Usually, when athletes meet the president, it’s a celebratory affair. You’ve won the World Series or the Super Bowl or a gold medal. But that wasn’t that case in 1980, when President James Carter gathered more than 100 Olympic athletes at the White House for an announcement. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan a few months prior, and the United States had been threatening to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow. On March 21, a decision was made.
"I can't say at this moment that other nations will not go to the Summer Olympics in Moscow," Carter said at the time. "Ours will not go."
On that day, Kurt Somerville was here in Boston, likely on the water, training. Somerville was one of the athletes set to compete for the U.S. in its premiere rowing event: The eight-man boat race, known simply as “The Eight.”
"While we were holding out hope against hope that there’d be a reversal perhaps, that Jimmy Carter would see the light, I think at that point we all knew it was probably hopeless," Somerville said.
With the Olympics off the table, the U.S. Eight could only compete in a handful of pre-Olympic races.
"So we raced really hard, as did everyone else, and we trained really hard between the races and we tried to enjoy the summer" Somerville said. "And it was great racing."
'Every time I watch the Olympics, I watch those kids walk in and I feel immense pride for them, and I feel immense regret that I never got to do that.'
But it was no Olympics. Shorty before the Moscow games, in Lucerne, Switzerland, they faced the entire Olympic field, except the Soviets, who had in turn, boycotted all races involving the Americans.
"There were two races in Lucerne, and in each case we came in second to the East Germans, who went on to win the gold medal," Somerville said. "In both races we beat the English who went on to win the silver medal."
And so as the other teams headed to Moscow, Somerville and his teammates returned home, knowing they were among the very few teams with a real shot at a gold medal.
"I was 23 years old, I was at the top of my game, I thought I’d stay there indefinitely, and I thought I would have many more shots at the national team and again at the Olympics," he said.
But he would never again row on the world stage.
"As it turns out, life intervenes and you aren’t as invincible as you think, and you aren’t young forever," he said. "I went on to law school shortly after that and I tried out for the 1983 national team, and was on the verge of making that team when I quit. I couldn’t carry on."
Between studying for the bar and his work at a Boston law firm, the training was simply too much. They say that time heals all wounds, but in the decades since 1980, Somerville says that his disappointment has deepened.
"Every time I watch the Olympics, I watch those kids walk in and I feel immense pride for them, and I feel immense regret that I never got to do that," he said. "For a lot of those people it’s the best moment of their lives."
But for Somerville and his teammates, there were still moments to come. They have raced together in the Head of the Charles regatta every single year since 1980. And in 1990, the would-be 1980 Olympic Eight got a call that none of them could have predicted.
"The U.S. Olympic Eight was invited to Moscow, we were invited by our Russian counterparts, the Soviet Eight, to race on the Olympic course," he said.
The U.S. team beat the Russians handily, and Somerville says they were treated like VIPs.
"It was a thrill to be there, to be immersed in that culture, to meet these guys to row on that course," he said. "It was a great trip."
If the trip wasn’t as life changing for Somerville as an Olympics gold might have been, it was for one of the other participants.
"Part of that trip, I got to know the stroke of the Soviet Eight, Igor, and he subsequently emigrated to the United States," he said. "I helped him get his green card."
In the end, while Somerville regrets never having had the chance to compete, he is thankful for what has come of it.
"As bad as the boycott was, it's probably the reason that boat is so close as it is today," he said. "We get together for family reunions, we've been in each others weddings, funerals, and it's a great bunch of guys that will be close the rest of our lives."
Thanks, in part, to President Carter's decision to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow — announced 34 years ago today.
