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Los Angeles was selected as the host of the Games on May 18, 1978 on the 80th IOC session at Athens, Greece, without a vote, because it was the only city that submitted a bid to host the 1984 Summer Olympics. The only other interested city, Tehran, declined to bid. Many blamed this on the massive cost overruns of the 1976 Games, staged in Montreal.

In response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany (but not Romania) boycotted the Games. For differing reasons, Iran and Libya also boycotted. The USSR announced its intention not to participate on May 8, 1984, citing security concerns and “chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States”. The Los Angeles boycott influenced a large number of events that were normally dominated by the absent countries. Boycotting countries organized a rival event in July-August 1984, called the Friendship Games.

The host state of California was the home state of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games. He had served as governor of the state from 1967 to 1975. The official mascot of the Los Angeles Games was Sam the Olympic Eagle.

Interesting Facts

• Carl Lewis made his first of four appearances in the Olympics, equalled the performance of Jesse Owens of 1936, and won four gold medals in the 100 m, 200 m, 4×100 m relay; and the Long jump.
• The first gold medal to be awarded at the Los Angeles Olympics was also the first-ever medal to be won by an athlete from China when Xu Haifeng won the 50 m Pistol event.
• Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco became the first female Olympic champion of a Muslim nation, and the first of her country in the 400 m hurdles.
• Archer Neroli Fairhall from New Zealand was the first paraplegic Olympian at any Olympic Games.
  Carlos Lopes, from Portugal won the Marathon (2:09:21 – Olympic record that stood for 24 years). It was the first Gold Medal ever to Portugal.
• A marathon for women was held for the first time at the Olympics (won by Joan Benoit). The event was considered notable because of Swiss runner Gabi Andersen-Schiess, who – suffering from heat exhaustion – stumbled through the last lap, providing dramatic images.
• Synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics debuted in Los Angeles as Olympic events, as did wind surfing.
• Following the IOC agreement to designate the Republic of China (Taiwan) Chinese Taipei, the People’s Republic of China appeared in the Olympics as China and won 15 gold medals. In weightlifting, athletes from the Chinese Taipei and China teams won medals at the same event.
• Li Ning from the People’s Republic of China won 6 medals in gymnastics, 3 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze, earning him the nickname “Prince of Gymnastics” in China.
• Steve Redgrave won his first title in rowing of the record five he would go on to win in five Olympic competitions.
• Daley Thompson apparently missed a new world record in winning his second consecutive gold medal in the decathlon; the next year his score was retroactively raised to 8847, giving him the record.
• Victor Davis set a new world record in winning the gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke in swimming.
• Mary Lou Retton became the first gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the gymnastics all-around competition. Only 1 of the 11 women who won gold medals at the 1983 World Championships competed because of the boycott.
• In men’s gymnastics, the American team won the Gold Medal.
• France won the Olympic soccer tournament, defeating Brazil 2-0 in the final. Olympic soccer was unexpectedly played before massive crowds throughout America, with several sell-outs at the 100,000+ seat Rose Bowl. This interest eventually led to the US hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
• The opening ceremony featured the arrival of Bill Suitor by means of the Bell Aerosystems rocket pack (also known as a Jet Pack).
• The Soviet-led boycott affected weightlifting more than any other sport: 94 of the world’s top 100 ranked lifters were absent, as were 29 of the 30 medalists from the recent world championships. All 10 of the defending world champions in the 10 weight categories were absent.
• Eleven athletes failed drug tests at the Los Angeles Games. It was reported that as many as 17 other “A samples” were found to be positive but, as the athletes’ code numbers were missing, no “B samples” were tested

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