The Goodwill Games sought to pull politics from sports. So why did they end?

If you were around Seattle in 1990 — or watching Turner Broadcasting channels anywhere in America — you may remember the "Goodwill Games."

Created out of the tumult of the Cold War, the event brought athletes from around the world to Washington state for the promise of an apolitical, alternative Olympics.

In today's world, the global relationship with Russia is broken and our biggest sporting competitions are rife with controversy. So why don't we see any "alternative" Olympics?

At the close of the Cold War, in the 1980s going into the early 1990s, there was a sense of renewed optimism that the United States, the Soviet Union, and their peoples could come closer together. Only, it was clear the Olympics might be the vehicle to facilitate that change. In 1980, Western countries boycotted the upcoming Olympics in the Soviet Union. In retaliation, the Soviet block boycotted the 1984 Olympics, hosted in Los Angeles.

This was the atmosphere that led media mogul Ted Turner to create the "Goodwill Games," an Olympics-esque celebration of sport and culture. The first of such games was held in Moscow in 1986, with Seattle being the first U.S. city to host the thousands of athletes and visitors the games attracted.

"His whole idea was ... if we could promote cultural exchange and really, international sporting events, that we'd never have a world war three," said Gretchen Sorensen, who was a spokesperson for the games in 1990. "Because countries would be so focused on making sure that their teams got to play against one another and compete in these events."

Spearheaded by famed sports promoter Bob Walsh, the Games were more than just Olympic-style sporting events. It included a museum exhibit featuring five centuries of Russian artwork, alongside arts and culture festivities at the Space Needle and a showing of the Bolshoi Ballet. But the homestay program, which housed Soviet athletes in local homes, was one of the biggest legacies of the games.

"This one story in particular was about a woman from the Soviet Union who came to Seattle, and her one goal was to get a pink shirt," Sorensen remembers. "And so her host family, someone took her to Nordstrom to get her a pink blouse. And there were so many choices that she just cried, because she couldn't make a decision. She'd never seen anything like so many blouses in a store."

By 2001, the games were defunct, and eventually cancelled for their poor viewership. The Seattle games had their own gauntlet of issues as well, from contractors never receiving pay to an abrasive relationship between Bob Walsh and the Seattle City Council. Ted Turner himself lost around $44 million on the games.

But what do the Goodwill Games mean to us today, more than 30 years later?

Major sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics are seen as opportunities for goodwilled sportsmanship, a time to set down political tensions in the name of friendly competition. But this is rarely the case — especially today.

Soundside host Libby Denkmann speaks with producer Alec Cowan about what happened at Seattle's Goodwill Games, the history of Olympic alternatives, and what legacy the U.S./Soviet exchange in 1990 leaves both nations today.

Hear the full segment by clicking the audio above.