Summer Olympic Boycotts - 1976, 1980 and 1984

The Summer Olympic games of 1976, 1980 and 1984 all had large-scale boycotts by a number of countries. The 1976 games in Montreal were boycotted, mainly, by many African countries in protest against the New Zealand rugby team's tour of South Africa. In 1980, the Moscow games were subject to a USA led boycott in protest at the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. At the Los Angeles games, in 1984, there was a boycott by the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries over concerns about the safety of athletes.