It’s All Fun and Games, Until…
For three consecutive cycles, the prestige of the Games of the Summer Olympiad had been marred by political scandal: the 1972 games in Munich were disrupted by the hostage crisis and subsequent massacre; the 1976 games in Montreal were scandalized by rampant overspending on infrastructure projects, many of which had to be hastily completed in time for the opening ceremonies; and the 1980 games in Moscow were overshadowed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which threatened to trigger a boycott, had it not been for President Reagan’s backchannel negotiations. Although the last of these public relations nightmares had not yet taken place by 1978 – when the host city for the 1984 Games was chosen – Montreal’s massive hemorrhaging of public funds (the Government of Canada had to bail the city out, resulting in a substantially increased federal deficit) scared away many other countries, increasingly wary of the growing commercialism (and expense) of the Games.
Only the two superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union – appeared even remotely interested in hosting the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, but there were political obstacles in the way. As of 1978, an American city – Denver – had already hosted the (Winter) Olympics just two years before, meaning that both the Summer and Winter Games of 1976 had been hosted in North America. In addition, Vancouver-Garibaldi was the only candidate to host the 1980 Winter Games, meaning that three out of four Games in only two cycles would be hosted in North America. Therefore, both New York City (which had never hosted the games before, and was hobbled by a reputation for crime and squalor besides) and Los Angeles (which had hosted the 1932 Games), both of which had expressed an interest in bidding for the 1984 Games, were rebuffed by the International Olympic Committee. A Soviet city was obviously right out, since they would be hosting the 1980 Summer Games. For a time, there were no contenders at all – to the point that the IOC was willing to reconsider their “request” for the United States not to mount a bid, before Tehran, the capital of Iran, put in a bid of their own. [1]
Geographically, Iran was an attractive host country for a number of reasons. This would be only the third Summer Olympiad to be hosted in Asia (after Tokyo 1964 and Moscow 1980), and the first Games of any kind to be celebrated in the Middle East. [2] There remained considerable vocally-expressed doubts about Tehran’s (and Iran’s) ability to host the Games, given the repressive and undemocratic state regime – which faced considerable, and vigorous, popular opposition. However, the IOC’s hands were tied – there were effectively no other candidates to host the Summer Games.
By contrast, the bid for the 1984 Winter Olympics were vigorously contested between Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and Sapporo, Japan. The recency of the 1976 Summer and Winter Games, both held in North America, were the deciding factor in awarding the 1984 Winter Games to Sapporo, ensuring that their 1984 counterparts would both be celebrated in Asia – the first time that this would be the case for the world’s largest and most populous continent. [3] Notably, although the prospect of Los Angeles hosting the Summer Olympiad was mooted to avoid a repeat, Sapporo had also previously hosted the Winter Olympiad as recently as 1972. American sportswriters were just about the only people who cared enough about this latest bit of hypocrisy on the part of the IOC to make note of it, however. The Reaganomics of the era were such that many commentators believed the United States had dodged a bullet in avoiding having to fork over funding to support an Olympic bid, especially when it became clear that winning that bid (and therefore actually having to host the Games) was a near-certainty.
In stark contrast to the heated (in more ways than one) Summer Olympics which would come later in the year, the Winter Olympics at Sapporo proceeded much more smoothly, from the preparation – many of the facilities constructed for 1972 were reused in 1984 – to the popular response. Although they were not hosting the more prestigious Summer Games, the Japanese government still sought to show off how far they had come in the four decades since they had been left in ruin by World War II. Japan was now the second-strongest economy in the world and, as many increasingly feared, might possibly threaten the United States for #1 in the not-too-distant future. However, their economic prowess did not translate so easily to athletic prowess – particularly with regards to the ice and snow. Though Japan had won all three medals in the normal hill ski jumping event in 1972, they failed to place in a single other discipline at those games, and won nothing at Denver in 1976. However, they staged a partial comeback in 1980 at Vancouver, winning silver and bronze in the normal hill event. [4] The Japanese Olympic Committee wanted very much to sweep the normal hill event once more in 1984, again on their home turf. The JOC also set ambitious goals for men’s and women’s figure skating, in which they had performed well (if not enough to place) in the past, and speed skating. That said, they fielded a full complement of athletes, including an ice hockey team, though they were well aware of being a dwarf among giants in what was arguably the marquee event of the Winter Olympics. In order to secure the funding necessary to develop their team, the Sapporo Olympics were supported by corporate sponsors, which drew the ire of many in the IOC and Olympics “traditionalists” who favoured the intended “amateur spirit” of the Games. [5] One of the primary sponsors was, unsurprisingly, Sapporo Brewery – although for an unexpected reason: the Olympiad happened to be timed with a planned expansion by that firm into the US market, and the brewery’s executives were well aware of the tremendous visibility the Winter Games enjoyed in the US. This strategy met with some resistance stateside, however; moral guardians questioned the propriety of an alcohol manufacturer sponsoring a family-friendly event, and cultural nativists and protectionists bristled at yet another facet of the growing “Japanese Invasion”. [6] “First they get us to drive their cars, now they want us to drink their beer,” commented the American Party strategist, Pat Buchanan.
As was typical during the Winter Games, sportswriters were abuzz with regards to the “main event”, ice hockey. Canada, in the famous “Miracle on Ice”, had won the gold medal in 1980, and the Canadian government and media were high on their chances of defending their title and scoring a repeat victory. Competition was fierce, however – primarily from their most storied rivals, the Soviet Union. 1980 had been an absolution for the tragic loss at the 1972 Summit Series, and the Politburo was determined to regain the upper hand in this, one of the more literal fronts of the Cold War. Other countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain were eager to prove their mettle, however, such as the United States, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and West Germany. The host country of Japan had never placed better than 8th at the event (in 1960), and were largely considered a non-entity, having finished 12th in the qualifying rounds – they were then eliminated in the semi-final round-robin.
Advancing to the final four were the Soviet Union and West Germany from Team A, and Canada and the United States from Team B. Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Finland, and Poland rounded out the Top Eight. West Germany’s finish in the top four was considered a fluke against tough competition in Sweden and Czechoslovakia, and indeed they would be shut out in each game against their three opponents. Canada, sadly, lost against not only the Soviets in their decisive rematch (scoring a goal in the third period to spare themselves the ignominity of a shutout), but also to the United States, and took home the bronze medal. The final game scheduled was that between the Soviets and the Yankees, which would determine the winner of the gold medal. Americans had a complex relationship with ice hockey, but as a rule they always took an interest in any event where they were deemed to be the underdog – especially against their arch-nemesis. As soon as mention of “another Miracle on Ice” faded from Canadian newspapers, the phrase began popping up in American ones, confidently predicting the defeat of the Soviets for the second consecutive Olympiad by a Western power – and at a game which they had so dominated in the 1960s and 1970s, no less. However, it was not to be. The Soviets won the gold medal match with a score of 3-2; the United States was awarded the silver, still their best performance in the ice hockey event since 1972, when they had previously won the silver. Canadians who were heartbroken about losing the gold so soon after having finally won it back could at least take solace that they had won something, and although none of them were particularly thrilled at the Americans having finished ahead of them, at least they hadn’t lost to the Soviets in that heart-pounding nail-biter of a final game. Besides, the Canadians had other wins to celebrate.
The first was a major coup in scoring recognition for curling, which had been an official Olympic sport at the 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix, France – and never since. It had been played as a demonstration sport in 1932, and then again in 1980 at Vancouver, and its great success there – unsurprisingly, as Canada was the heartland of the sport despite its creation in Scotland (no doubt due to the large Scottish-Canadian population) – spurred the IOC to add the sport to the program in an official capacity in time for the 1984 Games. [7] To the surprise of many, curling attracted some curious onlookers from the United States, where the sport had never enjoyed much native popularity – attributed to its unique novelty (it was the only new sport added to the program in the 1984 Winter Games), approachability (unlike more intensive winter sports such as speed skating or alpine skiing), and (of course) the fact that the American team was doing quite well in the sport, and received plenty of ink and airtime as a result – depicted, of course, as the plucky underdog against such world powers as Canada and Great Britain (technically the defending champions, having won the gold in 1924). The quaint etiquette surrounding the sport (called the “Spirit of Curling”) also won its share of admirers. For all of these reasons, the surge of interest in the sport lingered despite the US ultimately finishing only third, taking home the bronze medal. However, as was the case with most fads, public interest would eventually ebb. Great Britain, meanwhile, failed to defend its title, taking home the silver – and Canada won the gold medal, a victory which would help to soothe the bitterness of the lost hockey gold. (As would Canadian teams dominating the NHL throughout the 1980s.)
Japan failed to win any of the big-ticket events, but repeated their feat of sweeping the normal hill event of the ski jumping discipline, also winning the gold in the large hill event and two silver medals in speed skating (500m and 1000m) and a bronze in women’s figure skating – the two golds, three silvers, and two bronzes won by Japan were good enough for that country to finish in eighth place overall. As usual, the leaderboard was dominated by the three perennial athletic superpowers: East Germany in first place (with 25 medals and nine golds – more than any other country on both counts), the Soviet Union in second, and the United States in third. Canada won four gold medals, finishing fourth for the second Olympic Games in a row, following their triumph in Vancouver – ahead of the three Nordic countries. Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Switzerland and West Germany rounded out the Top 10. All in all, despite the Cold War tensions being fought out by proxy in the hockey arena, the Winter Olympics were, as they had ever been, a more congenial, sportsmanlike variation on the more cutthroat, vicious Summer Games – a contrast which would perhaps never be more palpable than in 1984.
Tensions were high in late-1970s Iran, with many critics of the Pahlavi dynasty viewing the upcoming Tehran Olympics as yet another attempt by the Shah’s regime to glorify themselves at the expense of the common man (akin to the 2,500-year anniversary celebrations of the monarchy in 1971). However, the unpopular (and secular progressive) Shah Mohammad died of cancer in 1980, replaced by his more devout, traditionalist son, Reza II, who granted a new, democratic constitution which placated all but the radical forces to the extreme left and right of the Iranian political spectrum. Notably, his government mitigated the customary emphasis on ethnic nationalism that defined the Pahlavi dynasty, instead choosing to focus more on the unifying force that did more accurately define the vast majority of his people: Islam – about 99% of the Iranian population was at least nominally Muslim, compared to a mere three-fifths who were of Persian ethnicity.
That said, though the constitution recognized Shia Islam as the state religion, it officially provided for the five most prominent minority creeds in the Empire – Sunni Islam (at over 5% of the population, by far the largest religious minority group), Zoroastrianism (the oldest religion in Iran, which was also native to the region), Christianity (mostly Oriental Orthodox), Judaism, and the Baha'i faith. State tolerance (up to and including special representation in the legislature) of these last two groups rankled religious fundamentalists; the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, their spiritual leader (in exile since 1964) was a vocal opponent of the Baha’i faith and considered the new Shah’s tolerance of them to be heretical to the point of invalidating his supposed devotion to his faith, and all of the conciliatory steps he had otherwise taken to overturn the secularism of his father. [8] However, most Iranians – despite their personal distaste for Baha’is, and disapproval of their being tolerated by the state – did not agree, and popular demonstrations against the Pahlavi dynasty had abated so completely that US President Glenn was able to announce a withdrawal schedule for American troops from Iran in 1981; by the end of 1982, only a specialist cadre of trainers and military intelligence remained. By this time, the ranks of the Iranian military were sufficiently loyal to the Shah and his government that they were perceived as able to root out and quell isolated terror cells and dissidents loyal to the Ayatollah’s ideals on their own.
Shah Reza II, for his part, cannily promoted the upcoming Tehran Olympics in such a way as to promote regional solidarity, a chance to demonstrate to the world the prowess of Islamic athletes and athletics – a strategy which he claimed would unite his nation, but just so happened to appeal to hundreds of millions of people, spanning from Morocco to Indonesia. Iran was already well known on the world’s stage for their wrestling team; other countries sought to carve out similar niches for themselves. These included Pakistan, known for their field hockey team; Morocco, known for their athletics team; in addition, many countries in the Islamic world were renowned for their talents in boxing, wrestling, and weightlifting.
Tehran, being in Northern Iran, was near enough to the Caspian Sea (about a three-hour drive from the Olympic Village) that it would play host to most of the boating events – giving the neighbouring Soviet Union (with whom Iran shared the Caspian Sea) an additional edge. [9] Ironically, no Iranian competitors in any of those events would make it past the qualifying rounds. [10] The National Olympic Committee of the Imperial State of Iran decided to focus their limited resources (most of which, after all, had been diverted to fund the completion of the planned Olympic infrastructure in time for mid-1984) on their areas of traditional strength, aware that, as in past Summer Olympiads held in smaller countries, they would be dwarfed in the medal count by traditional titans such as the United States, the Soviet Union, and East Germany. The national committee was well aware of the prospect of becoming the first host nation in the history of the Summer Games not to win a gold medal, and strived to prevent that nightmare scenario. [11] However, and perhaps as a result, other nightmare scenarios were perhaps not as adequately prepared for as they might otherwise have been…
The Games of the XXIII Olympiad opened in July of 1984, officially opened by Shah Reza II, to a generally warm reception from the people of Tehran, and Iranians in general. The international community responded well to the opening ceremony, seeing it as a symbol of the triumph of liberal democracy and constitutionalism, Iran having been successfully brought “back from the brink” at the time they were awarded the Games. However, security was heightened, and for good reason; the Islamic world was mostly happy to have the Games taking place within their borders (and Islamic iconography was given equal space with traditional Persian cultural displays during the opening ceremony), but the dissenting voices could be heard loud and clear.
Ayatollah Khomenei, though tolerant of Iranian Jewry (unlike some of his fellow fundamentalists), was openly hostile toward Zionism and despised the cordial relationship between Israel and Iran. He supported calls for Iran to ban Israel from participating in the Games at Tehran; however, only the IOC had this authority, and refused to exercise it. Iran, indeed, had no legitimate reason to bar Israel for the Games even if it could have done; it had diplomatically recognized Israel for decades, and was not a member of the Arab League, having no ethnic solidarity with their cause. Factions within many of the Arab nations lobbied for a boycott of the Tehran Games, but this would fizzle for many reasons; for one, the Arab nations and Israel had competed alongside each other without difficulty at past Olympiads, which many diplomats and commentators did not hesitate to point out. [12] The lack of any sanction by Iran against Israel only served to fuel the fire.
Mindful of the lessons of 1972, security at the opening ceremony was very tight (the Israeli delegation was placed under heavy guard) and concessions were made to appease the fundamentalists (no Baha’i athletes competed for Iran, though several did for other countries, and they too were placed under heavy guard). Both groups being placed under protection unfortunately helped to reinforce the connection between Baha’i and Israel in the popular imagination. Khomeini in particular exploited this connection in his speeches, which were broadcast on Iraqi radio and could easily be heard across the Iranian border, calling for popular revolution and acts of terror against the state regime. His pleas were heard, and one of his devotees, operating in a sleeper cell out of Tehran, decided to answer them.
The method which was used to carry out this act of terror was suicide bombing, which had last been exposed to Western audiences by the audacious kamikaze attacks of Japanese fighter pilots in World War II. [13] The event chosen as the target for this attack was women’s fencing, which seemed to hit every single ideological bugbear for the terrorists and protesters: Israel was competing (and, notably, not a single other Middle Eastern country was), one of the fencers (an American) was Baha’i, and the sport itself (with its martial overtones) was deemed by them to be unsuitable for female competitors. Therefore, on the first day of August, 1984 (a Wednesday), the Tehran Plot was executed. A lone suicide bomber gained entry to the event (as it was later discovered, with the help of an inside accomplice, who fled the scene and was apprehended by the authorities in Tabriz, en route to a safe haven in Iraq. But the damage had already been done; the bomber attacked when the American (Carol Wilson) and the Israeli (Tamar Dahan) were competing against each other, throwing himself between them and detonating his bomb, killing all three of them instantly. Miraculously, nobody else was killed, though the referee and many of the other competitors (seated on the floor just a few feet away) were injured, some seriously, by shrapnel. The arena was evacuated and the event was scrapped entirely by organizers; ultimately, no medal was awarded. [14]
The rest of the Summer Games proceeded without incident, for whatever that was worth, and the closing ceremonies (which, much like the opening ceremonies, were placed under heavy guard) included a lengthy tribute to Wilson and Dahan – however, some scattered boos and jeers could be heard from the audience. The controversy at Tehran, coupled with Munich 12 years before, and the great expense of Montreal, had made the Olympic Games a far less desirable and prestigious event than they had been in years past. Los Angeles had already been chosen to host the Games in 1988 – the only other city which put in a bid was Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The IOC was frankly relieved at avoiding the risk of political turmoil that came with hosting the Games in a dictatorship.
The Soviet Union finished first in the medals tally, including dominating the Caspian Sea-set boating events, as predicted. East Germany finished second, and the United States in third. Iran won three gold medals in wrestling - all within the freestyle category – and two in weightlifting. The five golds overall won by Iran were good enough to put the host country within the Top 10 by most gold medals won. Neighbouring Pakistan won the gold medal in field hockey – ahead of arch-rival India, which won the silver medal. Morocco won two gold medals, both in Athletics. As had been touted and predicted in propaganda preceding the Olympics, these Games would force the rest of the world to take notice of the Middle East – though perhaps not for all the right reasons…
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[1] Tehran was indeed the only other city to bid for the 1984 Summer Olympics besides Los Angeles IOTL, though it quickly withdrew as the pressures leading to the Iranian Revolution continued to build. ITTL, of course, the presence of sufficient American troop coverage in Iran during a critical period have provided enough (enforced) stability for the bid to continue – this, coupled with the larger number of North American games in the years preceding 1984 (IOTL, only two such Games were held in North America following Mexico City 1968 – Montreal 1976 and Lake Placid 1980).
[2] No Olympiad has ever taken place in the Middle East IOTL. For obvious reasons, the Winter Games are never likely to be celebrated there, leaving the Summer Games as the only realistic prospect.
[3] The host city of the 1984 Winter Olympics IOTL was Sarajevo, winning in the second round over Sapporo by three votes, 39-36, in a come-from-behind victory. (Also-ran Gothenburg, Sweden, was eliminated in the first round with 10 votes to 31 for Sarajevo and 33 for Sapporo.)
[4] Japan only won the silver medal in that category at Lake Placid 1980 IOTL, tied with East Germany for second place behind Austria (and therefore, no bronze medal was awarded). Considering how vanishingly unlikely such a tie would be over a dozen years out from the POD, it doesn’t happen ITTL and instead the fourth-place finisher for Japan in that event finishes third instead, leaving poor Manfred Deckert of East Germany in fourth, and without his only Olympic medal IOTL. (Considering how many medals East Germany has won, IOTL and ITTL, I don’t think depriving them of one will be much of a loss.)
[5] The (Summer) Olympic Games of 1984 IOTL, in Los Angeles, were also heavily sponsored, generally reckoned as the first such Games with extensive corporate sponsorship. Not coincidentally, the Games were incredibly financially successful, Montreal having served as a cautionary tale. Since then, many other Games (particularly the two since held in the US, Atlanta 1996 and Salt Like City 2002, along with Calgary 1988 in Canada) have also been heavily sponsored, always with opposition from certain corners in the IOC, but always to great financial success.
[6] Sapporo Brewery signs, posters, and billboards plastered throughout the event always include the English-language slogan “Drink Sapporo in Sapporo!”, due to the Japanese cultural fascination with the English language. Of course, these slogans are only an appendage to a far more verbose Japanese language message, but keep in mind that most American readers can only read the English.
[7] Curling was restored to the Winter Olympics program in 1998 IOTL, by which time it was introduced as a men’s and women’s event. ITTL, it is only recognized as a men’s event – 1998 was something of a banner year for women at the Olympics, that being the first year in which women’s ice hockey was contested as well. Worth noting is that, after 1932, curling was not played as a demonstration game again until 1988 IOTL, also at a Canadian Games (in Calgary). Also worth noting is that the Games in which curling makes its grand return were celebrated in Japan both IOTL (Nagano 1998) and ITTL (Sapporo 1984).
[8] Khomeini spent the vast majority of his exile (following a year-long sojourn in Bursa, Turkey) in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq (fittingly, given his advocacy of Sunni-Shiite reconciliation, it was a holy city for both major denominations of the Islamic faith). IOTL, he departed that city in 1978, less than a year before the Iranian Revolution, on the advice of then-Iraqi Vice-President Saddam Hussein (yes, that Saddam Hussein), residing in Paris until such time as it was clear that he could enter Iran without opposition. ITTL, he remains in Najaf through 1984, continuing to advocate the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic Republic, preferably with himself at its head – and vehemently opposing the Tehran Olympics, a symbol of Shahist and pro-Western decadence.
[9] Despite the narrator’s description, “boating” is not a discipline at the Olympics, but rather a group of disciplines: canoeing and kayaking, sailing, and rowing. It is distinguished from the discipline of aquatics (swimming, synchronized swimming, and water polo) in that the events take place outdoors, and not in an Olympic swimming pool – and therefore requires an appropriate locale. (This is more of a problem in the Winter Olympics, wherein most events are on-location.)
[10] Despite being a maritime nation bordering not only the Caspian Sea but also the Persian Gulf, Iran never fielded any competitors in the boating group of disciplines IOTL until 2000 (in canoeing) and 2008 (in rowing) – and none at all in sailing.
[11] IOTL, Canada earned that dubious distinction in Montreal 1976, which remains the only time that a Summer Olympics host nation has never won a gold medal (which has happened on several occasions at the Winter Games, including again in Canada at Calgary 1988). ITTL, therefore, the possibility remains very real for Iran to get the black eye instead.
[12] Also, no large-scale boycott of the Olympic Games had ever been attempted by this point ITTL, compared to the two consecutive boycotts of OTL (followed by a third in 1984). Many diplomats and commentators outside the Arab world made clear that the Olympics were to be seen as apolitical (they weren’t, of course, but they were to be seen that way), and accordingly, such disputes should be set aside in the name of sport.
[13] IOTL, the first suicide bomber as we understand the term today (as opposed to previous incarnations of the same general idea, such as the kamikaze pilots of World War II) was Hossein Fahmideh, a 13-year-old Iranian boy who threw himself under an Iraqi tank with a grenade during the opening phases of the Iran-Iraq War in 1981. However, suicide bombers would not gain notoriety in the West until 1983, during the Lebanese Civil War.
[14] As far as I am able to determine, medals not being awarded for an event is unprecedented in the history of the modern Olympic Games. IOTL, it has never happened.
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Thanks to e of pi for assisting with the editing of the update, as usual.
I realize that the video game update was originally scheduled to be posted ahead of the Olympics update, and I apologize for disappointing the surprisingly large number of you who wanted to see that one first – however, this one was much further along and I felt the need to end the involuntary hiatus sooner, rather than later. (Relatively speaking, that is.)
Also, every now and again I feel the need to remind my readers that I’m not writing a utopia!
