The Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics By Elani Cohen and Corey Bloomberg Senior Division-Group Website

Topic Selection: Originally we had chose Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights era as our topic of interest. However, we were ambivalent about that topic, and after discussing it with our teachers, we decided to research the Olympics instead. We chose to focus on the Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, not only because we are huge sports fans, as well as athletes, but also because it was a more specific event, therefore we would be able to find more primary sources to substantiate our thesis and entertain our viewers and readers. We also thought it would be more personal and eminent if we researched the Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics because our lives are greatly intertwined with sports, and it was intriguing to see how politics can affect an athletes career.

Research: For the historical context and background of the events we used secondary websites, which in fact contained an abundance of primary sources. However, we used academic journals, pictures, political cartoons, and primary newspaper articles for the majority of our research. We found various interviews and news reports online, which helped us see how both the Americans and Soviets felt about the boycott. We also were able to find

many first hand photographs to help us visualize the whole event. Articles from the 1980 issues of Time Magazine and the New York Times also helped us to corroborate our thesis.

Project Creation: We thought that the website category would suit our topics needs the best because we wanted the reader to connect and relate to the first hand photos, media, and press described in our research. It was very important to us that the reader was able to see the different opinions that people (athletes, government, and public) had about the boycott, and we felt that the website category was the top choice. As we were researching, we saw that there were many different perspectives regarding the boycott. So when we developed the website outline, we decided to separate it into the different perspectives, such as the media and the Russian point of view. We also found many substantial videos and news reports that helped us to convey these different opinions.

Relation to Theme: The Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics relates to the general theme because it was a contentious issue that affected the lives of many

people living all around the world. Although it was inopportune for many, according to the American government it was eminent that we protest the Soviet War in Afghanistan by boycotting the Olympics. In addition, it shows how the boycott affected the Soviets, who in reaction, boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.