Cover V6 N2

Volume: 6 (2025)

Editor

Julie Brice

We’ll Be Cheering, Win, Lose, or Draw: Ronald Reagan as the Olympic President

Erin E. Redihan
https://doi.org/10.5406/26396025.6.2.04

 10.11.2025

Abstract

This article analyzes Ronald Reagan’s involvement in the Olympic Movement and places it in comparison with his Cold War–era predecessors. It argues that Reagan remains the American president most supportive of the Olympic Games due to a convergence of factors. While Ford and Carter both had political and Cold War–related reasons to engage with the Olympics, both of Reagan’s presidential campaigns and his presidential administration coincided with some of the tensest off-field moments of the Olympic Movement—not to mention the financial pressure that the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics faced. In addition to his unqualified support for the Olympics, Reagan leveraged his support for the Games into patriotic and appealing campaign rhetoric, especially in 1984, further demonstrating his understanding of their political utility. It draws on archival materials from the Ronald Reagan presidential library as its main sources.
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