Games Behind The Iron Curtain

The Cold War Was Fought in Stadiums, Arenas, and Olympic Villages Too.

For decades, the United States and the Soviet bloc battled for influence around the world. They competed in military power, technology, space exploration, propaganda—and sports.

To communist governments, an Olympic medal represented far more than athletic achievement. Victory offered evidence that their system could produce stronger athletes, better teams, and a superior society. Governments invested enormous resources in finding, training, controlling, and sometimes chemically enhancing athletes who could win on the international stage.

Games Behind the Iron Curtain: Sports, Politics, and the Cold War explores what happened when international competition became an instrument of the state.