Apartheid and the Montreal Olympics: A 50 year retrospective w/ Bruce Kidd

As Montréal celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Olympics, the Games are being remembered as a defining moment in the city’s history. But Montréal ’76 was also shaped by major political struggles that Local 514 is spotlighting for a special two-part series.One of the most significant was the African-led boycott of the Games, sparked by the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to sanction New Zealand after its rugby team toured apartheid South Africa. More than two dozen African countries ultimately withdrew from the Olympics in protest.For this episode of Local 514, we speak with former Olympian, scholar and anti-apartheid activist Bruce Kidd about the political organizing surrounding Montréal ’76 and why this history deserves a more prominent place in how the Games are remembered.