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Why did the United States lead a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games?

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A woman in a white pleated dress lights the Olympic torch from a large flame in a gold cauldron, with a crowd seated in the background at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. — Olympic Games An actress playing the role of an Athenian high priestess lights the Olympic flame in Athens, October 31, 2017. The torch was later carried to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The United States led a boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow in direct response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.12

U.S. President Jimmy Carter spearheaded the movement, which became the largest boycott in the history of the Olympic movement. Approximately 60 other countries joined the United States in refusing to attend the Games to protest the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan. While some Western nations, such as Great Britain, France, Italy, and Sweden, chose not to participate in the boycott, the absence of the United States and its allies significantly impacted the level of competition at the event.12