The Friendship Games or Friendship-84 (Russian: Дружба-84, Druzhba-84) was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Although Friendship Games officials denied that the Games were to be a counter-Olympic event to avoid conflicts with the International Olympic Committee, the competition was often dubbed the Eastern Bloc's "alternative Olympics". Some fifty states took part in the competition. While the boycotting countries were represented by their strongest athletes, other states sent their reserve teams, consisting of athletes who failed to qualify for Los Angeles.
Read more about Friendship Games: Background, Participating Nations, Opening Ceremony, Summary, Medal Table, Comparisons To The Olympic Games, Aftermath, Venues
Famous quotes containing the words friendship and/or games:
“As it is with the love of the body, so with the friendship of the mind, the full is only reached by admittance to the most retired places.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)