At first glance, Boston playing host to the 2024 Summer Olympics seems unprecedented. Sailing events on the Charles River? Olympic athletes biking and running down Bolyston Street?
Believe it or not, though, the Games have been here before.
During the 1984 Summer Olympics, Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Mass., played host to the first soccer match of the Games between Chile and Norway. The Olympics, of course, were stationed 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, but preliminary round games were held in Boston and other places such as Annapolis, Md. and Palo Alto, Calif.
Boston was plenty excited to play a role in the 1984 Games, as a sellout crowd of 25,000 showed up at Harvard Stadium to witness a 0-0 draw between Chile and Norway. Boston’s role didn’t end there, as the historic stadium was the site of five more preliminary matchups: Norway-France, Qatar-Norway, Canada-Iraq, Cameroon-Iraq and Cameroon-Canada.
Bostonians also caught the first glimpse of the eventual Olympic soccer champions, as France went on to beat Brazil 2-0 in the finals in L.A. to take home the gold medal.
“The response of having an Olympic event in Boston has been tremendous,” Hank Steinbrecher, the then-Boston University soccer coach, said at the time, via the New York Times. “When the torch went through, it ignited a lot of interest in New England.”
That torch has the potential to ignite again, as the U.S. Olympic Committee named Boston as its bid for host city of the 2024 Summer Games. If Boston wins the honor — the International Olympic Committee will decide on a host in 2017 — the buzz in the city will increase exponentially.
Until a decision is made, though, the sports-obsessed city still can lay claim to a small piece of the Olympics’ storied history.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
