No nations attended the 1916 Berlin Olympics due to WWI and WWII canceled the 1940 and 1944 Olympiads. In 1948 the USSR sent no athletes to London, but it wasn’t until the 1956 Olympics that nations boycotted the event to protest political differences with Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon withdrawing after the Suez Canal invasion by France, England, and Israel, while Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland didn’t attend in protest of the USSR’s brutal repression of the Hungarian Uprising. Larger boycotts struck 1976, 1980,and 1984 Olympics as well as the 1988 Olympics. No one has ever boycotted the Winter Olympics.
Every nation has gone to London, but I am leading a boycott of one.
Not for any reason in particular, although the commercialization of the Games might be # 1 on my list followed by the continued war in Afghanistan by the USA and UK and
I’m in Thailand and just couldn’t give a fig, although I lifted the ban so that my son Fenway and I could watch a YouTube video of the fireworks, otherwise I haven’t seen a single event.
It’s easy boycotting the Olympics in Thailand.
All Thais want to watch are their soap operas and they never let farangs near the remote during those broadcasts, which happen to coincide with live coverage from London.
But once the football starts for the Olympics and it’s another story all together.
The Thais ie men love footie.