When America broke the Olympics

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

Folks, I ate an elephant ear. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqSsaGl_fLN3pNU

[@erfahren]

You're probably in the camp with people who insist that invading Iraq was a mistake since there were no nukes found but the wmds were chemicals that Saddam was using on the Kurds. An Iraqi man threw a shoe at G.W. Bush and so he must've represented all Iraqis since they are homogeneous like that with no oppressed ethnic minorities, etc., etc.

[@LibertyTroopers]

was it good?

[@7521eric]

Can you do a vid on the friendship games in 1984 and how they compared? I can't find much on KZbin about them.

[@lauracarrolldebolt9233]

Obviously the narrator has never been to a midwestern county fair. An elephant ear is sweetened fried dough, a staple food of carnivals and county fairs in the Midwest.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

@@lauracarrolldebolt9233 I am a former Wisconsinite - just pastry averse. But I've rectified it!

[@PsRohrbaugh]

One of my friends was on the 1980 Olympics team. Not going to the Olympics completely derailed her life, and started 20 years of substance abuse. She's sober now but has had a very hard life when she could have been a professional athlete.

[@CoreenMontagna]

I also know someone who would have been on the Olympic team. The boycott didn’t destroy his life, but in his 60s, he still cries if the topic comes up.

[@justinrosssd]

I will die on this hill. Carter FUKCED so many atheletes. It was AWFUL!

[@0execute]

People forget that most Olympians are in their formative years and it's a huge developmental point for them.

[@knurles]

@@0executesome sports have such a limited time window at least historically it is broadening see Simone Biles

[@forTehMemes]

Glad she’s doing better now, but holy shit that’s awful. Some Olympians only participate in one edition of the Games. So this boycott completely ruining her life is heartbreaking

[@adisario]

Imagine Russia was hosting the Olympic Games immediately after invading Ukraine. That was the head space in 1980.

[@j4mm3d]

Or US illegally invading a country like Grenada just before The 1984 LA Olympics.

[@randomnobody8770]

Yeah he really missed that comparison. The timing, proximity, and political goals of the wars are broadly similar.

[@dragonlordskater5028]

It's more complicated, Afghanistan was not officially supported

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

fair!

[@agranero6]

There would be a difference: Afghanistan was in Middle East (COREECTION Central Asia) far from Europe, countries may have been even outraged but more because USSR dared to do it than for other reason. Ukraine is glued to Europe, what created an immediate fear that anyone could be the next: Poland and Sweden specially that already were invaded or controlled by Russia in the past got in full panic mode: Sweden wanted to get into NATO and Poland sent a lot of armament to Ukraine before anyone else as it was already NATO member. What did change that was different from invasion of Crimea? Because this was a full scale invasion, with Russia making ridiculous claims and denying the very existence of Ukrainians as a separate culture and the existence of Ukrainian as a language. This was a clear sign of Russia flexing its muscles in an attempt to rebuild the empire not in a USSR fashion but in a Peter The Great fashion and Putin seeing himself as Peter and that Ukraine was only the first step. The analogy with Germany invading Poland and Putin veiled comparing himself to Hitler (ironically after accusing Ukraine government of being Nazis) and using a term very much like "living space" (Lebensraum in German) in Tucker Carlson interview didn't contribute to make those countries feel safe even after a long war that only hurt Russia (but not Putin). Not even Iran and Pakistan were in fear of an invasion by Russia as Afghanistan was clearly hostile towards the, they were in fact fond of it, the same attitude from Afghanistan was what made USSR think that there would be no reaction from the West, but as always they misjudged the reaction, just like when they installed missiles in Cuba, for instance (this was acknowledged by Krushev's son that was a famous rocket scientist in an interview decades later (the URSS misreading the political environment about Cuba I mean). The similarities are superficial only, the devil is in the details: that war was a war where West fought with words and without much if any military support to the invaded. Ukraine war would never be dealt this way and even if US had a Trump as president Europe would inundate Ukraine with physical support.

[@chongjunxiang3002]

Now I demand a part 2. Soviet and its allies and satellites pull out in 1984 LA Game, and make their own Friendship Games, with surprisingly American join in the game as well.

[@triciac.5078]

Agreed, this needs a part 2

[@gibu002]

I would suggest Part 3 be the IOC allowing dictatorships around the globe to use the Olympics to sports wash their image externally while promoting their strong man regimes internally. The Sochi Olympics should be featured as well as the systemic corruption found there and the almost total lack of enforcement of the resulting penalties at following Olympics.

[@nlpnt]

McDonalds losing a fortune so memorably that the Simpsons parodied it years later in an extended flashback "I will personally spit in every 50th burger!"

[@nath-wp7xp]

“You personally stand to lose 44 million dollars”

[@paulgthomas84]

"I like those odds!" ​@@nlpnt

[@gregpeacock5497]

As someone who was a teenager when this boycott happened, while we understood why it happened, not a lot of the people actually agreed with it. At this time, the top 2 teams for the summer olympics were the USSR and the USA. With the boycott, 2 of the usually top 4 teams (USA and West Germany) did not attend so it "tainted" the medal tallies for USSR and East Germany. Nothing was done with the Winter Games since it took place less than 2 months after the invasion and it took place in the USA. On a side note about the 1980 Winter Olympics, 5 of the 12 total medals won by the USA were the 5 golds won by Eric Heiden who won ALL of the mens speed skating events. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 games was purely in retaliation despite their claims of "safety concerns". I remember cheering wildly when Romania marched in the opening ceremony.

[@valleyshrew]

@user-otzlixr I googled it, and 2/3rds supported boycotting. It's just strange they didnt leave the IOC and recreate their own version of the Olympics with just civilized nations.

[@willy-sw4dg]

WRONG ! In 1976. East Germany dedeated USA by a mere ONE GOLD medal while the Soviet Union was on the TOP, far ahead of them. (51ｰ 37ｰ 36)?

[@acgeewhiz]

Nations boycotting the Olympics has happened surprisingly few times, in my opinion.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

I know! I was sort of heartened that we live in a period of relative stability.

[@greg4629]

@@PhilEdwardsInc stability control. tomato tomato

[@maxandlily6074]

Most recently North Korea in 2021, but that was just COVID. They got banned from 2022

[@janaeshepherd5854]

There are boycotts nearly every Olympic games, though on a smaller scale and due to conflicts between different countries.

[@SamAronow]

Calls for the US to boycott in 1936 were resisted by USOC President Avery Brundage on the grounds that (1) doing so would threaten the future of the games, which were still fairly young, and (2) he was a pretty outspoken Nazi sympathizer.

[@sgabig]

Ironically, the USSR boycotted the USA hosted Olympics in 1984 - which played a part in Mary Lou Retton winning a America's first gold medal in gymnastics

[@jamestavella1398]

Too bad they didn't show up. Retton was at the top of her game and hit a perfect 10!

[@jamesclarkmaxwell-v2n]

really wow, though soviet union had been the best at fencing and Gymnastics for years

[@btk1243]

I have a relative who won a team Gold Medal at the World Championships in her sport . . . Her take on the Olympics -- "A lot of it is timing. Does the year of the Olympics fall in a year that you or your team are at their "peak" performance. For example, think of the 2020 (2021) US Gymnastics Team -- are "all" of those women from the last team on this year's 2024 team? Some retired. Some are injured. "A lot can happen in 4 years" . . . So, from her perspective, the World Championships are considered the pinnacle for most athletes (and an Olympic medal is just a bonus) . . . Like the NFL, most of these athletes have brief careers - there is always someone new coming along to take their place.

[@SavageMinnow]

I was an elite athlete and you are absolutely correct. We plan our training around the Olympics. "Older" athletes will take time off of competition in the years preceding because we know that we only have a limited number of hours doing our sport full out before our bodies start to break down. Athletes who are just old enough to qualify can be screwed over because they are 3.5 years behind in training, but they also have "more chances" if they can avoid injuries for the next 4 or 8 years, depending on the sport. And depending on your sport,you might only "peak" for one season, and if that season isn't on an Olympic cycle, you can say goodbye to the O's

[@Hahajajbxbakq]

Definitely true, Simone Biles was peak form at 2020 but the one year postponement of the Tokyo games threw her mental game completely off

[@geofflepper3207]

Eulace Peacock was a highly rated American sprinter in the 1930s and had a competitive rivalry with Jesse Owens and beat Owens in races at times but then he injured his hamstring and so couldn't go to the Berlin Olympics. Obviously Owens did go and had an incredibly successful Olympics which is remembered well to this day. With no Olympics in 1940 or in 1944 Peacock never made it to the Olympics and his name is not remembered nearly as well as that of Owens. Peacock was still young enough to compete in 1948 but by then he had another career to focus on. No doubt there are very many great athletes who never made it to the Olympics because the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled.

[@jacobdriscoll8276]

OK, after that Elephant Ears comment, I think we all need a Phil Edwards video where he dives into county fairs and their food and regional variations. ;-)

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i blame my egg allergy for being pastryphobic!

[@LucasSmart-nz8nu]

@@PhilEdwardsInc honestly, fair. It's basically a huge flap of dough covered in icing sugar. We call them Beaver tails sometimes up here.

[@Skydive4ever]

I was a coach on team Canada for the 2023 Special Olympics World Winter Games that were supposed to be held in Kazan Russia. Team Canada pulled out when Russia invade Ukraine and many other countries followed leading to the games cancellation due to so many countries cancelling their participation. This was very hard on the athletes, they worked so hard to make the team, but they understood why and were accepting of the reason.

[@Upperdecker196]

Thank you for the work that you do

[@zunaidparker]

If you REALLY want to get into the topic of politics in sport, I urge you to do a video on the role that sports boycotts played in the downfall of apartheid. It's a fascinating story of how the SA government was forced to reckon with the global opposition to apartheid.

[@ro2670]

Sounds like a fascinating story to tell.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

yes stumbled on this in one of the books! very interesting!

[@texfarmer567]

I was the research assistant on a book on that subject. “Flashpoint: How a Little Known Sporting Event Fueled America’s Anti-Apartheid Movement.”

[@sambell309]

Was a huge deal in New Zealand with the Springbok tour, divided the country.

[@JCCyC]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Look up an article titled "Remembering Formula 1's Long Relationship With Apartheid South Africa" at Vice.

[@notyrpapa]

The Search Party video he mentions is very good and worth a watch. This one felt really Phil - enjoyable, quirky, informative.

[@doktorrobingram]

I had a community college P.E. teacher, Tom Seabourne, (karate) who was an alternate for the '80 olympics (this was about 6 years later). He is the fittest human I've ever met. He taught karate, weight training, and tennis (iirc). He bicycled to class every day. He ran during his off classes. He did 10Ks & triathlons on weekends. In class he worked out harder than any of the students. (And he had a perfect 'Thom Selleck' mustache, the girls outnumbered the boys in his classes.) Several years later I saw him in one of those weekend special interest, travel shows like The Eyes of Texas where he did a solo bicycle trek across Texas with only his wife following in a chase vehicle. He has continued this insane drive for fitness ever since (according to a quick look on google). I have to wonder if missing his chance to be an olympian drove him to be so obsessive.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

wow you paint a vivid picture of this beast of a man

[@bfdmatt98]

I think the Olympic boycott also has to be seen within the larger picture of the Cold War “Sports Proxy Wars”. The Olympics was one of many athletic events where the US and USSR fought (Chess, ping pong, gymnastics). It was a battle of prestige that the USSR couldn’t afford to lose and the USA could leverage that to their advantage.

[@TatankaTaylor]

I just watched another video by "Search Party" titled: "Why No One Wants To Host The Olympics". In that video, it was the US who showed how they needed to be done. With Los Angeles hosting it in 1984 with the condition that they weren't forced to build new stadiums or facilities. But instead use what they already had. This saving billions by not creating wasteful buildings that would go unused after the Olympics were over, as happens in other countries that also hosted those events. Unfortunately, the people in charge got greedy and were forcing other nations to construct facilities if they wanted to host The Olympics. Which resulted in almost no country wanting to host them anymore.

[@skipads5141]

That and nobody watches the Olympics anymore. I didn't even know they were going to happen until I saw something about them already underway.

[@melissahouse3488]

​@@skipads5141Same! I haven't been a fan for decades!!! I think they began to decline after they increased there occurrence from four years to what feels like every year or so? Too much!!! They were more special less often & back during the golden era, where events weren't commercialized to death, over-done, over hyped, the athletes aren't hero's or legends anymore either. Gymnastics & skating are nothing of what the public loved from years past. Natural talent, artistry. Ice skate is constant mega jumps & complicated maneuvers, not as graceful or heart felt and the corrupt committee allowing doping scandals among other controversies. Who can forget Munich!!! Apparently the committee can! Quite easily too. Gymnastics is glitz & glam, the gymnasts look like bullfrogs pumped up on steroids. Forced & again, the beauty & style everyone enjoyed is long gone. When people announced a boycott I was all for it, but I didn't understand how anyone could have been bothering to begin with. Boycott? Who even watches anyway? I read that the Olympics may end due to poor ratings & lack of venues and I was fine with it. I don't see why they couldn't reuse venues. My poor Nanna Eleanor, she was an Olympian in golf & high dive. She's rolling over in her grave at what her native France has done, destroyed itself. I don't think the Olympics sends a positive message. Even back in the golden era, some of my favorites (many foreign), have sadly come forward with horror stories and admittance it wasn't healthy choices that necessarily got them where they were but starvation, smoking, etc. Lots of disturbing stories and many I believe. Once athletes grew into adult bodies, they couldn't do what they once did. That's poor training and the wrong preparation that continues on today. The history of the Olympics is riddled in profit driven evil, power, corruption. I never found it appropriate they continued in 72 despite the hostage crisis & siege. My hero Olga said they never even told the team what was going on. It was all about medals and no distractions!!! I have no use for the Olympics. Now even the opening show is a disgusting & grotesque atrocity. A man's testicle exposed with a child right there and millions there & visibly watching. It should have been investigated, charges with indecent exposure /obscenity and the games should be cancelled. At least on a public forum.

[@mattryan7124]

@@melissahouse3488you do realize the frequency of the summer games has never changed. It always been every 4 years. The winter games were the only difference when they were made to be on a 4 year rotation but 2 years after the summer games.

[@sdeepj]

The irony is there was no boycott for the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. It led to the biggest sports moment in American history: US beating the Soviet Red Army team, Miracle on Ice

[@XanderH4W6]

I feel dumb, how is it ironic the Lake Placid games didn't have a boycott? The reason for the 1980 summer boycott is Moscow was hosting it when they just toppled Afghanistan's government.

[@Prororo]

@@XanderH4W6moscow didnt topple the afghan government The mujahideen was the one that toppled it

[@Robyn-r9s]

This followed a boycott at the 1976 Olympics. 29 countries, mostly from Africa, boycotted the Games in protest that the IOC refused to ban New Zealand. The NZ rugby team had recently toured South Africa, despite the UN urging a sporting embargo of South Africa due to its apartheid policies. There is an argument that because rugby was not (then) an Olympic sport, it was out of the IOC's jurisdiction. NZ later had its own reckoning when the South African rugby team toured NZ and were met with both support but also huge protests and civil unrest.

[@tamonicus]

You beat me to that comment! One anecdote: Mirtus Yifter, the great Ethopian runner, finally won Olympic gold in 1980, his 3rd Olympics. He didn't compete in 1976 because of the African boycott and he ran poorly in the 5000m in 1972 because he couldn't find a bathroom just before his race.

[@jamesclarkmaxwell-v2n]

Tensions caused by the Russo-Japanese War and difficulties in traveling to St. Louis resulted in very few top-class athletes from outside the United States and Canada taking part in the 1904 Games, that too

[@ScottBaietti]

Elephant ears are more like a funnel cake than a cookie. I’d really like you to come to our county faire and experience them. I can definitely see a Phil Edwards video starting with you seeking out elephant ears.

[@strega-nil]

right? they're a big thing in the PNW

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

never realized how elephant ear ignorant i was

[@jarvishuck5917]

@@PhilEdwardsInc My mom has been making them a bunch this summer.

[@MarqBarq]

They are far superior to the funnel cake. They would change your life.

[@misterscottintheway]

​@@MarqBarq elephant ears are fried dough. They are good but life changing feels a little over the top

[@7878-x5w]

International Organizations are funny. The U.S. (or USSR for that matter) could just veto any resolution on the United Nations Security Council, stopping in its tracks any pan-national proposition. But when it comes to sports? President Carter couldn’t even get the Brits to stop playing ping-pong in Moscow…

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

That is because the UN is intergovernmental and the IOC is non-governmental.

[@JoshuaFagan]

It's actually quite miraculous that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often. The Olympics are imperfect, but I do admire how the dream of brotherhood and unity between nations they promote can survive widespread geopolitical upheaval.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Indeed, only World Wars I and II cancelled them altogether (1916, 1940, 1944).

[@tamonicus]

@@AaronOfMpls Not that the IOC didn't try. 1916 in Berlin; 1940 in Tokyo, then London (I think).

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@tamonicus Indeed. In 1936 the IOC chose Sapporo (Japan) for the 1940 Winter Games and Tokyo (Japan) for the 1940 Summer Games. But Japan invaded China in 1937, and pulled out of hosting altogether in 1938 due to their ongoing war with China. The IOC then chose Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) for Winter 1940 (after St Moritz (Switzerland) fell through) and Helsinki (Finland) for Summer 1940. But later in 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR invaded Finland, so the 1940 Olympics were cancelled altogether. And in 1941, the 1944 Olympics (Winter: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; Summer: London, UK) were also cancelled. The next Olympics weren't until 1948, when St Moritz (Switzerland) hosted the Winter Games and London (UK) hosted the Summer Games.

[@tamonicus]

@@AaronOfMpls Thanks for filling in the blanks!

[@bryanfreeland]

The US didn’t go on an “adventure” in Afghanistan because the country had nothing better to do genius. It was in response to 9/11. Likening that to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan is just plain idiotic.

[@yondie491]

The one thing I'll say about wrapping your head around it... Virtually ALL sports originate in the practice for war. Sports ARE play war. Sports are politics. That's separate from my personal opinion on this, just expressing the philosophy.

[@modujay]

Very Interesting Point 👌

[@knpark2025]

The 1980 Moscow Olympic boycott from the athletes' perspective makes me think of the 2018 Winter Games when South Korea proposed an idea of a united athlete team with North Korea. It was a noble cause to be sure, but the idea of the merger being proposed less than a year before 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics made many people raise concerns for negative side effects. Namely, people were worried that athletes may suffer unfair disadvantages to their opportunity of their lives if and when two countries' worth of athletes had to be in a single team. People worried if those athletes will be forced to compete with fewer tickets to the Olympics. In the end, when athletes from Two Koreas marched under the same flag in 2018, it was two mostly separate Olympic teams marching together under one flag. The "merging into one team" idea was only done in ice hockey. It was a middle ground to deliver a noble message while making the least people sad in the process. So yeah, Olympic athletes are people with their own lives and dreams, and I would say that's an enough reason for why we should care.

[@ChienaAvtzon]

A message that was incredibly unpopular in South Korea, and is seen as why “reunification” is a pipe dream.

[@ritokazoriv]

The USA has been intervening in Afghanistan because of the mess of a country the USSR left behind. The soviet thought it would be an easy slam dunk victory and a political win. This turned out to be a disaster waiting to happen when it was left behind like Syria, only a ruin of it’s former self. This fostered terrorism in the region. Also the CIA was helping the mujadeen (rebels/militia) to repel against the soviets for a partially political purpose. This was very common though in the cold war and either side did the same to the other. The mistake the Americans made was that they thought “I can fix him (and him and her too)” for over 20 years. They thought democracy was an export product

[@WheezyShotta]

Fresh from the ‘All the Olympic/Paralympic mascots’ videos, I shouted “Misha!” as soon as I saw that banner. Still traumatised from the ‘misha holding a gun’ pictogram for the shooting event

[@rodchallis8031]

I think the shine of the Olympics, for me, came off before Afghanistan, with how corrupt and over budget the Montreal Olympics were. As a Canadian, one of our more embarrassing endeavors. And, at the risk of being accused of just entering curmudgeon age, I will assert this may have been the moment Canada's construction and engineering sector announced us as an emerging "Can't Do" nation on the world stage. The boycott in 1980's certainly did nothing to polish that stain off. And subsequently, finding out the I.O.C. makes decisions based on bribes, and are often made up of European useless faux aristos on the take has had me ignoring this farce.

[@geofflepper3207]

I believe that right now there are efforts to finally get a proper, reliable roof on Montreal's Olympics stadium. It's been almost 60 years since the stadium was first proposed. That's a very long project. I remember that Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau claimed that the Olympics could no more have a deficit than a man could have a baby. That led to political cartoons showing a very pregnant Drapeau. On the plus side the stadium's tower is the tallest inclined (leaning) tower in the world at 165 metres tall which basically makes it a skyscraper. It hasn't fallen down yet and relatively recently had a massive construction project to turn it into an office building. Unfortunately that project was finished early in 2020 just before the pandemic hit and office workers stopped going to work.

[@SWalkerTTU]

@@geofflepper3207Can’t win for losing, can they?

[@BOABModels]

I've actually got a pin badge of Misha commemorating the Moscow games in 1980 - my wife's family are Ukrainian and gave it to me a few years ago. It's fair to say they aren't commemorating anything to do with Moscow, Russia or the Soviet Union anymore. 💛💙

[@tbird-z1r]

I'm not sure the USA was doing the same thing as the USSR in Afghanistan...

[@Rainbowzzify]

The 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR was also a major defining moment in the intersection of sports and politics. Would love to see a video. Part 2?

[@daniellloyd3521]

This mans never had an elephant ear?! 🤯

[@Minty1337]

i never have either, but this has inspired me to try it!

[@yondie491]

If I had to guess, I'd wager he has had a doughboy or a scone.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i know they don't always use eggs, but my allergy has made me very pastry ignorant.

[@yondie491]

@@PhilEdwardsInc I've always found how certain categories of food have scores of different names for what *SEEMS* to be minor differences in the same list of ingredients/methods. Like today I learned the difference between fruit wine and fruit mead.

[@DeathyAS]

I’ve never even heard of them. The only elephant ear I’ve ever heard of is a plant.

[@Blindriverside]

You’re gonna have people in here calling you a coastal elite for not knowing what an elephant ear is 😂

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i am blaming my egg allergy!

[@theoriginaledi]

I grew up in very rural WV coal country and now live in very rural West Texas oil/ranch country, and I've never even HEARD of them until now. What region are they from? Midwest?

[@XanderH4W6]

​@@theoriginalediI went to the Nicholas County fair 2006 in WV and I swear they had them. Regular staple at fairs in NC along with funnel cakes. I'd say the difference is if you want a deep friend treat that's crunchy you get a funnel cake, if you want something more doughy you get an elephant ear. Often topped with cinnamon or powder sugar same as funnels.

[@theoriginaledi]

@@XanderH4W6 To be fair, I'm in my 50s and have lived in TX since high school, so I don't have a finger on the current cultural pulse in WV. It's entirely possible that they're popular there these days. I should have mentioned that. I didn't even think about it. Thanks for all the information though. Very interesting! (Side note, if it's a question of crunchy vs not, I'd definitely be a funnel cake kind of girl. 🙂)

[@gogoforromeo9598]

We have them in Washington too!

[@JonathanBondu]

4:08 I don't know where the SALT treaties were signed but I really wish they had found a town called pepper to sign it a least for one, so it would be officially called the SALT in pepper treaty.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

lol i got to see a few salt themed political cartoons while researching this video

[@VonOzbourne]

As someone who likes hockey, it's sadly not surprising how often politics plays a role in how events turn out. The Czechoslovak team being imprisoned by Communist leaders in 1950, the 1968 Grenoble Olympics when the Czechs protested the Prague Spring, the "friendly" 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series, all the nonsense with the NHL vs the IIHF and IOC, the current ban on Russian and Belorussian teams... those folks seem to come up a lot.

[@Becauseimme]

1984 in Los Angeles saved the Olympics.

[@Gosudar]

Four years later in 1984 the Soviets retaliated and 14 countries including Czechoslovakia boycotted the games in Los Angeles. The Czech athletes were as devastated and angry as George Mount and others.

[@arllynmello]

Your video format is so unique!! I loved that ❤

[@daniel_wilkinson]

There WAS a copy of the cookbook for sale on Amazon. I've already ordered it. Hopefully I was quick enough.

[@simondaniel4028]

Another great vid. Happy I found this channel. I bet you the kinda dude who has seen the soviet-era COPS crossover episode from like their second season. Wild shit. Be well dude, thx for the vids.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

I haven't but this is sick. thank you. for anyone curious: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4nPhWmImraUqpo

[@josher887]

I met Christy Noble 2 years ago, she let me hold her 1984 gold medal, I wish I new about this event so I could’ve asked her about this

[@jljordan1]

But the 1984 LA games were probably the only profitable Olympics in the modern era.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

yes sam told me this!

[@tchinounitchou]

barcelona

[@BOABModels]

I don't know whether London 2012 made much money or not but having lived in London at the time, I loved it!

[@trickyrichard]

i dont think it was the only one but it IS the first one to make a profit. That generally wasn't a priority before but since LA used existing venues it saved a ton of money

[@EverettBurger]

I thought Atlanta made money since much of the infrastructure was already built

[@emmettanderson8507]

1:11 where did you find this footage? I absolutely need it for my project!

[@seangt]

Elephant ears are a very common carnival food. It's just plate sized fried dough

[@pummisher1186]

Elephant Ears are fried dough sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, sold at carnivals. Also known as Beaver Tails, as far as recall.

[@Goldenself]

Am I the only one who thought "broke the Olympics" meant how it came to usually dominate medal count... also probably a Cold War story though, I am guessing.

[@jrm78]

Elephant Ears? You must not have been to your local County Fair in a while, Phil. It's basically a large piece of fried dough topped with powdered sugar, not unlike fry bread.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i have a deep-seeded fear of deep fried foods because i would like them too much

[@jrm78]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Fair enough. They are yummy, but like anything too sugary or greasy your body definitely tells you when you've had too much.

[@arturogranados1133]

Rowdy Gaines is one of the only athletes who was able to make the team in 1984 and win a medal. So many dreams lost.

[@scottkessel952]

Boycotting the Olympics is dumb. Should be a time to put away differences and compete for gold. Athletes have nothing to do with a war

[@weldin]

11:11 As a Wilmington native, I appreciate your Delaware poster ❤

[@haewonized]

SAMEE!! just not Wilmington.,, DELAWHO DELAWHAT DELAWARE!!!!!!! 🦅🇺🇸‼️🦅🇺🇸‼️

[@charlesmoxey8122]

A colab of two of some of my favorite channel. Incredible.

[@lexie2382]

It feels illegal to be in the first 10 mins

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

⛓️‍💥

[@morainehill]

The Olympics were broken well before Moscow 1980. Any idea why the US hockey team beating Soviets in Lake Placid same year was called the Miracle?

[@Scaramanga7]

Talk about a portal to the past, my family for decades had a hairdryer that proudly proclaimed it was a sponsor of the1980 US Olympic team.

[@tamonicus]

1980 didn't introduce politics to the Olympics; it amplified it. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were a showcase for the budding Nazi regime, and the US very nearly boycotted it. The Axis countries weren't permitted to compete for a couple of Olympics after World War II. As early as 1960, Taiwan was forced to use the name Formosa, which they despised. And Rhodesia was barred from the 1972 Olympics.

[@paulblackman8159]

I think you really missed the mark when you didn’t mention all of the nations that went to the Olympics but did not use their flags or their anthems. In my opinion, I think that is the right thing to do because it sends a political message without affecting the aspirations of the athletes.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

true!

[@christopherbenigni4373]

Can we get a video of you cooking and trying some of those recipes?

[@acgeewhiz]

Agreed!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

it was legit good but very unhealthy haha

[@Zeyev]

One of my neighbors in Washington, D.C., had trained as a gymnast for the 1980 games. He became a lawyer at the Department of State. He did not seem bitter about it but it clearly was something on his mind a lot. One of the issues I have with the professional olympic games (my opinion) is that athletes represent countries instead of merely being from them. Imagine a track relay team with the finest runners from Canada, the USA, and Jamaica. Divers from the UK and China competing as individuals! A basketball team with players from South Sudan, the USA, and Lithuania. But that will not happen. Alas. We do see that in certain events like the Boston Marathon but that's an outlier, isn't it?

[@evancombs5159]

Elephant ears are not cookies. They are very good, you can find them at your local county or state Fair.

[@perrybarton]

Good work, Phil. I was in college when this happened. Times were turbulent. But then, when are they not, eh? Oh, and the cheesecake chowdown was a nice touch. Or was that elephant ears? 🤔

[@BoyProdigyX]

So, I'm from Philadelphia, and if you were wondering, a "Philly Cheesecake" is just a REGULAR cheesecake, but with grilled meat, fried onions and Cheez-Wiz...

[@higgy04]

The Paris Olympic mascots look like something from a children's television program

[@KyrilPG]

On the topic of mascots, even if many did not understand what the are, the "Phryges" of the Paris 2024 Olympics are a nice and strong reference. These are the Phrygian caps (or hats) that are symbols of the French revolution that were worn at the time, and continues to be worn by Marianne, the woman symbolizing the French republic. She's on stamps, on building fronts, as a bust in city halls, etc. Stamps sometimes only have the Phrygian cap too. The Phryges caused some funny interpretations, and we all had s good laugh, but the symbol is pretty good.

[@michelvdhoek]

Phil!! Give us all you got!!! Greetz, from Curaçao!

[@ericfielding2540]

I was in college then. The main story in the USA was the election in November. President Carter had to win the primary elections first. I don’t know if the Olympic boycott helped with that. President Carter lost the election by a large margin in November.

[@ErikPelyukhno]

2:20 lmao didn’t expect to see Sam Ellis in this, I just watched a Search Party video right before this! “Hey I know this guy” 😅

[@kascnef]

The boycott of the games made the summer box office improve from 1976 with the success of the empire strikes back

[@chriswade__]

Crazy to hear anyone suggest the competitive careers of few thousand Olympic competitors are more important than thousands Afghan lives... I'm glad Carter had a strong enough moral compass to push the boycott through even if it was unpopular.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

why are they the tool though? there are thousands of other possible diplomatic tools for this purpose

[@HighKingTurgon]

Okay, Phil. As a bite-sized take on how the historical events played out, this is great. How did it "break" the games? How are they still broken?

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i think they've been fixed! (or maybe broken in new ways - see the latest search party video)

[@RobKandell]

I was 10 years old when this was happening. While I was aware of it, I better remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis, John Lennon getting shot, and Disco Demolition Night much better. Great video. Thanks for making it.

[@evanneiswanger4794]

Hearing a fellow American call an elephant ear a cookie rocks my soul 💔 Great video though!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i made good on my error!

[@shapingtheframe]

You're talking about the 80ies and the moustache is gone? Unbelievable... but great piece!

[@Mojo_Jojo_001]

Comparing Russian invasion of Afghanistan to U.S. invasion at 14:45 is disappointing. I liked the video overall, but for someone who is looking at putting together a legitimate historical account/analysis and compare those two things as equal is historical/contextual malpractice. One can disagree with one of or both of those invasions, but should not conflate their ourpose/motivation as the same.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

not saying they're the same - just that it's hard to get fired up in the same way with so much history passed

[@brianstewart943]

Elephant ears are exactly what they sound like. You start by severing both ears of a majestic elephant. Then fry it in oil just as you would for any cookie. It’s served with powder sugar, traditionally, but other toppings such cinnamon and brown sugar, sriracha, salsa verde, relish, etc are not unheard of. They’re delicious and a (very) guilty pleasure.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

consumed with a gorgeous ivory fork to boot

[@nerminsnowhuseinbasic9340]

Sarajevo 1984. were games that united both cold war enemies in the Winter games ,I am from Sarajevo and that makes me proud but on other hand Jugoslavija was destroyed from the inside but USA and USSR also helped in that effort.

[@WalterBurton]

But, regarding the drama over Afghanistan, it should be clear that it was a big deal. The Soviets were trying to capture the sovereignty of another country by force. This was a flagrant violation of the UN charter, and directly challenged the post-war world order set up by the US and its allies. Carter (and everyone else) was right to be alarmed, but the grain restriction was such a bad look, as a first move. "Oh, so you'll starve them out?" Yikes. In the end, they found their way. And the country should be grateful for Carter, the man himself, and for his administration.

[@wesleytwiggs7687]

Why you gotta diss the Paris mascot? He’s cute!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i just don't get why they have to be so darn weird. why not a little beret or baguette

[@wesleytwiggs7687]

@@PhilEdwardsInc explain to me how a beret is less weird than a phrygian hat.

[@wesleytwiggs7687]

@@PhilEdwardsInc seriously dude. I wanna know your reasoning.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

@@wesleytwiggs7687 lol it's just kinda obscure. like, why can't it be vaguely athletic. give us a buff french dude or a pole vaulting cigarette.

[@wesleytwiggs7687]

@@PhilEdwardsInc you think a cigarette mascot would go over well in a sporting event?

[@Geeksmithing]

Wait.... you have never had an elephant ear? Time to do a county fair/ carnival deep dive Phil! :P (it's not a cookie!)

[@Rhomega]

Also released in 1980 was Animalympics, which would have likely gotten a Winter version if the boycott hadn't happened. Also notable for being furry bait.

[@Bmoore011]

How has this man gone his entire life without having an elephant ear before??

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i have this egg allergy and sometimes they use eggs (though not always). the worst was living in new orleans and never having a beignet

[@NickBender]

Elephant ears are more like a small fry bread than a cookie. Similar to "scones" that you get at fairs in the midwest and mountain west.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i have amends to make

[@JayWilkins-zh7fx]

3:14 "you cant defeat a people like that, we already had our vietnam!" Ohhh buddy do i got some news for you! 😂

[@IANWANYONYI]

This is the first video I'm watching from your channel.... The moment I saw Sam I knew this was a peak KZbin recommendation 🍿 🍿 🍿

[@robgronotte1]

The most shocking thing here - the maker of the video didn't know what Elephant Ears are.

[@MC_aigorithm]

dude why did we ever stop calling dishes "___ surprise"

[@TicklishPizza]

I wouldn't say elephant ears are a weird recipe. Every fair or carnival I've been to has served elephant ears, its basically just fried dough sometimes served with powdered sugar.

[@lesleydehaan-kj8sq]

You haven’t had Elephant Ears? Drop everything and come to Vancouver. We’ll hook you up!

[@Catcrumbs]

I thought this was going to be about the 1904 St Louis Olympics, where the combination of being overshadowed by the World's Fair and the inadequacies of contemporary inter-continental transportation brought the games into disrepute and nearly killed the Olympics completely before they really got started.

[@teamcoltra]

I generally want to follow XKCD's encouragement to not make fun of someone because they don't know something but celebrate the chance for them to learn it for the first time. But have you never been to a fair? Elephant Ears are America. But I'm also excited for you to both get the chance to try one for the first time and have extra content for shorts. 🤣

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

haha you know my egg allergy has made me a bit pastry/cookie ignorant over the years

[@deantephillips2689]

elephant ears are a type of fried dough covered in sugar, maybe cinnamon sugar. Great video

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i rectified it!

[@MrJonyish]

I can’t believe you were eating lunch as that man spilled his guys out to you! I know it’s his recipe but gosh!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

more of a dessert than lunch really

[@frankfilippelli]

Boycotts for events such as these make perfect sense because the entire point of a boycott is to sustain from participating in something that benefits the opposition. In many cases it is an unconstitutional sacrifice for the people boycotting but that is simply the nature of the exercise and quite frankly it’s what makes it so valuable and impactful, because if it was easy, it wouldn’t really mean anything at all. And I can’t for the life of me understand why somebody would even want to participate with nations that are actively suppressing civil rights or invading other countries. It shows how shortsighted people can be about the greater issues in life. The thing you learn about stories like these is that if everyone stands together in solidarity for what is righteous and morally just in the world, it could all work out in the end. But when weakened factions break rank, it ruins the movement and ruins any chance of progress that could be achieved. If everyone just stood together on the boycott, they could have just simply moved the Olympics and the only ones who would lose out would be the country invading who is shown to not play nice with others anyway. It all makes perfect sense when you think about it.

[@joseybryant7577]

The fact that there was more than one Rambo is the wildest thing in this video

[@ranelgallardo7031]

Sports and politics are cousins than most people realize. Heck domestically MLK Day would not be recognized by every state if the NFL didn’t pull the 93 Super Bowl out of Arizona in 1990.

[@leeweesquee]

Wait, Muhammad Ali was convicted of draft dodging but was asked to help with the boycott by the same institute?

[@joeybaseball7352]

They should have the Olympics be set on the moon every year. 🌛

[@Giantdaz72]

I still to this day think the US should've went and won every medal they could...Using Jessie Owens as a perfect example

[@uprebel5150]

I was 14 at the time and was already pissed with Carter due to his response to the Iran Hostage Crisis. I was thrilled to be an American after The Miracle on Ice. Then the Boycott happened and I have thought for decades that Carter was the worst president of my lifetime. Well, at least he wasn’t the head of a political crime family known as the Biden’s.

[@adamrr8781]

Elephant ear is synonymous with fried dough!

[@I_Love_Learning]

I can't believe Phil dissed the Phrygian cap.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

just the mascot! i have no opinion on the cap right now

[@actionheroesla]

Thanks for this video. My sister was a member of this Olympic team. She would have been the first African-American to compete in gymnastics at an Olympic Games (she gets mentioned in the "Simone Biles Rising" Netlfix documentary). Seeing more info behind this political decision pisses me off even more. However, the past cannot be changed. What I am hoping is for the 2028 Olympic Games that they will let the 1980 Olympic Team march in the opening ceremonies. I've been able to get the suggestion through to someone at the LA28 Organizing Committee, but I've been told it's a long shot. The International Olympic Committee considers what President Carter did as a snub by the United States. They are most likely to say no, but I remain hopeful. They should be reminded Team USA 1980 got snubbed by the US, too. Also, I think I remember that cookbook!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thanks for sharing!

[@Crow7878]

I think that line toward the end about finding it hard to care about the war following NATO's was a tad bit dismissive because we weren't "doing the same thing". It is easy as it is to look at the fact it was in the same country and have the urge to think their experience was the same as yours, but that is a lazy instinct. The wars were plainly different in a way that was recognizable in demographics. To put how different the two Afghan wars are, the NATO one lasted for two decades. At the start of the war in 2001, the population was 21,000,258 and, by the end of the war in 2022, it was 41,128,771. The total number of civilian fatalities of the conflict was 46,319. To contrast with the Soviet War in Afghanistan, I want you to keep in mind the population of Afghanistan at the start of the war in 1979 was 12,986,378 and in 1989, the year the war ended (which, to be fair, ended in February), it was 10,673,172. One of the reasons for that population decline is that estimates of the civilian fatalities of the conflict range from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. Given the time period of the video, is interesting to note that I'd place the start of a lot of the brutality of the war as starting in the summer of 1980 that we see the first documented reprisal against a civilian population. This first reprisal was a sporadic decision by a unit in the 40th Army, but soon these would not be sporadic but policy. You would see these reprisals soon being done by airborne units performing reprisals with Airborne units' helicopter gunships and the Soviet Air Forces' fighter bombers and attack aircraft dropping cluster munitions on agriculture, water sources, and the communities themselves that were near the sites of ambushes or otherwise suspected of supporting any rebel group. The explicit intent is that people would die and life would be impossible due to UXO (I don't think the stories about Soviets disguising clusters being designed to look like toys is true, but nevertheless UXO seemed particularly hazardous to children due to their curiosity). Anyone in the stricken community would be displaced either to an area the Soviets or their allies controlled or out of the country entirely, so all the internal and external displacement was also an explicit intent (estimates are that about seven million people were displaced in total, so more than half the pre-war population). This sort of stuff is why I have seen a few scholars go as far as to characterize Soviet conduct in Afghanistan as "genocidal" (which is initially confusing, but they're argument is based on the complete phrase used in the definition is the phrase "in whole or in part"; it's still debatable but I think it is unambiguous that the Soviet's conduct was characterized by not merely a wanton disregard for civilian life but often an active contempt for such a large proportion of Afghan civilians that the intent doesn't matter). This is whole reason why the Stinger became so important. Debatably, it didn't win the war. What it did was make these reprisals by the air suddenly no longer something that could be done risk-free as helicopter gunships would naturally be flying in the effective range of Stingers and the cluster munitions the Soviets used were usually on unguided bombs dropped by fighter bombers or attack aircraft [as opposed to bombers which would have sufficient payload as to not need accuracy], so they needed to be dropped in a dive-bomb pattern which would place the aircraft in range of the Stinger. This made these reprisals for ambushes now themselves targets for ambushes which, to a lot of Afghans, felt like poetic justice. You said you familiarized yourself with the perspective on the war through political cartoons. My familiarity is that I have a friends whose parents were externally displaced by the war and hearing some of those family stories about surviving the war. The statistics of 7-15% of a country dying in war and more than half being displaced are insane enough to imagine just trying to map that onto your personal life. It's another thing entirely when people you know have personal anecdotes about having gone through that.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

it's not that i don't care about the war - it's that it's hard to get in the headspace for the boycott after 40 years of a lot of political twists. thanks for the work put into this comment though, appreciate the context.

[@Crow7878]

​@@PhilEdwardsInc Good video still. I like your stuff. The Soviet-Afghan War is an interesting event period that just tends to get flattened in popular imagination into basically the same war as the more recent Afghan war, so I am a bit touchy about it.