It was only with the vote of the USOC that Carter’s campaign gained momentum. The vote in Colorado also set in motion a series of civil wars between the followers of Jimmy Carter and Lord Killanin for control of the international Olympic movement. It was these battles that would determine the success or failure of the boycott.

The Carter administration quickly scored another victory north of the ­ border. An intense struggle for control of the Olympic movement in Canada broke out despite the uncertainty of the new Trudeau Government. According to Eric S. Morse, head of international sports relations in the Canadian Department of External Affairs, “The boycott question dominated the Canadian public foreign policy debate to the virtual exclusion of all other topics.” Richard Pound, who in addition to his membership on the IOC was president of the Canadian Olympic Association (COA), agreed. The media, he believed, “jumped on the issue with all the self-restraint of a sailor on shore leave.” Trudeau for his part believed that boycott would fail. That view was a fairly common one in Ottawa. “At almost all levels with government, then, the ­feeling was that the boycott was inevitable, if perhaps ill-advised,” Morse recalled. In his memoirs, written in the third person, the Prime Minister explained, “He believed that sporting events could be held hostage in future years and knew that a boycott would destroy the dreams of many Canadian athletes.”