Ph.D., Professor N.Yu. Mel'nikova    
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTsOLIFK), Moscow

Keywords: international Olympic movement, world war, internal and external factors, sport and politics, complicated international situation.

Introduction. During its history of over a century the modern Olympic movement has turned from an utopia as it then seemed to many skeptics into the largest global event.  According to the plan of French baron Pierre de Coubertin who is rightly considered its founder, the regenerated Olympic Games were to become the factor uniting athletes from all over the world on the principles of peace, friendship and equality.  

Unfortunately, these great ideas were not always realized in real life.

The purpose of the research is to make a historical analysis of social factors that did not exclude the possibility of holding the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games during the world wars.     

Results and discussion. In the late XIX – early XX century the Olympic competitions took place almost unnoticed either by the international press or in the countries that organized them. Gradually, however, more and more states became involved in the Olympic movement.  

 The first Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896, and nearly three decades later, in 1924, a debut of the Olympic Winter Games took place in the French mountain resort of Chamonix.  

In the history of the modern Olympic movement the cycle of the Olympic Games was broken only three times - in 1916, 1940 and 1944, and each time a world war was the reason.

Games of the V Olympiad were held in Stockholm in 1912 with great success. The international Olympic movement was gaining strength every year and becoming a most important sports event worldwide.

At the 14^th IOC session in Stockholm in July 1912 Berlin was chosen as the venue for the Olympic Games VI . Budapest was also in the race for it, but in the end the preference was given to the German capital.  

It is noteworthy that competitions in winter sports were also planned within the framework of the Olympic Games in 1916: figure skating, speed skating and cross country skiing that were to be held in Black Forest in February 1916. The decision to include these winter sports in the Olympic Games program was made at the Olympic Congress in Paris in 1914.

The preparation for the Olympic Games in 1916 was carried out before the start of large-scale hostilities that engulfed the world.

In 1913, the construction of the Olympic Stadium was completed in Berlin. The Organizing Committee designed medals and badges, issued a poster and a commemorative medal on the occasion of the election of the German capital to host the Olympic Games VI.

However, the marked aggravation of the international situation and the beginning of the First World War were the reasons for the interruption of the Olympic cycle for eight years.

Even if the Games did not take place, their serial number still remains, said Pierre de Coubertin. Therefore, despite the fact that Olympic athletes were not able to meet in Berlin in 1916, there is no blank space in the chronology of the Olympic Games, it reads as follows:

The Olympic Games VI of 1916 did not take place.

However, there was a country in the world that commemorated them by issuing a poster. By this action the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee sought to show confidence that the Olympic movement would live.

 The poster depicts a Greek quadriga and the year and venue of the symbolic sports event – Days of the Olympics – held from August 31^st to September 3^rd, 1916, in the stadium of Amsterdam.

The Second World War was also the reason that the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games in 1940 and 1944 did not take place. It is noteworthy that clear differences appeared then in the history of the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games. The Games of the Olympiads XII and XIII yet received serial numbers in the chronological table, and the Winter Games in 1940 and 1944 that did not take place were not chronologized. Thus, the V Olympic Winter Games were held in 1948 in the Swiss town of St. Moritz.

The reason for the differences in approaches to chronology, probably, was the fact that the founding of the Olympic Winter Games took place as a result of many years of discussions, debate and complex arrangements, which resulted in significant differences in the organization, symbols and the chronology of the summer and winter competitions of Olympians.  

Fourteen cities initially sought to host the Games of the Olympiad XII in 1940: Alexandria, Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Lausanne, London, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Toronto, Tokyo and Helsinki.  

At the 34^th IOC session held in Oslo in 1935 the possibility of holding the next Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games in the same country was discussed, and the candidate cities were considered. A year later, at the 36^th session in Berlin, Tokyo was chosen as the capital of the Games of the Olympiad XII. 

Helsinki followed it with a margin of nine votes.

A year later a discussion of the 1925 resolution on the preference of holding the next Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games in the same country took place at an IOC session in Warsaw. A number of IOC members were in favor of the fact that small countries that cannot afford hosting summer and winter competitions of Olympians, can nevertheless hold the Winter Games at a high level since in terms of the number of sports and participants these competitions considerably trail the summer ones.     

As a result, the International Olympic Committee decided to give preference to Japan and named Sapporo, located on the island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan, the capital of the Olympic Winter Games. However, Sapporo was not destined then to welcome the Olympians: the city had to wait till 1972 for the opportunity to hold the Winter Games.    

In 1938 things were heating up in the world. The representative of Japan who arrived in Cairo for the 38^th IOC session in March 1938, however, said that Japan was getting ready to host the Games in 1940, despite the military conflict with China. Few people believed in the favorable developments in Southeast Asia though. 

In a confidential meeting of the IOC leaders at the end of the session it was decided that Henri de Baillet-Latour, IOC president, would come into contact with the authorities and sports figures of Helsinki and Oslo to find out about the possibility of holding the Games in these cities in case Tokyo and Sapporo refuse.   

After Japan’s official refusal, taking into account the situation, the IOC executive committee made the decision to hold the Games of the Olympiad of 1940 in Helsinki, and the Winter Games in Oslo.

 The Finnish capital was quite capable of holding competitions of such a scale: existing sports facilities were prepared and new ones were constructed, the Organizing Committee responsible for preparation for the Games was set up, posters, badges and medals were issued.     

The commemorative medal in honor of the Games that did not take place has three versions: gold, silver and bronze; all of them were made of light metal, and then coated accordingly. It is noteworthy that it was decided to issue the medals when it became obvious that the war would destroy the Olympic plans.  

Sports leaders of Finland awarded the medals of the Games of 1940 as memorabilia to leaders of sports delegations at major international competitions held in Finland at the end of 1940s. They came along with special certificates that told the story of the medals’ creation and contained the information about the number of medals issued.

The commemorative medal depicted the Olympic rings, the Olympic flame and the year of the Games of the Olympiad – 1940.   

Finnish artists submitted over a hundred sketches to the contest for the best poster. The poster that was awarded the first prize depicts Paavo Nurmi, a famous long-distance runner, against the globe where Finland and the capital of the Games – Helsinki – are marked. This poster later became the official one for the Games of the Olympiad XV of 1952.     

The international situation in Europe in the prewar years sharply deteriorated. The militarization of Germany, its aspirations to dominate the world became more and more apparent.

Clumsy attempts of the Third Reich authorities to present themselves as peace-loving during the preparation for and while holding the IV Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Games of the Olympiad XI in 1936 in Berlin failed to mislead the world community. The threat of a world war was becoming more and more apparent.  

The International Olympic Committee was subjected to fair criticism for the fact that it had made concessions to Germany by not cancelling the decision to hold the Olympic Games of 1936 in this country, but its policy towards the regime of Hitler actually remained the same in the years that followed. The leaders of the International Olympic Committee actually turned a blind eye to what was going on in Germany and continued to cooperate actively with its sports organizations.  

Meanwhile, the fascist state enmeshed in a network of concentration camps, did not any longer seek to conceal from the world its racist policy within the country and beyond it and its aggressive aspirations aimed at world domination. In 1938 synagogues were burned down all over Germany, citizens that were “not of Aryan descent” were subjected to cruel persecution. The leaders of the country became louder in their calls for world domination.  

However, all this did not prevent the leaders of the International Olympic Committee from making a scandalous decision at their session in London in 1939 about the venue of the V Olympic Winter Games - Garmisch-Partenkirchen again.  

It happened after Oslo and St. Moritz first expressed their willingness to save the situation when Sapporo refused, but soon went back on their word. One of the reasons for the refusal were serious conflicts between the IOC leaders and the International Ski Federation (FIS). It was a question about the rules of amateurism: the Federation refused to participate in the Olympic competitions in Alpine skiing on the grounds that the IOC did not allow professional instructors in these sports to compete.

A refusal of the National Olympic Committee of Switzerland to replace Alpine skiing competitions with exhibition performances prompted the IOC to review the earlier decision and move the Winter Games from St. Moritz to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The decision was taken unanimously at the IOC session in London in 1939. It was decided at the same session to hold the Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1944.     

This unanimity in the choice of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, strange at first glance, is accounted for by the fact that a large number of influential IOC members were citizens of the states dominated by fascist and dictatorial regimes: Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In addition, there was a naive belief that the country entrusted with holding the Olympic Games would not unleash a war.     

The delusions soon dissipated: on September 1^st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

In Germany itself the decision of the IOC was received with enthusiasm. Fascist propaganda was fully aware of the enormous potential of sports and the Olympic Games in terms of its impact on the public consciousness. Hitler’s press went far in their absurd comparisons arguing that National Socialism and the Olympic movement have much in common.  

The repeated Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were perceived as a huge propagandistic event that was to demonstrate to the world the superiority of athletes of the Third Reich and to strengthen its international standing.

In addition to training of the national team large scale events of a propagandistic nature were planned within the framework of the Winter Games – mass ski races, processions, marches. Twelve thousand German skiers were to participate in the race. The organizers did not spare funds for the construction of new and modernization of existing sports facilities in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. For comparison, the cost of holding the IV Olympic Winter Games in 1936 amounted to 2.6 million DM. The budget of the Games in 1940 exceeded 10 million DM.    

However, the Games were not destined to take place. In November 1939 the National Olympic Committee for Germany announced the impossibility of organizing the Winter Games of 1940. The next, V Olympic Winter Games, were held in 1948 in the Swiss mountain resort of St. Moritz.

Conclusion. In May 1940, despite the fact that the military conflict between the USSR and Finland came to an end, the Finns came to the conclusion that the Games in Helsinki should be cancelled.

The decision on the Games of the Olympiad XIII of 1944 was made at the session of the IOC a year before the Second World War started. Athens, Budapest. Helsinki, Detroit, Lausanne, Montreal, Rom and London sought to host them. London won the contest. Like the previous Games, these ones did not take place but kept the chronological number. After the war ended London became the capital of the Games of the Olympiad XIV in 1948.

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Corresponding author: history@sportedu.ru