Puerto Rico competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. Notably, in partial support of the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics athletes competed under the Olympic Flag.
Despite the American boycott being supported by the administration of pro-statehood governor Carlos Romero Barceló, Germán Rieckehoff led the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR) in defiance and declared that Puerto Rico would exercise its Olympic sovereignty and participate. The government cut funding and widespread discussion of the concept was held, after which delegation of five members (three of them athletes) was sent. Following internal debate within the COPUR, they paraded under the Olympic flag.
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