President and Mrs. Reagan Attend the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles

In this photograph, taken on July 28, 1984, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan pose with Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci and Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, in the press box of the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum in Los Angeles, California. President Reagan was in attendance to provide opening remarks for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. This was the first time a sitting American president opened an Olympic Games, establishing a tradition of presidents appearing at the Olympics when they are held in the United States. Formerly, Olympic Games in the United States would be formally opened by local political leaders or representatives of the president. As governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, while Vice President Richard M. Nixon attended the opening ceremonies at the 1960 Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, California.