most of the world's media interpreted the soviet boycott as retaliation for the us boycott of the 1980 moscow games, which had been in response to the 1979 soviet invasion of afghanistan, whereas the soviet media repeated the government line that the boycott was a safety measure to protect their own athletes. however, no threat to eastern bloc athletes was ever discovered, and the athletes from the eastern bloc country that did attend the 1984 games in los angeles—romania—encountered no problems, and in fact were widely cheered above all other visiting nations at the opening ceremonies when they marched into the coliseum. romania ended up finishing third in overall medal count at the games.