1944 Summer Olympics
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The anticipated 1944 Summer Olympics, what were to be officially known as the Games of the XIII Olympiad, were cancelled due to World War II. They were to have been celebrated in London, which won the bid in a June 1939 IOC election, beating out Rome, Detroit, Lausanne, Athens, Budapest, Helsinki and Montreal on the first ballot.
London hosted the next Olympiad, the 1948 Summer Olympics, awarded without election.
In spite of the war, the IOC organized many events to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Held from 17 June to 19 June 1944, this celebration was referred to as the "The Jubilee Celebrations of IOC" by Carl Diem, the originator of the modern tradition of the Olympic torch relay.
Polish POWs in the Woldenberg (Dobiegniew) Oflag II-C POW camp were granted permission by their German captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics in 1944. The event has been considered to be a demonstration of the Olympic spirit transcending war.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Grys, Iwona (1996), “The Olympic Idea Transcending War”, Olympic Review XXV (8, April-May 1996): 68, <http://www.aafla.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1996/oreXXV8/oreXXV8zza.pdf>.
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