huolympics1-8, Exercise 2: The 1984 boycott

Model answer:

For the Los Angeles Games of 1984 the Soviet Union and most of its allies, including Hungary, stayed away, generally seen as a response to the Western boycott of the Moscow Games of 1980. Athletes who had trained for four years lost their chance to compete there. It makes medal tables hard to compare because some of the strongest rivals in many sports were absent, so a medal count for that Games, or a nation's total across Games, does not measure the same thing as in other years. The course describes the episode and takes no side in the dispute that caused it. Details should be checked.