The aim and goal of master's thesis was to present Olympic games in Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 with the help of sources and literature, and to make a comparison between them, to find differences and similarities. I started my master's thesis by reading and compiling the desired information from selected literature, official reports of the Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games and newspapers (Delo and The New York Times), which I later compared and analyzed. The Moscow Olympic Games began on July 19 and lasted until August 3, 1980, and that were XXII. Olympic Games. The Los Angeles Olympic Games began on July 28 and lasted until August 12 in 1984 and were the XXIII. Olympic Games. In addition to the sporting event, a lot happend in politics at the above mentioned games. The Olympics in Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 were both marked by boycotts of the Games. The games in Moscow were boycotted by the USA and in Los Angeles by the Soviet Union. The main cause of the US boycott was the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and four years later the Soviets »retaliated« against Los Angeles with their own boycott. Of course, there was also the influence of the Cold war. The boycott affected both Olympic Games, making them less spectacular than they could have been and having less high quality sports competitions due to the lack of quality athletes. Despite everything, many quality athletes came to both Olympic Games, and both Muscovites and Los Angelesans completed the Olympic Games quite successfully. At the time in question, in the early eighties, it was considered that Olympic Games were not popular due to boycotts, non-profit games and other events around the world. However, Moscow or the Soviet Union intended to use the games for its own promotion and to show itself in a »good light« and open itself up to the world. Los Angeles was reffering to a new source of private funding and commercialism, and wanted to use the games to »advertise« tourism and the future organization of major events.
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