Back to the Roots of Sports Management: 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Organizing Committee of Olympic Games

This research aims to compare the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games (OG), which continued their activities in parallel with the ideologies of the two superpowers of the Cold War, the USA, and the USSR, with public and private sector sports management approaches. The research model is a comparative case study. The findings were reached by single and cross analysing the data sources, including OCOG's official reports. Moscow and Los Angeles OCOG activities were compared under organizational structure, facilities, financing, and expenditures headings. Despite the blurred lines of intersectoral distinction, Moscow OCOG (OCOG-80) stands out as a distinctively dominant example of the public sector and Los Angeles OCOG (LAOOC) LAOOC as a distinctively dominant example of the private sector sport management approach. Despite the contrasting approaches, both OCOGs have completed realizing an OG from the planning stage to the closing ceremony. The activities of the sports organizations that achieved this success by meeting the expectations of the state and the system to which they belonged demonstrated the importance of focusing on the positive effects on sports management success of the right people taking the steps that meet the needs, rather than a superiority comparison between the requirements of the private or public sector.