in addition, albania did not attend any games from 1976 to 1988, although there was no official explanation for their absence at the 1976 montreal olympics and 1988 seoul olympics. politically, albania allied with china after the sino-soviet split, remaining antagonistic towards the soviet union; however, it also opposed china's rapprochement with the united states in the late 1970s, resulting in the sino-albanian split. a similar antagonism towards both superpowers existed in iran since 1979. this resulted in iran and albania boycotting both the 1980 and 1984 olympics independently without endorsing the boycott on the opposing side.