*** Welcome to piglix ***

People's Olympiad

People's Olympiad
First event 1936 (planned)
Last event 1936 (planned)
Purpose Alternative sporting event to protest against the 1936 Summer Olympics being held in Berlin under Nazi rule.

The People's Olympiad (Catalan: Olimpíada Popular, Spanish Olimpiada Popular) was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic. It was conceived as a protest event against the 1936 Summer Olympics being held in Berlin, which was the governed under the NSDAP's Germany.

Despite gaining the support from some athletes; and most significantly Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and the Communist International, who had also boycotted the Berlin Olympics; the People's Olympiad was never held, as a result of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Barcelona would later host the official 1992 Summer Olympics.

In 1931, the International Olympic Committee had selected Berlin, then the capital of the Weimar Republic, to host the 1936 Summer Olympics at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona. Berlin had defeated Barcelona, which was also vying to host the games, by 43 votes to 16. During the same year, Spain had adopted a republican constitution, with King Alfonso XIII going into exile, and Catalonia was declared an autonomous region inside the new Spanish Republic.

Following the 1936 general election in Spain, the newly elected Popular Front government (which included the Communist Party of Spain) decided that Spain would boycott the Berlin Olympics in Germany, which was now under Adolf Hitler's NSDAP government and host its own games. Invitations were made to many different countries, and it was planned to use the hotels built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition as an Olympic-style Village. The games were scheduled to be held from July 19 to 26 and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games. In addition to the usual sporting events, the Barcelona games would also have featured chess, folkdancing, music and theatre.


...
Wikipedia

...