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Peter Vidmar, seen here in this archive photo, won the men’s gymnastics NCAA All-Around tit

The year was 1980. It marked the beginning of a new decade. For the Olympics, though, it was more of the same. The black eye that the Games had been dealt by the previous decade continued on unabated. The 1972 Summer Games in Munich, Germany, were sullied by the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists. The 1976 Summer Games in Montreal suffered when 32 nations boycotted largely because of accusations of doping by the East German team. And in 1980 the Games took a major hit when President Carter announced that the United States would not participate in the Moscow event following Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Some athletes’ dreams for Olympic gold were dashed forever. But two UCLA athletes at least were fortunate enough to have their hopes only postponed for four years.

Curry’s Postponement Denise Curry’s dreams began to come true in 1978 when she first arrived at UCLA as one of the nation’s most highly touted basketball recruits. “I guess at about 15 or 16, (UCLA) kind of became a dream school in my mind,” Curry said.  After two years in Westwood, during which she also played on the Bruins’ first national championship softball team, Curry’s dreams began to move to the international stage. But they were soured when Carter announced the U.S. boycott of the 1980 games. “It was extremely disappointing,” Curry said. “I made the team. We won the Olympic prequalifying tournament.” The team had known there was a strong possibility their effort would be for naught. And though Curry and her teammates held out a glimmer of hope, the widening gap between the United States and the Soviet Union proved impenetrable. “So, we were all set to go up until the last minute, when Carter didn’t change his mind,” Curry said. “It was really disappointing. I’m more disappointed for some of my teammates, for whom that was kind of their one shot.” Fortunately for Curry, it wasn’t her only shot. Curry went on to become the 1981 UCLA athlete of the year and then won a gold medal at the Pan-American Games in 1983. She finally had the honor and thrill of making her trip to the Olympics in 1984. “Just to represent your country at that level of competition … it’s just overwhelming,” she said. “It’s something that you’ll keep forever and something that you’ll share forever, especially in a team sport.” Back in Los Angeles, close to her hometown crowd, she finally was able to stand on the podium draped in Olympic gold. “The Star-Spangled Banner” played in recognition of America’s first gold medal in women’s basketball. “It’s such an overwhelming feeling to know that you’re representing the United States,” Curry said. “You just can’t top that.”

Peter Vidmar’s Journey Peter Vidmar vividly remembers being denied the opportunity to compete at the 1980 Summer Games. The months, weeks and days leading up to the Moscow Summer Games passed amid a balancing act between capitalism and communism in the world comparable to one of Vidmar’s routines. “In 1980, my goal really was first just to make an Olympic team,” Vidmar said. “My goal was just to get on that team and say you’re an Olympian and hope for the best.” Although the best was yet to come for Vidmar and men’s gymnastics, it still would be four years away.  When Carter pressured the United States Olympic Committee to withdraw from the games in April, Vidmar’s Olympic portrait was still far from complete. Though he knew future Games opportunities would come around, it was his teammates’ unfinished picture that really affected the young Bruin. “Although I was disappointed, I think it was much more devastating for my teammates. … Really, this was their only chance,” Vidmar said. Making the situation even tougher for the men’s gymnastics team was its disagreement with the final decision to boycott the Games. For most of the 1980 Olympians, politics was an unrelated matter. Communism and capitalism had no place in this international competition. The only red they knew was the anger and disappointment over not competing on the Olympic platform. “Everybody that I knew was against the boycott,” Vidmar said.  “We’re always told at the Olympic Games not to mix politics and sports.  At least they try to make a statement that you shouldn’t do that. [But] our president chose to do that.” The Cold War mentality seemed to define the public’s perception leading up to the Games. “I think it was easy to have good guys and bad guys while the Cold War was going on,” Vidmar said. “I don’t see the athletes as involved in that because I built friendships with the Soviet and the Chinese gymnasts, and those friendships have stayed. “That kind of rises above sport, which I think is the whole statement that the Olympic Games can make.” Not surprisingly, with the United States absent from the Moscow Games, the Soviet Union and East Germany took six gold medals in the eight men’s individual and team gymnastics events. Vidmar’s only consolation was knowing the competition that others considered the enemy. “I wanted to beat the Russians, of course,” Vidmar said. “I wanted to beat the Chinese, but I admired them as athletes and people.” The awe quickly wore off when Vidmar and his teammates realized they would have to beat the Russians and the Chinese in the following Olympiad. The valuable lessons Vidmar and his teammates learned merely from observing Soviet and Chinese counterparts enabled the United States to break through in 1984.  “We used to go to big events and watch the Chinese and Russians do great gymnastics … and run back home and learn it,” Vidmar said. “By the time we reached maturity in our sport, we were doing things that were new and were unique, and we were establishing ourselves as a world power in gymnastics.” Vidmar quickly became a great gymnast himself. After capturing the NCAA All-Around title in 1983, he was notified of his second Olympic invitation, this time in front of a hometown crowd in Los Angeles. At Pauley Pavilion, where he spent so many of his nights training, Vidmar felt truly at home at the 1984 games. The waiting, learning, hard work and hometown atmosphere certainly paid off when Vidmar earned a gold medal on the pommel horse and narrowly missed out on a second gold medal in the all-around. Vidmar also helped to notch the United States’ first team men’s gymnastics medal with his sterling performance at Pauley. “For the first time, I think we honestly believed we could beat these guys,” he said. “We believed it in our hearts, and that showed in our performances. We went out there, really fearless, ready to show the world the best gymnastics we could do. And we did.” Vidmar’s winning performances in 1984 averaged a 9.89 score, making him the highest-scoring U.S. male gymnast in Olympic history. It helped to earn him an induction into the USOC Olympic Hall of Fame and the International Gymnast Hall of Fame.  “It was pretty incredible,” he said  “I’m in a pretty small fraternity, so I kind of pinch myself [to make sure] that actually happened.” Vidmar now serves as one of the chairs on a summit for summer Olympic sports, which has enabled him to be in Athens, Greece, this week to evaluate the future of men’s gymnastics. The 1980 Olympics may have never been for the United States, but they are not forgotten. Each time Curry and Vidmar focus on the luster of their Olympic gold, the memories of their teammates from 1980 shine even more brightly.