How Did The World War Affect The Olympics?

World Wars have changed the world in almost all areas. Sports were no exception, including the Olympic Games. The 1920 Antwerp Olympics were held just after one of the most difficult periods but also offered hope for the whole world. According to the original plans, the Olympic Games would have been held in Berlin in 1916, but they had to cancel it due to the World War.

The same happened to the 1948 Games. However, the IOC decided that even though they could hold the Olympics when they normally would, they would not cancel them. For many people, it was a symbol of a new start. Let’s see how did the World War affect the Olympics!

How did the World War affect the Olympics? 

During the two World Wars, many great athletes died or were injured, either serving in the armed forces or as civilian casualties. These conflicts have also caused serious disruption in professional sports organizations around the world.

However, the sport remained a vital form of hope, entertainment, and diplomatic contact, for instance, ping pong diplomacy, for both civil and soldiers. The first post-war Olympics was in Antwerp in 1920, in which the losing countries of the First World War could not participate.

The Antwerp Olympics brought many innovations, like that at the beginning of the modern Olympic Games, the various ceremonies and symbols only slowly developed. In Antwerp in 1920, Belgian fencer Victor Boin created a tradition by reciting the Olympic oath, which has since been repeated by an athlete from the host country at every Olympic opening ceremony.

The Belgians tried but could not organize a successful Olympics, even though 2600 competitors from 29 countries came to Belgium. The 2500-capacity stadium in Antwerp was only full during the final of the football tournament.

The spectators were scarce, so the organizers brought schoolchildren to the stands and handed out free tickets. Despite the absence of the missing countries, the sports world could welcome new stars. The Finnish athlete, Paavo Nurmi, won three gold medals in Antwerp in the 10000-meter run, the 8-km cross country, and the team race, while he won a silver medal in the 500-meter event.

Finland was living in its heyday at the time. The athletes won 36 gold, 94 silver, and bronze medals in three Olympics between 1920 and 1928. In Antwerp, they collected gold medals in nine athletic events, thus breaking American dominance. 

The 1936 Berlin Games

Berlin became the host in 1936, although the Germans had waited for the occasion for 20 years since the missed event in 1916. After the National Socialist Party came to power in 1931, the International Olympic Committee tried to regain the right to host the event.

Still, Berlin’s oath of allegiance and some other factors allowed Germany to organize the competition. However, the grand Olympic stadium impressed everyone. They spent a total of 25 million dollars to make the games suitable in terms of appearance.

Only two European countries, the Soviet Union, which they did not invite, and Spain, the competitors who had to go home before the start of the competitions due to the civil war, were not represented at the Olympics. Crowds packed the Olympic venues with raised arms and chants and welcomed the German victories with shouts. They could do that 38 times, and the hosts became the most successful nation with 38 gold, 31 silver, and 32 bronze medals, almost twice as many as the United States.

Athletes Who Made History

The biggest star was Jesse Owens. The 23-year-old athlete won four gold medals in the two sprint events, the 100 and 200-meter sprint, the 4×100-meter relay, and the long jump. Yet the Führer, who preached the inferiority of people of color, refused to congratulate Owens. According to online gambling sites in Germany, at the 1935 championship, Owens wrote history again when he set six world records in 45 minutes.

Among the ladies, the 17-year-old Dutch swimmer Rie Mastenbroek was the most successful, winning three golds, and the American Helen Stephens finished first place twice on the athletics track in the 100 m and 4×100 relay events.

They introduced basketball for the first time, and in the men’s final, in the pouring rain, the United States beat Canada 19-8. Nurmi also won in Berlin, but not that Nurmi. One of the German riders, Stubbendorff, named his horse Nurmi after the Finnish athlete and won the three-day competition with him.

The Flying Finn, who was only present at the Olympics as a spectator, also heard of this and cheered on his four-legged namesake. At the closing ceremony of the 1936 Olympics, they said a slogan about calling the youth to Tokyo, but it never happened as in 1940, people paid attention to the Japanese capital for another reason. How did the World War affect the Olympics? The Second World War took 12 years away from the Olympics, which they organized again in 1948.

How did the World War affect the Olympics? 

In 1948, Great Britain hosted the Olympic Games in London. The 1948 Austerity Olympics took place in a world still recovering from World War II. Neither Germany nor Japan was invited. They invited the Soviet Union but it decided not to send competitors.

Despite these problems, there was immense progress, without controversy or hostility between the competing nations, disproving a famous article that George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, wrote in 1945. He argued against the Games, claiming that sport is not the best means of promoting peace between nations but creates tensions rather than resolving them.

In 1948, the XIV Summer Olympic Games, the first after the not-so-successful 1936 Berlin Games. Conditions were spartan three years after the war, yet the idea of the Olympic Games gave something to look forward to.

There were absentees and debuting countries, and the lucky ones could already follow the events on TV. London was already eligible to host the 1944 Games since the British capital finished ahead of Budapest, Lausanne, Helsinki, and Athens, as it turned out, in vain. 

However, the organizers did not give up. Under the leadership of Lord Burghley, the president of the British Olympic Committee, they convinced the International Olympic Committee that London would host the next Olympics in 1948.

Unlike the usual weather, the opening ceremony took place on a sunny Thursday, and 85,000 spectators were waiting for the Athletes’ Parade at Wembley Stadium. Of course, the royal family was also present at the ceremony. After raising the Olympic flag, they lit the flame, and Big Ben struck four o’clock in the afternoon when George VI opened the games.

Innovations at the London Games

Exactly 4104 athletes from 59 countries competed in 20 sports, and most of them participated in athletic events. People refer to athletics as the queen of sports, as it is the most diverse event. They held 33 events in athletics that year, including nine for women.

They organized the 10-kilometer walk, the 200-meter women’s run, the long jump, and the shot put for the first time. Also, they introduced technological advances since they used starting blocks and photo finishes in athletic events for the first time.

The biggest star of the course was the Dutch Fanny Blankers-Koen, who came to London as the record holder of six races, but due to the regulations, she could only compete in four, and she won all four. In addition to the Dutch lady, a French athlete also made a big impression. Micheline Ostermeyer, who earned her living as a pianist, won gold medals in both the shot put and the discus throw. Also, Ceylon and Jamaica won their first medals.

Post-war Consequences

How did the war affect the Olympics even after decades? The left-over tension of the wars affected the Olympics. Boycotts also overshadowed some Olympic Games due to politics and armed attacks. The 1956 Melbourne Olympics was the first time some countries boycotted the event.

The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland refused to participate because of the brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolution by the Soviets in 1956, while Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon refused to go because of the Suez crisis. 

In 1976, 22 countries, primarily African states, boycotted the Montreal events because New Zealand was not excluded. In 1980 and 1984, the Cold War parties boycotted each other’s participation in the Olympics. Back in 1936, the government of Germany used the Berlin Olympics to promote its ideas. However, some Olympic Games were not so peaceful.

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, a Palestinian terrorist group killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. In 1999, they established the Olympic Armistice Foundation to promote international peace-building efforts, reviving a tradition from ancient Greece of suspending wars for the duration of the Games.

 In war-torn countries, sport sometimes brings people together and can help create lasting peace. For example, in 2002, a football match in Afghanistan’s national stadium, which the Taliban regime used for executions, became a symbol of positive change.

So, sports bring people together. Even though competitiveness creates a healthy tension, athletes are equal in the stadium. We will have to wait and see how the 2024 Olympics will turn out, but you can already place bets on it at 888sport Sportsbook! The Olympic Games offered many happy, joyous, and funny moments as well. Click on the link and read about the funniest Olympic fails! 

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