Arafat’s Presence At Games Shocks Envoys (Press, 23 July 1980)

On 23 July 1980, during the Moscow Olympic Games, the presence of Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat was met with shock among Western diplomats. This reaction stemmed from memories of the Munich Olympics eight years prior, when a PLO splinter group, Black September, killed eleven Israeli athletes after a raid on the Olympic Village. Arafat was noted to have toured the Olympic Village a day before the official opening and publicly condemned the Western boycott of the Games. He is believed to have been invited by the Soviet Government and later watched the opening ceremony from a reserved area for senior Soviet and diplomatic officials. When questioned about the invitation, Vladimir Popov, the first deputy chairman of the Soviet Olympic Organising Committee, initially refrained from discussing who invited Arafat and dismissed the notion that the invitation was linked to the Munich tragedy, stating he did not believe the PLO was associated with those events despite Black September's origins. Western diplomats described the invitation as "incredibly insensitive," interpreting it as the Soviet Union's attempt to enhance its influence in the Third World via the Olympics. Meanwhile, the atmosphere surrounding the Games was tense, particularly after an Italian gay rights activist, Vincenzo Francone, attempted to protest against the treatment of homosexuals in the Soviet Union by chaining himself to a railing in Red Square. Francone's protest led to a confrontation with police, who reportedly assaulted several journalists covering the incident. Francone was arrested and subsequently expelled from the country. In a separate incident, the Afghan Olympic team leader, Gholam Hassan, refuted claims that members of his team wished to defect to the United States or British embassies in Moscow, despite reports that at least two athletes had approached Western journalists expressing a desire to seek asylum. During an impromptu press conference, Hassan asserted that none of his athletes had spoken of defection, suggesting that they were content to remain in Afghanistan. However, other journalists reported that at least one Afghan athlete had communicated a wish to defect, leading to their removal by individuals in suits. These incidents highlighted the complex political undercurrents evident during the Games, where international tensions and individual desires for freedom intersected dramatically against the backdrop of a high-profile global event.

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