Questions about the Olympics from the '70s / '80s (1 Viewer)

[Greg_Y]

Tonight, I was trying to describe to my wife two incidents in past Olympics but I wasn't sure of the exact years or details. Does anyone have information or links about these two questions? I tried olympics.com and came up dry.

1. The U.S. (Los Angeles) and the U.S.S.R. (Moscow?) both hosted the Olympics in the early '80s, right? And the U.S. boycotted the Russian-hosted year and they boycotted our L.A. -hosted year?

2. When the U.S. Men's basketball team lost to the Russians because of blatant referee "cheating", when was this and can anyone describe exactly what happened?

If you could fill in these holes in my mind, I would appreciate it. Or if you happen to know good Olympics sites that have history, I'll take that too!

Thanks.

 

[Joseph Howard]

2. When the U.S. Men's basketball team lost to the Russians because of blatant referee "cheating", when was this and can anyone describe exactly what happened?

I'm fuzzy on this one. I think 1976. Involved fouls called

against US and not against USSR plus extra shooting time

after the clock expired.

Dr. Joe

 

[Dheiner]

"The streak went to 71 games in 1972, but it ended in the Gold Medal game against the Soviet Union, amidst much furor. The U. S. led, 50-49, with three seconds to play. Inbounding the ball from under their own basket, the Soviets twice threw it the length of the court without scoring, but both times the officials ruled that the scoreboard clock had to be reset. On the third try, the court-length pass succeeded and a Soviet player scored the winning basket. The U. S. appealed the decision but lost, and the team unanimously voted not to accept the silver medal."

 

[andrew markworthy]

At the risk of antagonising you good people, it's fair to say that the US team's behaviour post-match was seen outside the USA as *very* bad sportsmanship. And the match wasn't fixed - although the ref's decisions seemed odd, they weren't totally unreasonable, and the debatable decisions in the US team's favour earlier in the game of course became conveniently forgotten.