 Hoping to earn a spot on the 1980 US Olympic Team, working out over five hours per day, and working full-time six days a week at a steel mill, Cummings was one of many athletes disappointed by the U.S.'s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games.Due to work demands and disappointment at the 1980 boycott, Cummings came close to retiring altogether from running.When he was laid off from the mill in late 1980, he began running full-time.