Olympic Games
There have been many countries deliberately missing the Olympics in order to make political statements. The most famous examples of countries missing the Olympics happened in 1980 and 1984. The Cold War opponents missed each other's Games. 65 nations refused to compete at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union and 14 of its Eastern Bloc partners (except Romania) countered by missing the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984. The countries stated that they could not guarantee the safety of their athletes. Soviet officials defended their decision to withdraw from the Games by saying that "chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria are being whipped up in the United States".