1984 Summer Olympics

[www.doyouremember.co.uk]

The first thing that comes to mind when I remember the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics was the amazing spectacle of watching a man wearing a jet pack fly around the L.A. Memorial Coliseum at the opening ceremony before landing neatly in the middle, much to the delight of the assembled thousands of onlookers and millions of TV viewers around the world. You can probably imagine the awe and wonder I felt as a seven year old boy as I watched a real-life man fly a real-life jet pack, something that I had only ever seen previously accomplished in the ZX Spectrum computer game Jet Pac. From that moment on, I began to dream that I would one day own a jet pack and fly to school with it and this was a dream that persisted until a few years later when I watched Back to the Future II and decided that I would actually prefer to go to school on a hoverboard. As you can probably tell, the whole jet pack thing had a pretty big impact on me and as a result that's just about the only thing I actually remember about the 1984 Olympics. Having done a bit of research though, it turns out that there were actually some sporting events as well including the debut Olympic appearance of Carl Lewis who won four gold medals. Sebastian Coe also became the first man to ever win consecutive gold medals in the 1500m having previously won gold in 1980. As well as being memorable for some amazing sporting achievements and people in jet packs, the 1984 Olympics were notable for the absence of fourteen Eastern Bloc countries including the Soviet Union. In 1984, the Cold War was still going strong and the fall of the Berlin Wall was 5 years away yet so the relationship between east and west was very tense indeed. The Soviet Union boycotted the Olympic Games in retaliation for the US boycott of the previous Soviet Games which had a dramatic impact on the games, most notably in the weightlifting events where 94 of the world's top 100 ranked lifters were absent, along with 29 of the 30 medallists from the recent world championships and all 10 of the defending world champions in the 10 weight categories were also absent. Despite the boycott, 140 nations participated in the Games with over 6,829 athletes participating in 221 events.

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[Richard1978]

Re: 1984 Summer Olympics

This was the first olympics I remember.

[darren]

Re: 1984 Summer Olympics

fantastic olympics this was.

britain had some great athletes like daley thompson in the decathlon which he won for the 2nd successive olympics following on from moscow 1980.


my all time fave athlete.

he had a great rivalry with german jurgen hingsen.

[www.doyouremember.co.uk]

1984 Summer Olympics

The first thing that comes to mind when I remember the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics was the amazing spectacle of watching a man wearing a jet pack fly around the L.A. Memorial Coliseum at the opening ceremony before landing neatly in the middle, much to the delight of the assembled thousands of onlookers and millions of TV viewers around the world. You can probably imagine the awe and wonder I felt as a seven year old boy as I watched a real-life man fly a real-life jet pack, something that I had only ever seen previously accomplished in the ZX Spectrum computer game Jet Pac.From that moment on, I began to dream that I would one day own a jet pack and fly to school with it and this was a dream that persisted until a few years later when I watched Back to the Future II and decided that I would actually prefer to go to school on a hoverboard.As you can probably tell, the whole jet pack thing had a pretty big impact on me and as a result that's just about the only thing I actually remember about the 1984 Olympics. Having done a bit of research though, it turns out that there were actually some sporting events as well including the debut Olympic appearance of Carl Lewis who won four gold medals. Sebastian Coe also became the first man to ever win consecutive gold medals in the 1500m having previously won gold in 1980.As well as being memorable for some amazing sporting achievements and people in jet packs, the 1984 Olympics were notable for the absence of fourteen Eastern Bloc countries including the Soviet Union. In 1984, the Cold War was still going strong and the fall of the Berlin Wall was 5 years away yet so the relationship between east and west was very tense indeed. The Soviet Union boycotted the Olympic Games in retaliation for the US boycott of the previous Soviet Games with a dramatic impact on the games, most notably in the weightlifting events where 94 of the world's top 100 ranked lifters were absent. Additionally 29 of the 30 medallists from the recent world championships and all 10 of the defending world champions in the 10 weight categories were also absent. Despite the boycott, 140 nations participated in the 1984 Olympic Games (officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad) and 6,829 athletes participated in a total of 221 events. British sportsman Daley Thompson was a British hero bringing home a Gold Medal for the Decathlon and simultaneously providing the inspiration for the ZX Spectrum computer game Daley Thompson's Decathlon released the same year.

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[nuttytigger]

I wasn't born yet :P

[Trickyvee]

Re: 1984 Summer Olympics

I don't remember it specifically although I was old enough to, but I do remember the top sports people of the day so I probably did watch them in it. My first Olympic memories are of Torville and Dean that same year in the winter games and of Seoul 88.

[Avahi1057]

Re: 1984 Summer Olympics

1984 holds an importance to me because as a small kid it was the first Olympics I was aware of happening (promotion was everywhere - from tv to the side of coke cans). By subsequently seeing various montages and highlight packages I almost feel like I had watched it as it was happening, when it reality of course I had not seen a second of it.

I think 1992 was the first Olympic games I watched with any genuine interest.

[darren]

Re: 1984 Summer Olympics

i remember 84 well memories such as daley winning his 2nd successive decathlon title.
as well as seb coe winning his seconf d successive olympic title.
will never forget the astronaut coming in on a het pack.


88 in seoul was the first olympics i really watched with great interest.

[Richard1978]

Re: 1984 Summer Olympics

The very good documentary series 16 Days Of Glory covered a lot of the top tips for the games.

I remember it was repeated in the run up to the 1988 games, my brother taped most of it but probably wiped them years ago.