People's Olympics
| 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 then under control of Nazi Germany.
Despite gaining the support from some athletes; and most significantly Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union and the Communist International organization, 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.
It is important to note that the Soviet Union did not participate in the Olympics until 1952 considering them a "bourgeois" event. However, the Communist government later used the success of Soviet athletes at the Olympics to further its political agenda.
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.
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