Olympics blog

Britain won an impressive 37 medals at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

Granted the Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union and the vast majority of the Eastern Bloc countries, but it was still Team GB's best post-war medal haul.

It was also the fifth most collected by any nation at the Games, but Britain had to be content with 11th on the medal table as only five were gold.

There were several great moments for Team GB with Seb Coe defending his 1500m title and Daley Thompson doing likewise in the decathlon.

But the headlines were stolen by Zola Budd in one of the most controversial races in Olympic history.

The South African, who ran barefoot and shattered Mary Decker's 5,000m world record early in 1984, aged 17, was unable to compete for her nation on the Olympic stage as it had been banned over its refusal to condemn apartheid.

But us wily Brits know a good thing when we see it, so she was encouraged to apply for citizenship by the Daily Mail on the back of her British grandfather and her application was, unsurprisingly, fast-tracked.

There was much controversy surrounding her application, which led to a massively hyped 3,000m final in LA where Budd took on American world champion Decker.

And the home favourite dictated the pace until Budd made a move at the halfway mark and took the lead.

The pair were running very close together and Decker knocked Budd slightly off balance before clipping her again a few strides later.

A third accidental collision moments later saw Decker stumble and fall onto the infield, hurting her hip in the process and ending her race.

A crescendo of boos rang out from the crowd, who held Budd responsible, although it is generally accepted that it is up to the trailing athlete to avoid contact with the runner ahead and a later inquiry found that the British runner was not at fault.

Budd faded to finish seventh, behind Romanian winner Maricica Puica and, here's a fact for you, Britain's Wendy Sly, who took the silver - how many of you remember that?

Decker famously refused to accpet an apology from Budd and the US media predictably sided with their athlete, while the British media, equally predictably, backed Budd at the time.

But who were you backing? And should Budd even have been competing for Team GB in the first place?