Just before the Games in Lake Placid , N.Y. , started , President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would boycott the Olympics in Moscow later that summer .
The Soviet Union pulled out from its recent invasion of Afghanistan .
Just before the Games in Lake Placid , N.Y. , started , President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would boycott the Olympics in Moscow later that summer unless the Soviet Union pulled out from its recent invasion of Afghanistan .