People's Olympiad
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Purpose | Alternative sporting event to protest against the 1936 Summer Olympics being held in Berlin under Nazi rule. |
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The People's Olympiad (Catalan: Olimpíada Popular, Spanish: Olimpiada Popular) was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in 1936 in Barcelona, 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 the Nazi Party.
Despite gaining support from some athletes, and most significantly the Soviet Union and the Communist International organization, the People's Olympiad was never held, as a result of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Fifty-six years later, Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics.
The People's Olympiad was the first ever global attempt to boycott a modern Olympics.[1]
Background
In 1931, the
Following the
A total of 6,000 athletes from 49 nations registered for the games.
Many of the athletes were sent by trade unions, workers' clubs and associations, socialist and communist parties, and left-wing groups, rather than by state-sponsored committees.[2]
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War just as the games were to begin, the alternate games were hastily cancelled. Some athletes never made it to Barcelona as the borders had been closed, while many who were in the city for the beginning of the games made a hasty exit.[3] However, at least 200 of the athletes, such as Clara Thalmann, remained in Spain and joined workers' militias that were organized to defend the Second Spanish Republic against the nationalists.[4]
Opening ceremony, lodging and competition
The proposed opening ceremony of the Olympiad included the parades of exiled Jews from Europe, as well as of people from North Africa
There was no Olympic Village-like complex available due to the time shortness – of three months – to plan the Olympiad. As a result of that, athletes first had to stay in hotels and hostels and then in the reassigned Hotel Olympic. Unforeseen greater visiting audiences for the games forced the Catalan government to try and to find more lodging for athletes in a rush.[5]
See also
- Wide is the Gate – an Upton Sinclair novel starting in Barcelona
- International Workers' Olympiads
- Spartakiad
- Games of the New Emerging Forces
- Liberty Bell Classic
- Friendship Games
- Goodwill Games
- 1992 Summer Olympics
References
- ^ "The brutal story of the 1936 Popular Olympics: a boycott of fascism and Hitler". History. 2024-03-31. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
- ^ Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
- ^ a b c Searcy, Rachel Aileen (February 7, 2014). "The Olympics That Never Were: The People's Olympiad". New York University. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
- ^ Antony Beevor. The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. p. 67
- ^ a b "The brutal story of the 1936 Popular Olympics: a boycott of fascism and Hitler". History. 2024-03-31. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
Further reading
- Stout, James (2020). The Popular Front and the Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics. S2CID 199296339.
- Chapter Six of Berlin Games – How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream, by ISBN 0-7195-6783-1(UK) 0060874120 (USA)
- Gounot, André (2015-02-24). Caritey, Benoît; Jallat, Denis (eds.). L'Olympiade populaire de Barcelone 1936 : entre nationalisme catalan, « esprit olympique » et internationalisme prolétarien. Histoire (in French). Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes. pp. 125–143. )
External links
- Documents on the People's Olympiad from "Trabajadores: The Spanish Civil War through the eyes of organised labour", a digitised collection of more than 13,000 pages of documents from the archives of the British Trades Union Congress held in the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick