Nationalism has left its mark on the Olympic Games, beginning with the 1936 Games in Berlin. The Nazis built a powerful team through nationalized training and dominated the Games. The next surge of such nationalism was in 1956, when Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon boycotted the Melbourne Games to protest the Anglo-French seizure of the Suez Canal. The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland also boycotted to protest the USSR's invasion of Hungary.

African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos used the victory stand to publicize U.S. racial policies at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. Eleven Israeli athletes were killed in 1972 in Munich by nonparticipating Palestinian terrorists. Thirty-three African nations boycotted the 1976 Games in Montreal to protest South Africa's apartheid policies. The U.S. government led a boycott of the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The private U.S. Olympic Committee was pressured by the Carter administration to boycott. About 40 nations followed the United States' lead. The 1984 Games in Los Angeles were boycotted by Eastern-bloc nations, led by the USSR.