Argentina and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics

The election of Raúl Alfonsín in October of 1983 represented the return of democracy to Argentina after more than seven years of a military dictatorship that left the country in a terribly distressed state. Since the dictatorship had joined the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics led by the USA, for Argentina, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics meant both coming back to the Olympic fold and the first such festival under the new democratic government. This paper explores Argentina's trajectory towards, and construction of, its participation in the country's first post-dictatorship Olympics. In doing so, this paper reveals why participation in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was not a priority for the incoming administration and why such participation was not conceived as a potential emissary capable of reaffirming on the global Olympic stage the hard fought, yet still emerging, democracy of Argentina. In addition, it reveals not only the determination of the Alfonsín administration to make his sport policy work but also its aspirations, complexity and ambiguities.