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If there had been no African boycott in 1974 at Montreal,Western boycott in 1980 at Moscow and Soviet block boycott in 1984 at LA, how would the world of sport have changed?
I think African athletics which was starting to become more prominent in the 60s and early 70s was stunted a bit because a lot of African nations were absent for 2 gatherings together. The African 1976 action was in protest at the New Zealand rugby tour of Apartheid South Africa, even though South Africa had been banned from the olympic family at that time and rugby had not been an olympic sport for decades (the USA are actually still the reigning champs).
The recently deceased Cuban great boxer, Teofilo Stevenson may well have won 4 consecutive golds.
Could the PRC have risen to prominence sooner?
The Soviet block's boycott was obviously in retaliation for the US inspired boycott prompted by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Though Eastern block officials cited security reasons bizzarely!
I am open to correction but afaik, Cuba and North Korea did not participate in Soeul'88
The first world athletic championships were held in Helsinki in 1983 and there was no boycott by anyone!.
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