jimmy carter declared that the united states would boycott the 1980 olympic games in moscow, with 65 other countries joining the boycott. this was the largest olympic games boycott ever. in 1984, three months before the start of the 1984 summer olympics in los angeles, the soviet union declared it would "not participate" in the games. the soviets cited a number of reasons, namely the commercialization of the games which, in their opinion, went against the principles of the olympic movement (indeed the xxiii olympiad ended up being the first olympics since 1932 to make a profit by a host country) and a claimed lack of security for their athletes. the issue of commercialization did gather some criticism from foreign delegations, who were unfamiliar with this trend in the olympic movement. however, the ioc later declared the games "a model for future olympics" due to a surplus of us$223 million for the hosts and relying on existing venues. the majority still viewed the boycott as more of a retaliatory move by the soviets.