The Friendship Games (, Druzhba), was an international multi-sport event held annually among so called "socialist" counties.
In politics and popular media the event became better known due to political conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States relating to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and by its 1984 edition Friendship-84 (, Druzhba-84), which was held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Although Friendship Games officials denied that the Games were a counter-Olympic event to avoid conflicts with the International Olympic Committee, the competition was often dubbed the Eastern Bloc's "alternative Olympics". Some fifty states took part in the competition. While the boycotting countries were represented by their strongest athletes, other states sent their reserve teams, consisting of athletes who failed to qualify for the games in Los Angeles.
In May 2023, Russia announced it would be reviving the event as World Friendship Games, to take place after the 2024 Summer Olympics from 15 - 29 September 2024. Chess is to be included, as well as 26 athletic events.
Background
On 8 May 1984, less than three months before the 1984 Summer Olympics were scheduled to begin, the Soviet Union announced its decision to boycott the Games, citing lack of security for Soviet athletes in Los Angeles. The TASS news agency further accused the United States of trying to "exploit the Games for its political purposes" stating that the "arrogant, hegemonic course of the Washington administration in international relations is at odds with the noble ideals of the Olympic movement". In an article published by the London Evening Standard several hours before the official announcement, Victor Louis – a Soviet journalist writing for the Western press and thought to be used by the Kremlin as an unofficial means of leaking information to the West – first informed the world of the USSR's decision to boycott, adding that detailed plans for the "Soviet bloc's alternative games" had already been made. Louis claimed they would "probably be announced at the last minute to throw the American organization into chaos". The article named Bulgaria as the possible host country. On 10 May, Bulgaria became the first Soviet ally to join the boycott, soon followed by East Germany (also 10 May), Mongolia and Vietnam (both 11 May).
Louis wrote another article on 13 May, for the French Le Journal du Dimanche, once again stating that the Soviet Union was contemplating counter-Olympic Games, possibly held in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. However, this time he noted that the idea was unlikely, as the Soviets feared that organizing such an event might prompt the International Olympic Committee to exclude the USSR. On the same day, Soviet sports commentator Vsevolod Kuskuskin, during an interview for ABC television program This Week with David Brinkley, said the Eastern Bloc would definitely not organize such games. Also on 13 May, Laos, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan announced their decision to boycott the Los Angeles games.
On 14 May, Marat Gramov, head of the Soviet Olympic Committee, called a press conference to discuss the boycott. During the conference, Gramov assured "Moscow would not support any alternative games staged to compete with the Olympics". On the same day, Poland stated that, while Eastern Bloc officials had vetoed a counter-Olympics idea, the Bloc would instead "sponsor sports events in various nations as a substitute for participation in the Los Angeles games", holding them at a different time than the Olympics.
Hungary became the ninth country to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics on 16 May, followed by Poland a day later.
On 20 May, Olaf Brockmann of Austrian newspaper Die Presse, citing Alexander Ushakov, head trainer of the Soviet decathlon team, said Eastern Bloc countries were hastily arranging a series of sports events. Brockmann named five competitions: two track and field athletics meets, one to be held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and the other in East Berlin and Potsdam, East Germany; plus fencing, modern pentathlon and boxing events to be held in Poland. Ushakov reportedly said the events would be held either before or after the Olympics, to avoid conflicts with the IOC, which would ban any form of counter-Olympic Games.