in it.
Year 1988 Seoul Olympics
In the year 1988, many countries participated enthusiastically in the Olympic Games held in Seoul. While no one boycotted these Olympic Games, some countries did not participate due to weak economic conditions and some did not respond to the invitation of ISOC. Nicaragua and Madagascar did not participate due to economic conditions, meanwhile, Ethiopia, Albania, and Seychelles did not respond to the invitation. South Korea did not participate due to bitter enmity, and Cuba also remained out of these games.
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