‘Colonialism Has No Place in the Olympic Movement’: Ukrainian American Activists and the Olympics, 1956–1984

United States-based Ukrainian activists sought separate Olympic representation and international recognition for Ukraine from 1956–1984 as a means of demonstrating Ukraine’s political legitimacy and as part of their quest for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. From the 1950s through the 1980s, activist groups, namely the Ukrainian Olympic Committee/Ukrainian World Committee for Sport Affairs and Smoloskyp Organization for the Defense of Human Rights fought for International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognition, framing their requests in the language of diplomacy and human rights. These activists, who carried out much of their work in the west, were ultimately unsuccessful; yet their work intersects with the efforts of other anti-Soviet protest groups who used the Olympic Movement similarly. US-based Ukrainian diaspora activism successfully drew attention to the Ukrainian independence issue in part because of its efforts to leverage the Olympic Movement and its associated media coverage, as they sought a broader audience by the 1980s. Ukrainian American activists understood that linking their cause to the Olympics could and did lead to increased mainstream media coverage.