Showing the Flag in Moscow
by Philip Barker
The 1980 Moscow Olympics came to an end forty years ago and at the closing ceremony, the Stars and Stripes was to have been raised in honour of Los Angeles, the host city for the 1984 Games. Instead, as a result of an edict from the White House, the Los Angeles city flag was eventually flown.
From the start of the year, United States President Jimmy Carter had led the calls for an Olympic boycott following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After a bitter campaign, the Games went ahead without the USA, Canada, West Germany or Japan.
Although no American athletes were in Moscow, the IOC session was attended by representatives of the 1980 Lake Placid organising committee, and by a party from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC) led by Peter V. Ueberroth.
In those days, the handover of the ceremonial “Antwerp” Olympic flag took place at the opening ceremony and had involved the preceding host city Montreal, passing the flag to Moscow. Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau had been unable to attend, but the flag was brought to Moscow by Sandra Henderson and Stephane Prefontaine, the teenage athletes who had lit the flame in 1976.
Closing ceremony protocol called for the raising of the flag of Greece to represent the origins of the Olympics, the Soviet flag for the present hosts, and the Stars and Stripes for the 1984 Games, yet now a problem loomed. IOC Director Monique Berlioux had received a letter from White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler. “This stated that the United States strongly objected to any use of the national flag and its national anthem during the entire Games in Moscow.”
Berlioux conferred with Ueberroth.
“During an “intermission” of the Session, Peter Ueberroth and I were sitting in an adjoining room to the “Salle des Colonnes” in the Syndicate Building where the Session was held , incidentally a room where the heads of Soviet States were having a rest, and discussing all the problems raised regarding Los Angeles. “I had studied the rules and discovered that the French and English version differed. One stated that during the closing ceremony ‘the flag of the organising city,’ was raised, while the other version stated it was ‘the flag of the country of the organising city.’ There resided the solution, I thought.”
“I asked Peter if the City of Los Angeles had a flag. He replied that he did not know, but would telephone Mayor Tom Bradley and ask him.”
Bradley responded in the affirmative and the flag was duly dispatched to Moscow in the hands of an airline courier.
In his memoirs, Ueberroth recounts the anxiety before news finally came that the banner had arrived safely in the Olympic city.
Russian member Vitaly Smirnov now complained “that the United States government was imposing conditions on the Moscow organising committee. He reminded the LAOOC “The mayor of the city of Moscow would be handing over the Olympic flag to Los Angeles representatives at the opening ceremony of the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad.”
(In fact, after another boycott in 1984, it was the IOC Vice President Louis Guirandou N’Diaye who carried the Antwerp flag into the stadium, accompanied by Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium. Aileen Riggin Soule and Alice Lord Landon, both US team members in 1920, completed the colour party.)
One way or another, flags were a major issue in 1980.
At the proposal in Lake Placid, Finnish IOC member Paavo Honkajurri had made the proposal that all nations use the Olympic flag. It was a proposal he repeated in Moscow.
In fact the IOC made an alteration to their regulations to allow teams to parade under the flag of their National Olympic Committee or simply use the Olympic flag.
At a meeting in Rome held in May 1980, 18 National Olympic Committees including, curiously, West Germany, had signed a declaration in which they undertook to use the Olympic flag and anthem. The NOCs insisted “Their mission is to defend the Olympic music and that it is their duty to permit participation in the Games by their athletes. This participation is even more important in a period of tension and international conflicts, expressing as it does, a hope of mutual understanding for future generations.”
The statement continued:
“It was recognised that the ultimate acceptance of the invitation and the criteria was essentially the prerogative of each NOC; but there was general agreement that they (the criteria) afforded a sound basis for a recommendation that the invitation be accepted. 1. NOCs will not participate as a contingent in the opening ceremony. A flag-bearer only will follow the name-board. 2. At all times and on all occasions the flag of the participating delegations will be the Olympic flag. 3. The anthem will be the official Olympic anthem.”
Greece, Austria, Finland and Malta, were amongst those who eventually elected to use their national flag. Spain and New Zealand both paraded under their individual NOC flags. Others, including Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain and Italy, used the Olympic flag.
The most striking moment came at the velodrome when Robert Dill Bundi won cycling pursuit gold for Switzerland, ahead of Alain Bondue of France. Denmark’s Hans Henrik Orsted took bronze.
At the medal ceremony, three Olympic flags were raised to the accompaniment of the Olympic hymn.
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