1916 Summer Olympics

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Games of VI. Olympics
canceled
← Stockholm 1912
Antwerp 1920 →
Turner parade for the opening of the German Stadium on June 8, 1913

The 1916 Summer Olympics (officially called the VI Olympiad Games ) were awarded to Berlin by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 4, 1912 . The IOC gave the German capital preference over Alexandria , Amsterdam , Brussels , Budapest and Cleveland . Because of the First World War , the games did not take place.

Award

IOC President Coubertin had favored Berlin because he believed that this could contribute to preventing the threatening war in the interests of international understanding. This did not succeed, but the games were not canceled immediately - in the hope that the war would end soon. Because of the First World War, however, the games had to be canceled.

The German Stadium , which was inaugurated in 1913 and the predecessor of today's Berlin Olympic Stadium , was built in Grunewald on the area of ​​the then still independent city of Charlottenburg as a venue for the games .

The 1936 Games were later awarded to Berlin again, which made Berlin an Olympic city after all, 20 years later.

Scheduled competitions

There are conflicting sources about the planned competition program. In particular, the inclusion of boxing , horse riding and sailing is contentious.

The most important innovation would have been the hosting of an Olympic winter sports week (in February). Provided were figure skating , speed skating ( all-around ) and Hockey and Nordic Skiing (discharge in the Black Forest ) with two cross-country disciplines , ski jumping and Nordic combined . Thus there would have been a serious forerunner to the Winter Olympics as early as 1916 .

At the 17th session of the IOC on 13./14. June 1914 in Paris (in connection with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the IOC) important decisions were made. The international professional associations were given an important say in the selection of the disciplines that were to be held at the Olympic Games from 1916 onwards. The participation of women was also decided (although each professional association determined whether and in which disciplines). Where there were no professional associations (e.g. modern pentathlon ) a committee of experts was set up to look after the interests of this sport. In the classic summer sports program, a timid modernization is noticeable compared to 1912 . For example, B. in athletics jumps from a standing position and throwing with both arms. In swimming, side swimming should be introduced as an additional style, thus enabling competition in multi-layer swimming.

For cyclists, there would have been five track competitions compared to 1912. A cycling polo tournament was also planned after a demonstration game in cycling polo between Ireland and Germany had been held at the 1908 Olympic Games . Even golf was one of the planned Olympic competition. In gymnastics , competitions for women were planned for the first time.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnd Krüger : Forgotton Decisions. The IOC on the Eve of World War I, in: Olympika 6 (1997), 85 - 98 .; http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/Olympika/Olympika_1997/olympika0601g.pdf
  2. ^ Karl Lennartz : The VI. Olympic Games Berlin 1916, documents. Carl Diem Institut 1978. ISBN 3-88338-001-6 , p. 114.