Sports Competitions Throughout the Cold War USSR VS. U.S. Sports Competitions Throughout the Cold War By Hannah Groesbeck & Shelley Devereaux

Why was the competition so important? Because the two countries never faced each other militarily, the Olympics served as a face-off between the USSR and the U.S. Each game was a platform for the two countries to display their superiority of economic and political systems through their athletes.

1952 Olympics The USSR joined the Olympics in 1952, and immediately became a threat The US had always been the dominant sports team in the Olympic, until USSR joined Became instant rivals USA: 76 medals, USSR:71

1972 Olympics-Munich One of the most controversial basketball games in history took place between the U.S. and USSR The U.S. basketball team had been undefeated in 62 Olympic competition The game against the Soviets resulted in a loss for the U.S. -they filed an official protest, claiming that they had been robbed of the gold

1972 Chess Competition In 1972, American genius, Bobby Fischer, challenged Soviet champion Boris Spassky Fischer triumphed over Spassky, despite the Soviet’s 25 years of chess success This marked the beginning of the end of Cold War

1980 Winter Olympics Held in Lake Placid. Most memorable victory was the U.S. ice hockey defeat against the Soviets. The Soviets had dominated in men’s ice hockey since 1964.

Why was this victory so significant? The Soviets were recognized as best hockey team in the world, while the U.S. was ranked the seventh seed. The victory happened during the peak of the cold war Symbolically showed U.S. dominance over the Soviets.

U.S Boycotts 1980 Summer Olympics the USA and more than 60 other countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1980 Summer Olympic Results Because the U.S. boycotted the Games, the level of competition decreased as a result The Soviet team won 195 medals, total -80 of those were gold

Russia Boycotts Summer 1984 Olympics 12 weeks before the Olympics began in Los Angeles, Russia announced a boycott The USSR claimed that the U.S. was: -using the Games for political purposes -not taking the security of Russian athletes seriously -and, commercializing the LA Games

Summer 1984 Olympic Results Once again, because of the boycott, there was an unbalanced distribution of medals, favoring the U.S. The U.S. won a total of 174 medals -83 of those were gold

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