A boycott hurt my Olympic dreams. Don’t do it again.

Having lived through that boycott, I hope no prospective Olympian faces another. History speaks for itself: the Soviet army stayed in Afghanistan for another decade and, in retaliation for the boycott, the Soviet Union and 13 other countries refused to attend the 1984 games in Los Angeles. The world gained nothing from either boycott and we athletes lost what could never be restored. Evelyn Ashford, for instance, was among the fastest US track athletes ever and favourite to win potentially multiple gold medals in 1980. The boycott devastated her. “I guess the best way to describe it was I felt as if my soul was ripped out of me,” she said at the time. There are countless such stories. To anyone pondering a boycott, remember this: because they occur only once every four years, the Olympics are unlike any other sporting event on earth. Athletes aren’t assured a second chance. Of the 466 Americans who had trained to compete in 1980, more than 200 didn’t make the cut for the next games.