You're probably in the camp with people who insist that invading Iraq was a mistake since there were no nukes found but the wmds were chemicals that Saddam was using on the Kurds. An Iraqi man threw a shoe at G.W. Bush and so he must've represented all Iraqis since they are homogeneous like that with no oppressed ethnic minorities, etc., etc.
Obviously the narrator has never been to a midwestern county fair. An elephant ear is sweetened fried dough, a staple food of carnivals and county fairs in the Midwest.
One of my friends was on the 1980 Olympics team. Not going to the Olympics completely derailed her life, and started 20 years of substance abuse. She's sober now but has had a very hard life when she could have been a professional athlete.
I also know someone who would have been on the Olympic team. The boycott didn’t destroy his life, but in his 60s, he still cries if the topic comes up.
Glad she’s doing better now, but holy shit that’s awful. Some Olympians only participate in one edition of the Games. So this boycott completely ruining her life is heartbreaking
Now I demand a part 2. Soviet and its allies and satellites pull out in 1984 LA Game, and make their own Friendship Games, with surprisingly American join in the game as well.
I would suggest Part 3 be the IOC allowing dictatorships around the globe to use the Olympics to sports wash their image externally while promoting their strong man regimes internally. The Sochi Olympics should be featured as well as the systemic corruption found there and the almost total lack of enforcement of the resulting penalties at following Olympics.
McDonalds losing a fortune so memorably that the Simpsons parodied it years later in an extended flashback "I will personally spit in every 50th burger!"
Ironically, the USSR boycotted the USA hosted Olympics in 1984 - which played a part in Mary Lou Retton winning a America's first gold medal in gymnastics
As someone who was a teenager when this boycott happened, while we understood why it happened, not a lot of the people actually agreed with it. At this time, the top 2 teams for the summer olympics were the USSR and the USA. With the boycott, 2 of the usually top 4 teams (USA and West Germany) did not attend so it "tainted" the medal tallies for USSR and East Germany. Nothing was done with the Winter Games since it took place less than 2 months after the invasion and it took place in the USA. On a side note about the 1980 Winter Olympics, 5 of the 12 total medals won by the USA were the 5 golds won by Eric Heiden who won ALL of the mens speed skating events. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 games was purely in retaliation despite their claims of "safety concerns". I remember cheering wildly when Romania marched in the opening ceremony.
@user-otzlixr I googled it, and 2/3rds supported boycotting. It's just strange they didnt leave the IOC and recreate their own version of the Olympics with just civilized nations.
Calls for the US to boycott in 1936 were resisted by USOC President Avery Brundage on the grounds that (1) doing so would threaten the future of the games, which were still fairly young, and (2) he was a pretty outspoken Nazi sympathizer.
If you REALLY want to get into the topic of politics in sport, I urge you to do a video on the role that sports boycotts played in the downfall of apartheid. It's a fascinating story of how the SA government was forced to reckon with the global opposition to apartheid.
OK, after that Elephant Ears comment, I think we all need a Phil Edwards video where he dives into county fairs and their food and regional variations. ;-)
I have a relative who won a team Gold Medal at the World Championships in her sport . . . Her take on the Olympics -- "A lot of it is timing. Does the year of the Olympics fall in a year that you or your team are at their "peak" performance. For example, think of the 2020 (2021) US Gymnastics Team -- are "all" of those women from the last team on this year's 2024 team? Some retired. Some are injured. "A lot can happen in 4 years" . . . So, from her perspective, the World Championships are considered the pinnacle for most athletes (and an Olympic medal is just a bonus) . . . Like the NFL, most of these athletes have brief careers - there is always someone new coming along to take their place.
I was an elite athlete and you are absolutely correct. We plan our training around the Olympics. "Older" athletes will take time off of competition in the years preceding because we know that we only have a limited number of hours doing our sport full out before our bodies start to break down. Athletes who are just old enough to qualify can be screwed over because they are 3.5 years behind in training, but they also have "more chances" if they can avoid injuries for the next 4 or 8 years, depending on the sport. And depending on your sport,you might only "peak" for one season, and if that season isn't on an Olympic cycle, you can say goodbye to the O's
Eulace Peacock was a highly rated American sprinter in the 1930s and had a competitive rivalry with Jesse Owens and beat Owens in races at times but then he injured his hamstring and so couldn't go to the Berlin Olympics. Obviously Owens did go and had an incredibly successful Olympics which is remembered well to this day. With no Olympics in 1940 or in 1944 Peacock never made it to the Olympics and his name is not remembered nearly as well as that of Owens. Peacock was still young enough to compete in 1948 but by then he had another career to focus on. No doubt there are very many great athletes who never made it to the Olympics because the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled.
I was a coach on team Canada for the 2023 Special Olympics World Winter Games that were supposed to be held in Kazan Russia. Team Canada pulled out when Russia invade Ukraine and many other countries followed leading to the games cancellation due to so many countries cancelling their participation. This was very hard on the athletes, they worked so hard to make the team, but they understood why and were accepting of the reason.
I just watched another video by "Search Party" titled: "Why No One Wants To Host The Olympics". In that video, it was the US who showed how they needed to be done. With Los Angeles hosting it in 1984 with the condition that they weren't forced to build new stadiums or facilities. But instead use what they already had. This saving billions by not creating wasteful buildings that would go unused after the Olympics were over, as happens in other countries that also hosted those events. Unfortunately, the people in charge got greedy and were forcing other nations to construct facilities if they wanted to host The Olympics. Which resulted in almost no country wanting to host them anymore.
@@skipads5141Same! I haven't been a fan for decades!!! I think they began to decline after they increased there occurrence from four years to what feels like every year or so? Too much!!! They were more special less often & back during the golden era, where events weren't commercialized to death, over-done, over hyped, the athletes aren't hero's or legends anymore either. Gymnastics & skating are nothing of what the public loved from years past. Natural talent, artistry. Ice skate is constant mega jumps & complicated maneuvers, not as graceful or heart felt and the corrupt committee allowing doping scandals among other controversies. Who can forget Munich!!! Apparently the committee can! Quite easily too. Gymnastics is glitz & glam, the gymnasts look like bullfrogs pumped up on steroids. Forced & again, the beauty & style everyone enjoyed is long gone. When people announced a boycott I was all for it, but I didn't understand how anyone could have been bothering to begin with. Boycott? Who even watches anyway? I read that the Olympics may end due to poor ratings & lack of venues and I was fine with it. I don't see why they couldn't reuse venues. My poor Nanna Eleanor, she was an Olympian in golf & high dive. She's rolling over in her grave at what her native France has done, destroyed itself. I don't think the Olympics sends a positive message. Even back in the golden era, some of my favorites (many foreign), have sadly come forward with horror stories and admittance it wasn't healthy choices that necessarily got them where they were but starvation, smoking, etc. Lots of disturbing stories and many I believe. Once athletes grew into adult bodies, they couldn't do what they once did. That's poor training and the wrong preparation that continues on today. The history of the Olympics is riddled in profit driven evil, power, corruption. I never found it appropriate they continued in 72 despite the hostage crisis & siege. My hero Olga said they never even told the team what was going on. It was all about medals and no distractions!!! I have no use for the Olympics. Now even the opening show is a disgusting & grotesque atrocity. A man's testicle exposed with a child right there and millions there & visibly watching. It should have been investigated, charges with indecent exposure /obscenity and the games should be cancelled. At least on a public forum.
@@melissahouse3488you do realize the frequency of the summer games has never changed. It always been every 4 years. The winter games were the only difference when they were made to be on a 4 year rotation but 2 years after the summer games.
I think the Olympic boycott also has to be seen within the larger picture of the Cold War “Sports Proxy Wars”. The Olympics was one of many athletic events where the US and USSR fought (Chess, ping pong, gymnastics). It was a battle of prestige that the USSR couldn’t afford to lose and the USA could leverage that to their advantage.
Elephant ears are more like a funnel cake than a cookie. I’d really like you to come to our county faire and experience them. I can definitely see a Phil Edwards video starting with you seeking out elephant ears.
I had a community college P.E. teacher, Tom Seabourne, (karate) who was an alternate for the '80 olympics (this was about 6 years later). He is the fittest human I've ever met. He taught karate, weight training, and tennis (iirc). He bicycled to class every day. He ran during his off classes. He did 10Ks & triathlons on weekends. In class he worked out harder than any of the students. (And he had a perfect 'Thom Selleck' mustache, the girls outnumbered the boys in his classes.) Several years later I saw him in one of those weekend special interest, travel shows like The Eyes of Texas where he did a solo bicycle trek across Texas with only his wife following in a chase vehicle. He has continued this insane drive for fitness ever since (according to a quick look on google). I have to wonder if missing his chance to be an olympian drove him to be so obsessive.
The irony is there was no boycott for the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. It led to the biggest sports moment in American history: US beating the Soviet Red Army team, Miracle on Ice
I feel dumb, how is it ironic the Lake Placid games didn't have a boycott? The reason for the 1980 summer boycott is Moscow was hosting it when they just toppled Afghanistan's government.
This followed a boycott at the 1976 Olympics. 29 countries, mostly from Africa, boycotted the Games in protest that the IOC refused to ban New Zealand. The NZ rugby team had recently toured South Africa, despite the UN urging a sporting embargo of South Africa due to its apartheid policies. There is an argument that because rugby was not (then) an Olympic sport, it was out of the IOC's jurisdiction. NZ later had its own reckoning when the South African rugby team toured NZ and were met with both support but also huge protests and civil unrest.
You beat me to that comment! One anecdote: Mirtus Yifter, the great Ethopian runner, finally won Olympic gold in 1980, his 3rd Olympics. He didn't compete in 1976 because of the African boycott and he ran poorly in the 5000m in 1972 because he couldn't find a bathroom just before his race.
Tensions caused by the Russo-Japanese War and difficulties in traveling to St. Louis resulted in very few top-class athletes from outside the United States and Canada taking part in the 1904 Games, that too
International Organizations are funny. The U.S. (or USSR for that matter) could just veto any resolution on the United Nations Security Council, stopping in its tracks any pan-national proposition. But when it comes to sports? President Carter couldn’t even get the Brits to stop playing ping-pong in Moscow…
The one thing I'll say about wrapping your head around it... Virtually ALL sports originate in the practice for war. Sports ARE play war. Sports are politics. That's separate from my personal opinion on this, just expressing the philosophy.
I've actually got a pin badge of Misha commemorating the Moscow games in 1980 - my wife's family are Ukrainian and gave it to me a few years ago. It's fair to say they aren't commemorating anything to do with Moscow, Russia or the Soviet Union anymore. 💛💙
The 1980 Moscow Olympic boycott from the athletes' perspective makes me think of the 2018 Winter Games when South Korea proposed an idea of a united athlete team with North Korea. It was a noble cause to be sure, but the idea of the merger being proposed less than a year before 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics made many people raise concerns for negative side effects. Namely, people were worried that athletes may suffer unfair disadvantages to their opportunity of their lives if and when two countries' worth of athletes had to be in a single team. People worried if those athletes will be forced to compete with fewer tickets to the Olympics. In the end, when athletes from Two Koreas marched under the same flag in 2018, it was two mostly separate Olympic teams marching together under one flag. The "merging into one team" idea was only done in ice hockey. It was a middle ground to deliver a noble message while making the least people sad in the process. So yeah, Olympic athletes are people with their own lives and dreams, and I would say that's an enough reason for why we should care.
I think the shine of the Olympics, for me, came off before Afghanistan, with how corrupt and over budget the Montreal Olympics were. As a Canadian, one of our more embarrassing endeavors. And, at the risk of being accused of just entering curmudgeon age, I will assert this may have been the moment Canada's construction and engineering sector announced us as an emerging "Can't Do" nation on the world stage. The boycott in 1980's certainly did nothing to polish that stain off. And subsequently, finding out the I.O.C. makes decisions based on bribes, and are often made up of European useless faux aristos on the take has had me ignoring this farce.
I believe that right now there are efforts to finally get a proper, reliable roof on Montreal's Olympics stadium. It's been almost 60 years since the stadium was first proposed. That's a very long project. I remember that Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau claimed that the Olympics could no more have a deficit than a man could have a baby. That led to political cartoons showing a very pregnant Drapeau. On the plus side the stadium's tower is the tallest inclined (leaning) tower in the world at 165 metres tall which basically makes it a skyscraper. It hasn't fallen down yet and relatively recently had a massive construction project to turn it into an office building. Unfortunately that project was finished early in 2020 just before the pandemic hit and office workers stopped going to work.
The USA has been intervening in Afghanistan because of the mess of a country the USSR left behind. The soviet thought it would be an easy slam dunk victory and a political win. This turned out to be a disaster waiting to happen when it was left behind like Syria, only a ruin of it’s former self. This fostered terrorism in the region. Also the CIA was helping the mujadeen (rebels/militia) to repel against the soviets for a partially political purpose. This was very common though in the cold war and either side did the same to the other. The mistake the Americans made was that they thought “I can fix him (and him and her too)” for over 20 years. They thought democracy was an export product
@@PhilEdwardsInc I've always found how certain categories of food have scores of different names for what *SEEMS* to be minor differences in the same list of ingredients/methods. Like today I learned the difference between fruit wine and fruit mead.
It's actually quite miraculous that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often. The Olympics are imperfect, but I do admire how the dream of brotherhood and unity between nations they promote can survive widespread geopolitical upheaval.
@@tamonicus Indeed. In 1936 the IOC chose Sapporo (Japan) for the 1940 Winter Games and Tokyo (Japan) for the 1940 Summer Games. But Japan invaded China in 1937, and pulled out of hosting altogether in 1938 due to their ongoing war with China. The IOC then chose Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) for Winter 1940 (after St Moritz (Switzerland) fell through) and Helsinki (Finland) for Summer 1940. But later in 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR invaded Finland, so the 1940 Olympics were cancelled altogether. And in 1941, the 1944 Olympics (Winter: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; Summer: London, UK) were also cancelled. The next Olympics weren't until 1948, when St Moritz (Switzerland) hosted the Winter Games and London (UK) hosted the Summer Games.
4:08 I don't know where the SALT treaties were signed but I really wish they had found a town called pepper to sign it a least for one, so it would be officially called the SALT in pepper treaty.
Fresh from the ‘All the Olympic/Paralympic mascots’ videos, I shouted “Misha!” as soon as I saw that banner. Still traumatised from the ‘misha holding a gun’ pictogram for the shooting event
The 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR was also a major defining moment in the intersection of sports and politics. Would love to see a video. Part 2?
Am I the only one who thought "broke the Olympics" meant how it came to usually dominate medal count... also probably a Cold War story though, I am guessing.
I grew up in very rural WV coal country and now live in very rural West Texas oil/ranch country, and I've never even HEARD of them until now. What region are they from? Midwest?
@@theoriginalediI went to the Nicholas County fair 2006 in WV and I swear they had them. Regular staple at fairs in NC along with funnel cakes. I'd say the difference is if you want a deep friend treat that's crunchy you get a funnel cake, if you want something more doughy you get an elephant ear. Often topped with cinnamon or powder sugar same as funnels.
@@XanderH4W6 To be fair, I'm in my 50s and have lived in TX since high school, so I don't have a finger on the current cultural pulse in WV. It's entirely possible that they're popular there these days. I should have mentioned that. I didn't even think about it. Thanks for all the information though. Very interesting! (Side note, if it's a question of crunchy vs not, I'd definitely be a funnel cake kind of girl. 🙂)
As someone who likes hockey, it's sadly not surprising how often politics plays a role in how events turn out. The Czechoslovak team being imprisoned by Communist leaders in 1950, the 1968 Grenoble Olympics when the Czechs protested the Prague Spring, the "friendly" 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series, all the nonsense with the NHL vs the IIHF and IOC, the current ban on Russian and Belorussian teams... those folks seem to come up a lot.
The US didn’t go on an “adventure” in Afghanistan because the country had nothing better to do genius. It was in response to 9/11. Likening that to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan is just plain idiotic.
i dont think it was the only one but it IS the first one to make a profit. That generally wasn't a priority before but since LA used existing venues it saved a ton of money
Another great vid. Happy I found this channel. I bet you the kinda dude who has seen the soviet-era COPS crossover episode from like their second season. Wild shit. Be well dude, thx for the vids.
Four years later in 1984 the Soviets retaliated and 14 countries including Czechoslovakia boycotted the games in Los Angeles. The Czech athletes were as devastated and angry as George Mount and others.
I think you really missed the mark when you didn’t mention all of the nations that went to the Olympics but did not use their flags or their anthems. In my opinion, I think that is the right thing to do because it sends a political message without affecting the aspirations of the athletes.
Elephant Ears? You must not have been to your local County Fair in a while, Phil. It's basically a large piece of fried dough topped with powdered sugar, not unlike fry bread.
1980 didn't introduce politics to the Olympics; it amplified it. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were a showcase for the budding Nazi regime, and the US very nearly boycotted it. The Axis countries weren't permitted to compete for a couple of Olympics after World War II. As early as 1960, Taiwan was forced to use the name Formosa, which they despised. And Rhodesia was barred from the 1972 Olympics.
I was 10 years old when this was happening. While I was aware of it, I better remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis, John Lennon getting shot, and Disco Demolition Night much better. Great video. Thanks for making it.
On the topic of mascots, even if many did not understand what the are, the "Phryges" of the Paris 2024 Olympics are a nice and strong reference. These are the Phrygian caps (or hats) that are symbols of the French revolution that were worn at the time, and continues to be worn by Marianne, the woman symbolizing the French republic. She's on stamps, on building fronts, as a bust in city halls, etc. Stamps sometimes only have the Phrygian cap too. The Phryges caused some funny interpretations, and we all had s good laugh, but the symbol is pretty good.
Good work, Phil. I was in college when this happened. Times were turbulent. But then, when are they not, eh? Oh, and the cheesecake chowdown was a nice touch. Or was that elephant ears? 🤔
But, regarding the drama over Afghanistan, it should be clear that it was a big deal. The Soviets were trying to capture the sovereignty of another country by force. This was a flagrant violation of the UN charter, and directly challenged the post-war world order set up by the US and its allies. Carter (and everyone else) was right to be alarmed, but the grain restriction was such a bad look, as a first move. "Oh, so you'll starve them out?" Yikes. In the end, they found their way. And the country should be grateful for Carter, the man himself, and for his administration.
So, I'm from Philadelphia, and if you were wondering, a "Philly Cheesecake" is just a REGULAR cheesecake, but with grilled meat, fried onions and Cheez-Wiz...
I was in college then. The main story in the USA was the election in November. President Carter had to win the primary elections first. I don’t know if the Olympic boycott helped with that. President Carter lost the election by a large margin in November.
Very curious to see the other recipes in the book because it can show the geopolitics of 1980 at the time, and what was important to the athletes of the era.
Also released in 1980 was Animalympics, which would have likely gotten a Winter version if the boycott hadn't happened. Also notable for being furry bait.
One of my neighbors in Washington, D.C., had trained as a gymnast for the 1980 games. He became a lawyer at the Department of State. He did not seem bitter about it but it clearly was something on his mind a lot. One of the issues I have with the professional olympic games (my opinion) is that athletes represent countries instead of merely being from them. Imagine a track relay team with the finest runners from Canada, the USA, and Jamaica. Divers from the UK and China competing as individuals! A basketball team with players from South Sudan, the USA, and Lithuania. But that will not happen. Alas. We do see that in certain events like the Boston Marathon but that's an outlier, isn't it?
Crazy to hear anyone suggest the competitive careers of few thousand Olympic competitors are more important than thousands Afghan lives... I'm glad Carter had a strong enough moral compass to push the boycott through even if it was unpopular.
Sarajevo 1984. were games that united both cold war enemies in the Winter games ,I am from Sarajevo and that makes me proud but on other hand Jugoslavija was destroyed from the inside but USA and USSR also helped in that effort.
Elephant ears are exactly what they sound like. You start by severing both ears of a majestic elephant. Then fry it in oil just as you would for any cookie. It’s served with powder sugar, traditionally, but other toppings such cinnamon and brown sugar, sriracha, salsa verde, relish, etc are not unheard of. They’re delicious and a (very) guilty pleasure.
I thought this was going to be about the 1904 St Louis Olympics, where the combination of being overshadowed by the World's Fair and the inadequacies of contemporary inter-continental transportation brought the games into disrepute and nearly killed the Olympics completely before they really got started.
Sports and politics are inevitably linked. I mean you see it all the time, and not just when athletes have a microphone and say stuff. Taking a knee during the anthem is political speech. The whole China banning the NBA because of what happened in Hong Kong was political speech. Politics and competition end up twisted together. The US hockey team winning against Russia is a political statement
Awesome video Phil. Really put the work in to this and never knew the history of this. I guess in a way they wanted to punish Russia, but in the end it would just punish the athletes. This was their lives it was messing with. The Olympics and other competitions like that shouldn’t ever be made political. That’s not why it started.
I generally want to follow XKCD's encouragement to not make fun of someone because they don't know something but celebrate the chance for them to learn it for the first time. But have you never been to a fair? Elephant Ears are America. But I'm also excited for you to both get the chance to try one for the first time and have extra content for shorts. 🤣
Thanks for this video. My sister was a member of this Olympic team. She would have been the first African-American to compete in gymnastics at an Olympic Games (she gets mentioned in the "Simone Biles Rising" Netlfix documentary). Seeing more info behind this political decision pisses me off even more. However, the past cannot be changed. What I am hoping is for the 2028 Olympic Games that they will let the 1980 Olympic Team march in the opening ceremonies. I've been able to get the suggestion through to someone at the LA28 Organizing Committee, but I've been told it's a long shot. The International Olympic Committee considers what President Carter did as a snub by the United States. They are most likely to say no, but I remain hopeful. They should be reminded Team USA 1980 got snubbed by the US, too. Also, I think I remember that cookbook!
Folks, I ate an elephant ear. ua-cam.com/video/lsI76IGNDns/v-deo.html
You're probably in the camp with people who insist that invading Iraq was a mistake since there were no nukes found but the wmds were chemicals that Saddam was using on the Kurds. An Iraqi man threw a shoe at G.W. Bush and so he must've represented all Iraqis since they are homogeneous like that with no oppressed ethnic minorities, etc., etc.
was it good?
Can you do a vid on the friendship games in 1984 and how they compared? I can't find much on UA-cam about them.
Obviously the narrator has never been to a midwestern county fair. An elephant ear is sweetened fried dough, a staple food of carnivals and county fairs in the Midwest.
@@lauracarrolldebolt9233 I am a former Wisconsinite - just pastry averse. But I've rectified it!
One of my friends was on the 1980 Olympics team. Not going to the Olympics completely derailed her life, and started 20 years of substance abuse. She's sober now but has had a very hard life when she could have been a professional athlete.
I also know someone who would have been on the Olympic team. The boycott didn’t destroy his life, but in his 60s, he still cries if the topic comes up.
I will die on this hill. Carter FUKCED so many atheletes. It was AWFUL!
People forget that most Olympians are in their formative years and it's a huge developmental point for them.
@@0executesome sports have such a limited time window at least historically it is broadening see Simone Biles
Glad she’s doing better now, but holy shit that’s awful. Some Olympians only participate in one edition of the Games. So this boycott completely ruining her life is heartbreaking
Imagine Russia was hosting the Olympic Games immediately after invading Ukraine. That was the head space in 1980.
Or US illegally invading a country like Grenada just before The 1984 LA Olympics.
Yeah he really missed that comparison. The timing, proximity, and political goals of the wars are broadly similar.
It's more complicated, Afghanistan was not officially supported
fair!
But we don't even have to imagine, that's exactly what happened in 2014 Socci Winter Olympics. The "annexation of Crimea" was a year before.
Now I demand a part 2. Soviet and its allies and satellites pull out in 1984 LA Game, and make their own Friendship Games, with surprisingly American join in the game as well.
Agreed, this needs a part 2
I would suggest Part 3 be the IOC allowing dictatorships around the globe to use the Olympics to sports wash their image externally while promoting their strong man regimes internally. The Sochi Olympics should be featured as well as the systemic corruption found there and the almost total lack of enforcement of the resulting penalties at following Olympics.
McDonalds losing a fortune so memorably that the Simpsons parodied it years later in an extended flashback "I will personally spit in every 50th burger!"
“You personally stand to lose 44 million dollars”
"I like those odds!" @@nlpnt
Ironically, the USSR boycotted the USA hosted Olympics in 1984 - which played a part in Mary Lou Retton winning a America's first gold medal in gymnastics
Too bad they didn't show up. Retton was at the top of her game and hit a perfect 10!
really wow, though soviet union had been the best at fencing and Gymnastics for years
As someone who was a teenager when this boycott happened, while we understood why it happened, not a lot of the people actually agreed with it. At this time, the top 2 teams for the summer olympics were the USSR and the USA. With the boycott, 2 of the usually top 4 teams (USA and West Germany) did not attend so it "tainted" the medal tallies for USSR and East Germany. Nothing was done with the Winter Games since it took place less than 2 months after the invasion and it took place in the USA. On a side note about the 1980 Winter Olympics, 5 of the 12 total medals won by the USA were the 5 golds won by Eric Heiden who won ALL of the mens speed skating events.
The Soviet boycott of the 1984 games was purely in retaliation despite their claims of "safety concerns". I remember cheering wildly when Romania marched in the opening ceremony.
@user-otzlixr I googled it, and 2/3rds supported boycotting. It's just strange they didnt leave the IOC and recreate their own version of the Olympics with just civilized nations.
WRONG ! In 1976. East Germany dedeated USA by a mere ONE GOLD medal while the Soviet Union was on the TOP, far ahead of them.
(51ｰ 37ｰ 36)?
Nations boycotting the Olympics has happened surprisingly few times, in my opinion.
I know! I was sort of heartened that we live in a period of relative stability.
@@PhilEdwardsInc stability control. tomato tomato
Most recently North Korea in 2021, but that was just COVID. They got banned from 2022
There are boycotts nearly every Olympic games, though on a smaller scale and due to conflicts between different countries.
Calls for the US to boycott in 1936 were resisted by USOC President Avery Brundage on the grounds that (1) doing so would threaten the future of the games, which were still fairly young, and (2) he was a pretty outspoken Nazi sympathizer.
If you REALLY want to get into the topic of politics in sport, I urge you to do a video on the role that sports boycotts played in the downfall of apartheid. It's a fascinating story of how the SA government was forced to reckon with the global opposition to apartheid.
Sounds like a fascinating story to tell.
yes stumbled on this in one of the books! very interesting!
I was the research assistant on a book on that subject. “Flashpoint: How a Little Known Sporting Event Fueled America’s Anti-Apartheid Movement.”
Was a huge deal in New Zealand with the Springbok tour, divided the country.
@@PhilEdwardsInc Look up an article titled "Remembering Formula 1's Long Relationship With Apartheid South Africa" at Vice.
OK, after that Elephant Ears comment, I think we all need a Phil Edwards video where he dives into county fairs and their food and regional variations. ;-)
i blame my egg allergy for being pastryphobic!
@@PhilEdwardsInc honestly, fair. It's basically a huge flap of dough covered in icing sugar. We call them Beaver tails sometimes up here.
I have a relative who won a team Gold Medal at the World Championships in her sport . . . Her take on the Olympics -- "A lot of it is timing. Does the year of the Olympics fall in a year that you or your team are at their "peak" performance. For example, think of the 2020 (2021) US Gymnastics Team -- are "all" of those women from the last team on this year's 2024 team? Some retired. Some are injured. "A lot can happen in 4 years" . . . So, from her perspective, the World Championships are considered the pinnacle for most athletes (and an Olympic medal is just a bonus) . . . Like the NFL, most of these athletes have brief careers - there is always someone new coming along to take their place.
I was an elite athlete and you are absolutely correct. We plan our training around the Olympics. "Older" athletes will take time off of competition in the years preceding because we know that we only have a limited number of hours doing our sport full out before our bodies start to break down. Athletes who are just old enough to qualify can be screwed over because they are 3.5 years behind in training, but they also have "more chances" if they can avoid injuries for the next 4 or 8 years, depending on the sport. And depending on your sport,you might only "peak" for one season, and if that season isn't on an Olympic cycle, you can say goodbye to the O's
Definitely true, Simone Biles was peak form at 2020 but the one year postponement of the Tokyo games threw her mental game completely off
Eulace Peacock was a highly rated American sprinter in the 1930s and had a competitive rivalry with Jesse Owens and beat Owens in races at times but then he injured his hamstring and so couldn't go to the Berlin Olympics.
Obviously Owens did go and had an incredibly successful Olympics which is remembered well to this day.
With no Olympics in 1940 or in 1944 Peacock never made it to the Olympics and his name is not remembered nearly as well as that of Owens.
Peacock was still young enough to compete in 1948 but by then he had another career to focus on.
No doubt there are very many great athletes who never made it to the Olympics because the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled.
I was a coach on team Canada for the 2023 Special Olympics World Winter Games that were supposed to be held in Kazan Russia. Team Canada pulled out when Russia invade Ukraine and many other countries followed leading to the games cancellation due to so many countries cancelling their participation. This was very hard on the athletes, they worked so hard to make the team, but they understood why and were accepting of the reason.
Thank you for the work that you do
The Search Party video he mentions is very good and worth a watch. This one felt really Phil - enjoyable, quirky, informative.
I just watched another video by "Search Party" titled: "Why No One Wants To Host The Olympics". In that video, it was the US who showed how they needed to be done. With Los Angeles hosting it in 1984 with the condition that they weren't forced to build new stadiums or facilities. But instead use what they already had. This saving billions by not creating wasteful buildings that would go unused after the Olympics were over, as happens in other countries that also hosted those events.
Unfortunately, the people in charge got greedy and were forcing other nations to construct facilities if they wanted to host The Olympics. Which resulted in almost no country wanting to host them anymore.
That and nobody watches the Olympics anymore. I didn't even know they were going to happen until I saw something about them already underway.
@@skipads5141Same! I haven't been a fan for decades!!! I think they began to decline after they increased there occurrence from four years to what feels like every year or so? Too much!!! They were more special less often & back during the golden era, where events weren't commercialized to death, over-done, over hyped, the athletes aren't hero's or legends anymore either. Gymnastics & skating are nothing of what the public loved from years past. Natural talent, artistry. Ice skate is constant mega jumps & complicated maneuvers, not as graceful or heart felt and the corrupt committee allowing doping scandals among other controversies. Who can forget Munich!!! Apparently the committee can! Quite easily too. Gymnastics is glitz & glam, the gymnasts look like bullfrogs pumped up on steroids. Forced & again, the beauty & style everyone enjoyed is long gone. When people announced a boycott I was all for it, but I didn't understand how anyone could have been bothering to begin with. Boycott? Who even watches anyway? I read that the Olympics may end due to poor ratings & lack of venues and I was fine with it. I don't see why they couldn't reuse venues. My poor Nanna Eleanor, she was an Olympian in golf & high dive. She's rolling over in her grave at what her native France has done, destroyed itself. I don't think the Olympics sends a positive message. Even back in the golden era, some of my favorites (many foreign), have sadly come forward with horror stories and admittance it wasn't healthy choices that necessarily got them where they were but starvation, smoking, etc. Lots of disturbing stories and many I believe. Once athletes grew into adult bodies, they couldn't do what they once did. That's poor training and the wrong preparation that continues on today. The history of the Olympics is riddled in profit driven evil, power, corruption. I never found it appropriate they continued in 72 despite the hostage crisis & siege. My hero Olga said they never even told the team what was going on. It was all about medals and no distractions!!! I have no use for the Olympics. Now even the opening show is a disgusting & grotesque atrocity. A man's testicle exposed with a child right there and millions there & visibly watching. It should have been investigated, charges with indecent exposure /obscenity and the games should be cancelled. At least on a public forum.
@@melissahouse3488you do realize the frequency of the summer games has never changed. It always been every 4 years. The winter games were the only difference when they were made to be on a 4 year rotation but 2 years after the summer games.
I think the Olympic boycott also has to be seen within the larger picture of the Cold War “Sports Proxy Wars”. The Olympics was one of many athletic events where the US and USSR fought (Chess, ping pong, gymnastics). It was a battle of prestige that the USSR couldn’t afford to lose and the USA could leverage that to their advantage.
Elephant ears are more like a funnel cake than a cookie. I’d really like you to come to our county faire and experience them. I can definitely see a Phil Edwards video starting with you seeking out elephant ears.
right? they're a big thing in the PNW
never realized how elephant ear ignorant i was
@@PhilEdwardsInc My mom has been making them a bunch this summer.
They are far superior to the funnel cake. They would change your life.
@@MarqBarq elephant ears are fried dough. They are good but life changing feels a little over the top
I had a community college P.E. teacher, Tom Seabourne, (karate) who was an alternate for the '80 olympics (this was about 6 years later). He is the fittest human I've ever met. He taught karate, weight training, and tennis (iirc). He bicycled to class every day. He ran during his off classes. He did 10Ks & triathlons on weekends. In class he worked out harder than any of the students. (And he had a perfect 'Thom Selleck' mustache, the girls outnumbered the boys in his classes.) Several years later I saw him in one of those weekend special interest, travel shows like The Eyes of Texas where he did a solo bicycle trek across Texas with only his wife following in a chase vehicle. He has continued this insane drive for fitness ever since (according to a quick look on google). I have to wonder if missing his chance to be an olympian drove him to be so obsessive.
wow you paint a vivid picture of this beast of a man
The irony is there was no boycott for the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. It led to the biggest sports moment in American history: US beating the Soviet Red Army team, Miracle on Ice
I feel dumb, how is it ironic the Lake Placid games didn't have a boycott? The reason for the 1980 summer boycott is Moscow was hosting it when they just toppled Afghanistan's government.
@@XanderH4W6moscow didnt topple the afghan government
The mujahideen was the one that toppled it
This followed a boycott at the 1976 Olympics. 29 countries, mostly from Africa, boycotted the Games in protest that the IOC refused to ban New Zealand. The NZ rugby team had recently toured South Africa, despite the UN urging a sporting embargo of South Africa due to its apartheid policies. There is an argument that because rugby was not (then) an Olympic sport, it was out of the IOC's jurisdiction. NZ later had its own reckoning when the South African rugby team toured NZ and were met with both support but also huge protests and civil unrest.
You beat me to that comment! One anecdote: Mirtus Yifter, the great Ethopian runner, finally won Olympic gold in 1980, his 3rd Olympics. He didn't compete in 1976 because of the African boycott and he ran poorly in the 5000m in 1972 because he couldn't find a bathroom just before his race.
Tensions caused by the Russo-Japanese War and difficulties in traveling to St. Louis resulted in very few top-class athletes from outside the United States and Canada taking part in the 1904 Games, that too
International Organizations are funny.
The U.S. (or USSR for that matter) could just veto any resolution on the United Nations Security Council, stopping in its tracks any pan-national proposition.
But when it comes to sports? President Carter couldn’t even get the Brits to stop playing ping-pong in Moscow…
That is because the UN is intergovernmental and the IOC is non-governmental.
The one thing I'll say about wrapping your head around it...
Virtually ALL sports originate in the practice for war. Sports ARE play war. Sports are politics.
That's separate from my personal opinion on this, just expressing the philosophy.
Very Interesting Point 👌
I've actually got a pin badge of Misha commemorating the Moscow games in 1980 - my wife's family are Ukrainian and gave it to me a few years ago.
It's fair to say they aren't commemorating anything to do with Moscow, Russia or the Soviet Union anymore. 💛💙
The 1980 Moscow Olympic boycott from the athletes' perspective makes me think of the 2018 Winter Games when South Korea proposed an idea of a united athlete team with North Korea. It was a noble cause to be sure, but the idea of the merger being proposed less than a year before 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics made many people raise concerns for negative side effects. Namely, people were worried that athletes may suffer unfair disadvantages to their opportunity of their lives if and when two countries' worth of athletes had to be in a single team. People worried if those athletes will be forced to compete with fewer tickets to the Olympics. In the end, when athletes from Two Koreas marched under the same flag in 2018, it was two mostly separate Olympic teams marching together under one flag. The "merging into one team" idea was only done in ice hockey. It was a middle ground to deliver a noble message while making the least people sad in the process. So yeah, Olympic athletes are people with their own lives and dreams, and I would say that's an enough reason for why we should care.
A message that was incredibly unpopular in South Korea, and is seen as why “reunification” is a pipe dream.
I think the shine of the Olympics, for me, came off before Afghanistan, with how corrupt and over budget the Montreal Olympics were. As a Canadian, one of our more embarrassing endeavors. And, at the risk of being accused of just entering curmudgeon age, I will assert this may have been the moment Canada's construction and engineering sector announced us as an emerging "Can't Do" nation on the world stage. The boycott in 1980's certainly did nothing to polish that stain off. And subsequently, finding out the I.O.C. makes decisions based on bribes, and are often made up of European useless faux aristos on the take has had me ignoring this farce.
I believe that right now there are efforts to finally get a proper, reliable roof on Montreal's Olympics stadium.
It's been almost 60 years since the stadium was first proposed.
That's a very long project.
I remember that Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau claimed that the Olympics could no more have a deficit than a man could have a baby.
That led to political cartoons showing a very pregnant Drapeau.
On the plus side the stadium's tower is the tallest inclined (leaning) tower in the world at 165 metres tall which basically makes it a skyscraper.
It hasn't fallen down yet and relatively recently had a massive construction project to turn it into an office building.
Unfortunately that project was finished early in 2020 just before the pandemic hit and office workers stopped going to work.
@@geofflepper3207Can’t win for losing, can they?
The USA has been intervening in Afghanistan because of the mess of a country the USSR left behind. The soviet thought it would be an easy slam dunk victory and a political win. This turned out to be a disaster waiting to happen when it was left behind like Syria, only a ruin of it’s former self. This fostered terrorism in the region. Also the CIA was helping the mujadeen (rebels/militia) to repel against the soviets for a partially political purpose. This was very common though in the cold war and either side did the same to the other. The mistake the Americans made was that they thought “I can fix him (and him and her too)” for over 20 years. They thought democracy was an export product
This mans never had an elephant ear?! 🤯
i never have either, but this has inspired me to try it!
If I had to guess, I'd wager he has had a doughboy or a scone.
i know they don't always use eggs, but my allergy has made me very pastry ignorant.
@@PhilEdwardsInc I've always found how certain categories of food have scores of different names for what *SEEMS* to be minor differences in the same list of ingredients/methods.
Like today I learned the difference between fruit wine and fruit mead.
I’ve never even heard of them. The only elephant ear I’ve ever heard of is a plant.
It's actually quite miraculous that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often. The Olympics are imperfect, but I do admire how the dream of brotherhood and unity between nations they promote can survive widespread geopolitical upheaval.
Indeed, only World Wars I and II cancelled them altogether (1916, 1940, 1944).
@@AaronOfMpls Not that the IOC didn't try. 1916 in Berlin; 1940 in Tokyo, then London (I think).
@@tamonicus Indeed.
In 1936 the IOC chose Sapporo (Japan) for the 1940 Winter Games and Tokyo (Japan) for the 1940 Summer Games. But Japan invaded China in 1937, and pulled out of hosting altogether in 1938 due to their ongoing war with China.
The IOC then chose Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) for Winter 1940 (after St Moritz (Switzerland) fell through) and Helsinki (Finland) for Summer 1940. But later in 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR invaded Finland, so the 1940 Olympics were cancelled altogether.
And in 1941, the 1944 Olympics (Winter: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; Summer: London, UK) were also cancelled.
The next Olympics weren't until 1948, when St Moritz (Switzerland) hosted the Winter Games and London (UK) hosted the Summer Games.
@@AaronOfMpls Thanks for filling in the blanks!
I'm not sure the USA was doing the same thing as the USSR in Afghanistan...
4:08 I don't know where the SALT treaties were signed but I really wish they had found a town called pepper to sign it a least for one, so it would be officially called the SALT in pepper treaty.
lol i got to see a few salt themed political cartoons while researching this video
Fresh from the ‘All the Olympic/Paralympic mascots’ videos, I shouted “Misha!” as soon as I saw that banner. Still traumatised from the ‘misha holding a gun’ pictogram for the shooting event
The 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR was also a major defining moment in the intersection of sports and politics. Would love to see a video. Part 2?
Am I the only one who thought "broke the Olympics" meant how it came to usually dominate medal count... also probably a Cold War story though, I am guessing.
You’re gonna have people in here calling you a coastal elite for not knowing what an elephant ear is 😂
i am blaming my egg allergy!
I grew up in very rural WV coal country and now live in very rural West Texas oil/ranch country, and I've never even HEARD of them until now. What region are they from? Midwest?
@@theoriginalediI went to the Nicholas County fair 2006 in WV and I swear they had them. Regular staple at fairs in NC along with funnel cakes. I'd say the difference is if you want a deep friend treat that's crunchy you get a funnel cake, if you want something more doughy you get an elephant ear. Often topped with cinnamon or powder sugar same as funnels.
@@XanderH4W6 To be fair, I'm in my 50s and have lived in TX since high school, so I don't have a finger on the current cultural pulse in WV. It's entirely possible that they're popular there these days. I should have mentioned that. I didn't even think about it.
Thanks for all the information though. Very interesting! (Side note, if it's a question of crunchy vs not, I'd definitely be a funnel cake kind of girl. 🙂)
We have them in Washington too!
As someone who likes hockey, it's sadly not surprising how often politics plays a role in how events turn out. The Czechoslovak team being imprisoned by Communist leaders in 1950, the 1968 Grenoble Olympics when the Czechs protested the Prague Spring, the "friendly" 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series, all the nonsense with the NHL vs the IIHF and IOC, the current ban on Russian and Belorussian teams... those folks seem to come up a lot.
The US didn’t go on an “adventure” in Afghanistan because the country had nothing better to do genius. It was in response to 9/11. Likening that to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan is just plain idiotic.
But the 1984 LA games were probably the only profitable Olympics in the modern era.
yes sam told me this!
barcelona
I don't know whether London 2012 made much money or not but having lived in London at the time, I loved it!
i dont think it was the only one but it IS the first one to make a profit. That generally wasn't a priority before but since LA used existing venues it saved a ton of money
I thought Atlanta made money since much of the infrastructure was already built
Another great vid. Happy I found this channel. I bet you the kinda dude who has seen the soviet-era COPS crossover episode from like their second season. Wild shit. Be well dude, thx for the vids.
I haven't but this is sick. thank you. for anyone curious: ua-cam.com/video/aXlT6ReQat8/v-deo.html
It feels illegal to be in the first 10 mins
⛓️💥
Can we get a video of you cooking and trying some of those recipes?
Agreed!
it was legit good but very unhealthy haha
The Olympics were broken well before Moscow 1980. Any idea why the US hockey team beating Soviets in Lake Placid same year was called the Miracle?
There WAS a copy of the cookbook for sale on Amazon. I've already ordered it. Hopefully I was quick enough.
Four years later in 1984 the Soviets retaliated and 14 countries including Czechoslovakia boycotted the games in Los Angeles. The Czech athletes were as devastated and angry as George Mount and others.
11:11 As a Wilmington native, I appreciate your Delaware poster ❤
SAMEE!! just not Wilmington.,, DELAWHO DELAWHAT DELAWARE!!!!!!! 🦅🇺🇸‼️🦅🇺🇸‼️
Your video format is so unique!! I loved that ❤
1984 in Los Angeles saved the Olympics.
Elephant Ears are fried dough sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, sold at carnivals. Also known as Beaver Tails, as far as recall.
I met Christy Noble 2 years ago, she let me hold her 1984 gold medal, I wish I new about this event so I could’ve asked her about this
A colab of two of some of my favorite channel. Incredible.
Boycotting the Olympics is dumb. Should be a time to put away differences and compete for gold. Athletes have nothing to do with a war
I think you really missed the mark when you didn’t mention all of the nations that went to the Olympics but did not use their flags or their anthems.
In my opinion, I think that is the right thing to do because it sends a political message without affecting the aspirations of the athletes.
true!
Elephant Ears? You must not have been to your local County Fair in a while, Phil. It's basically a large piece of fried dough topped with powdered sugar, not unlike fry bread.
i have a deep-seeded fear of deep fried foods because i would like them too much
@@PhilEdwardsInc Fair enough. They are yummy, but like anything too sugary or greasy your body definitely tells you when you've had too much.
1980 didn't introduce politics to the Olympics; it amplified it. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were a showcase for the budding Nazi regime, and the US very nearly boycotted it. The Axis countries weren't permitted to compete for a couple of Olympics after World War II. As early as 1960, Taiwan was forced to use the name Formosa, which they despised. And Rhodesia was barred from the 1972 Olympics.
Phil!!
Give us all you got!!!
Greetz, from Curaçao!
Okay, Phil. As a bite-sized take on how the historical events played out, this is great. How did it "break" the games? How are they still broken?
i think they've been fixed! (or maybe broken in new ways - see the latest search party video)
You're talking about the 80ies and the moustache is gone? Unbelievable... but great piece!
The Paris Olympic mascots look like something from a children's television program
Rowdy Gaines is one of the only athletes who was able to make the team in 1984 and win a medal. So many dreams lost.
2:20 lmao didn’t expect to see Sam Ellis in this, I just watched a Search Party video right before this! “Hey I know this guy” 😅
1:11 where did you find this footage? I absolutely need it for my project!
Talk about a portal to the past, my family for decades had a hairdryer that proudly proclaimed it was a sponsor of the1980 US Olympic team.
Hearing a fellow American call an elephant ear a cookie rocks my soul 💔
Great video though!
i made good on my error!
I was 10 years old when this was happening. While I was aware of it, I better remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis, John Lennon getting shot, and Disco Demolition Night much better.
Great video. Thanks for making it.
dude why did we ever stop calling dishes "___ surprise"
Elephant ears are not cookies. They are very good, you can find them at your local county or state Fair.
On the topic of mascots, even if many did not understand what the are, the "Phryges" of the Paris 2024 Olympics are a nice and strong reference.
These are the Phrygian caps (or hats) that are symbols of the French revolution that were worn at the time, and continues to be worn by Marianne, the woman symbolizing the French republic.
She's on stamps, on building fronts, as a bust in city halls, etc. Stamps sometimes only have the Phrygian cap too.
The Phryges caused some funny interpretations, and we all had s good laugh, but the symbol is pretty good.
Elephant ears are more like a small fry bread than a cookie. Similar to "scones" that you get at fairs in the midwest and mountain west.
i have amends to make
Why you gotta diss the Paris mascot? He’s cute!
i just don't get why they have to be so darn weird. why not a little beret or baguette
@@PhilEdwardsInc explain to me how a beret is less weird than a phrygian hat.
@@PhilEdwardsInc seriously dude. I wanna know your reasoning.
@@wesleytwiggs7687 lol it's just kinda obscure. like, why can't it be vaguely athletic. give us a buff french dude or a pole vaulting cigarette.
@@PhilEdwardsInc you think a cigarette mascot would go over well in a sporting event?
Good work, Phil. I was in college when this happened. Times were turbulent. But then, when are they not, eh? Oh, and the cheesecake chowdown was a nice touch. Or was that elephant ears? 🤔
But, regarding the drama over Afghanistan, it should be clear that it was a big deal. The Soviets were trying to capture the sovereignty of another country by force. This was a flagrant violation of the UN charter, and directly challenged the post-war world order set up by the US and its allies.
Carter (and everyone else) was right to be alarmed, but the grain restriction was such a bad look, as a first move. "Oh, so you'll starve them out?" Yikes.
In the end, they found their way. And the country should be grateful for Carter, the man himself, and for his administration.
So, I'm from Philadelphia, and if you were wondering, a "Philly Cheesecake" is just a REGULAR cheesecake, but with grilled meat, fried onions and Cheez-Wiz...
I was in college then. The main story in the USA was the election in November. President Carter had to win the primary elections first. I don’t know if the Olympic boycott helped with that. President Carter lost the election by a large margin in November.
Very curious to see the other recipes in the book because it can show the geopolitics of 1980 at the time, and what was important to the athletes of the era.
This is the first video I'm watching from your channel.... The moment I saw Sam I knew this was a peak UA-cam recommendation 🍿 🍿 🍿
I can’t believe you were eating lunch as that man spilled his guys out to you! I know it’s his recipe but gosh!
more of a dessert than lunch really
Also released in 1980 was Animalympics, which would have likely gotten a Winter version if the boycott hadn't happened. Also notable for being furry bait.
One of my neighbors in Washington, D.C., had trained as a gymnast for the 1980 games. He became a lawyer at the Department of State. He did not seem bitter about it but it clearly was something on his mind a lot.
One of the issues I have with the professional olympic games (my opinion) is that athletes represent countries instead of merely being from them. Imagine a track relay team with the finest runners from Canada, the USA, and Jamaica. Divers from the UK and China competing as individuals! A basketball team with players from South Sudan, the USA, and Lithuania. But that will not happen. Alas. We do see that in certain events like the Boston Marathon but that's an outlier, isn't it?
Have you never had an elephant ear?
i have now! see pinned comment!
Crazy to hear anyone suggest the competitive careers of few thousand Olympic competitors are more important than thousands Afghan lives... I'm glad Carter had a strong enough moral compass to push the boycott through even if it was unpopular.
why are they the tool though? there are thousands of other possible diplomatic tools for this purpose
The fact that there was more than one Rambo is the wildest thing in this video
3:14 "you cant defeat a people like that, we already had our vietnam!" Ohhh buddy do i got some news for you! 😂
How has this man gone his entire life without having an elephant ear before??
i have this egg allergy and sometimes they use eggs (though not always). the worst was living in new orleans and never having a beignet
elephant ears are a type of fried dough covered in sugar, maybe cinnamon sugar. Great video
i rectified it!
Sarajevo 1984. were games that united both cold war enemies in the Winter games ,I am from Sarajevo and that makes me proud but on other hand Jugoslavija was destroyed from the inside but USA and USSR also helped in that effort.
I can't believe Phil dissed the Phrygian cap.
just the mascot! i have no opinion on the cap right now
Elephant ears are exactly what they sound like. You start by severing both ears of a majestic elephant. Then fry it in oil just as you would for any cookie. It’s served with powder sugar, traditionally, but other toppings such cinnamon and brown sugar, sriracha, salsa verde, relish, etc are not unheard of. They’re delicious and a (very) guilty pleasure.
consumed with a gorgeous ivory fork to boot
Elephant ear is synonymous with fried dough!
A moustacheless Phil Edwards is just like a musicless music video. :(
I'm missing Phil's trademark!
Wait, Muhammad Ali was convicted of draft dodging but was asked to help with the boycott by the same institute?
I thought this was going to be about the 1904 St Louis Olympics, where the combination of being overshadowed by the World's Fair and the inadequacies of contemporary inter-continental transportation brought the games into disrepute and nearly killed the Olympics completely before they really got started.
The boycott of the games made the summer box office improve from 1976 with the success of the empire strikes back
Sad 😔 disappointing for the athletics dreams shattered, they couldn’t go to the Olympic Games cause issues with politician
After today its REALLY gone down hill😂😂😂😂😂
Sports and politics are inevitably linked. I mean you see it all the time, and not just when athletes have a microphone and say stuff. Taking a knee during the anthem is political speech. The whole China banning the NBA because of what happened in Hong Kong was political speech. Politics and competition end up twisted together. The US hockey team winning against Russia is a political statement
Awesome video Phil. Really put the work in to this and never knew the history of this. I guess in a way they wanted to punish Russia, but in the end it would just punish the athletes. This was their lives it was messing with. The Olympics and other competitions like that shouldn’t ever be made political. That’s not why it started.
Wait.... you have never had an elephant ear? Time to do a county fair/ carnival deep dive Phil! :P (it's not a cookie!)
I sold the cook book to raise money for the rowing club at OSU.
wow!!
I generally want to follow XKCD's encouragement to not make fun of someone because they don't know something but celebrate the chance for them to learn it for the first time.
But have you never been to a fair? Elephant Ears are America.
But I'm also excited for you to both get the chance to try one for the first time and have extra content for shorts. 🤣
haha you know my egg allergy has made me a bit pastry/cookie ignorant over the years
search party crossover, love to see it
Thanks for this video. My sister was a member of this Olympic team. She would have been the first African-American to compete in gymnastics at an Olympic Games (she gets mentioned in the "Simone Biles Rising" Netlfix documentary). Seeing more info behind this political decision pisses me off even more. However, the past cannot be changed. What I am hoping is for the 2028 Olympic Games that they will let the 1980 Olympic Team march in the opening ceremonies. I've been able to get the suggestion through to someone at the LA28 Organizing Committee, but I've been told it's a long shot. The International Olympic Committee considers what President Carter did as a snub by the United States. They are most likely to say no, but I remain hopeful. They should be reminded Team USA 1980 got snubbed by the US, too.
Also, I think I remember that cookbook!
thanks for sharing!
You haven’t had Elephant Ears? Drop everything and come to Vancouver. We’ll hook you up!
Poor Krusty the Clown. This video hit pretty close to him, and his wallet.