How the 1984 Olympics saved the Games
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
In the early 1980s, the Olympic Games were on the verge of dying out. After a string of disasters, the Games had become unaffordable, politically fraught, and faced serious security concerns. Then came the spectacular 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles that reinvented the way the Olympics were run.
Guest host Ted Muldoon sits down with Les Carpenter, who covers the Olympics for The Post. They break down what changed in the 1984 Games and explore if 2024 could be another turning point.
Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Renita Jablonski. Thanks to Matt Rennie.
Audio of the 1984 Olympic events courtesy of the ABC Sports Collection, managed by ESPN. Additional audio courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, RunnerSpace.com and Rocky Mountain PBS.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey Martine here. So a quick note before we play today's episode. I am still in |
| 0:10.8 | Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention and let me tell you |
| 0:14.2 | there is a lot going on here. Former President Donald Trump is said to speak |
| 0:18.4 | Thursday night there will be a lot to unpack from that speech and at same time, there's also a ton of news happening |
| 0:25.2 | on the Democratic side of things, |
| 0:26.8 | around President Biden and the future of his candidacy. |
| 0:30.2 | So I wanted to let you know |
| 0:31.7 | to look for an in-depth breakdown of all of that news by looking up the campaign moment wherever you're listening. |
| 0:38.8 | And then tomorrow on Friday we'll have our usual end of the week political roundtable. |
| 0:44.0 | All right, here's today's episode of Post Reports. |
| 0:46.2 | Thanks so much. Joan Vanite's life changed when she was 27 years old. |
| 0:55.8 | Well, I think it was warm. |
| 0:57.6 | You know, when the race started, it was, what do they call it, that marine fog? |
| 1:02.0 | It was gray and dam. |
| 1:04.0 | This was 40 years ago. She was about to run in the very first women's Olympic marathon. |
| 1:09.0 | Well, I was sort of in disbelief. I mean, I hoped that it might happen someday. |
| 1:14.7 | She was racing in the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles. |
| 1:20.7 | Those games would be a test for the Olympics. For Joan, it was also a test. |
| 1:27.0 | I wasn't the favorite. I was not the favorite in the race. Just weeks before the Olympics were to begin, Joan had knee surgery and a lot of people were counting around. I remember Life magazine wanting to do a feature story on me and then they heard about my knee and the fact that I probably wasn't going to run and they did a big Olympic story and they had a little inset of me in a lawn's nightgown and a rocking chair sipping on a mug of tea. I was able to track down this photo and there |
| 1:56.9 | she is young Joan sitting next to a window in a long striped flannel nightgown with ruffles. |
| 2:03.2 | Lance is the brand name, as I later learned. |
| 2:06.0 | The magazine was assuming she wouldn't even participate in the race. |
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