WHO NEVER GOT THEIR SHOT]


“You had to stand up for your country,” Cohen said. “As far as I was concerned, it was political. There has always been politics in the Olympics. Always. So you either dealt with it or you didn’t deal with it and as far as I was concerned, it didn’t diminish what I was trying to accomplish.”


While his dream of competing in the Olympics may have been in question at the time, Cohen was not going to let that deter him from making the team.


“To me it was obviously an upsetting situation, but you weren’t going to let that diminish your dream, your dream was to make the team,” said Cohen.


Giordano and Cohen were both training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs at the time. With Carter’s announce- ment, like all of the aspiring Olympians, they faced a decision: keep training or go home. Both of them, as well as nearly every other athlete, kept training.


“We continued to train and we hoped that something would change,” Giordano said.


However, on Feb. 20 their fear became a reality. On the last day to enter the national team for the Olympics, over 23 different sports organizations voted in favor of the boycott.


“On first pass it was like ‘Who are these guys to be telling when they never put a nickel into the deal that we can’t compete?’” said 100 kg weightlifter Brian Derwin, who was training in New Jersey at the time. “One of the things that we always took some pride in was that our government didn’t send us. It was us – the individuals, the coaches, the people doing the sport that got us there. That’s how it should be.”


The United State’s boycott did not keep the U.S.S.R. out of Af- ghanistan and the Soviet dominated the medal count for the 1980 Games, but the move was a crippling blow to the soviets


economically. According to Nelson Ledsky, director in the State Department of the Olympic boycott office, in an interview he did with Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, the U.S.S.R. lost hundreds of millions in currency. The effects of the Soviet boycott had no- where near the same effect on the 1984 Los Angeles Games that saw record levels of international participation and profited over $220 million.


However, despite the massive economic effects that Carter credits to the beginning of the Soviet downfall, many members of 1980 U.S. Olympic team contend that such a level of politics should not take place in the Games.


“The Olympics and politics don’t mix,” Giordano said. “In ev- ery four years everybody, somebody, boycotts the Olympics be- cause of some political stance. It’s terrible. In the ancient times, Greek civilizations stopped wars to compete. It was something that was supposed to transcend war and politics and we couldn’t let that happen.”


While the boycott is now over 32 years past, the emotions still run deep with athletes like Giordano to this day.


“Years and years later, while I’m over it, I’m not over it,” Giordano said. “It’s not something you can easily get over. It’s a hard thing to do.”


“I think about it a lot during the Olympic years,” said Curry. “It was especially hard in 2010. That was the 30-year anniversary. I remember watching the gymnastics national championships and they had a special tribute to the 1980 team, it hit me all over again. Spectators, fans, press and even administrators all went to the Olympics, but the athletes, the group that was supposed to be there, did not get to go.”


Olympic dreams taken away by a political mess that was out of their own control.


Transformation Through Weightlifting


USAW would like to congratulate Randy Abernathy on winning USAW’s “Transformation Through Weightlifting” contest. Be sure to check out his transformation at usaweightlifting.org.


USAW received an extraordinary response to our contest which was announced back in February and had a great field of entrants to select from. We would also like to congratulate Kevin Catron and Ruth Pardue who were both runners-up in our first annual contest.


Continue to check out usaweightlifting.org as more contests will be announced for 2013.


WEIGHTLIFTING.TEAMUSA.ORG << 7


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