Backgrounder: Olympic Games 1940 and 1944: suspended for WWII
Xinhua, July 17, 2016 Adjust font size:
The 12th Olympic Games should have taken place in 1940 in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki and the 13th in London in 1944. However, they were both suspended due to the Second World War.
On July 31, 1936, in Berlin the city to host the 12th Olympics in 1940 was selected. Tokyo was unanimously chosen but the outbreak of war between China and Japan forced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to choose another city to host the Games.
Helsinki was later selected to replace Tokyo but, the military confrontation in Europe also made it impossible for the international sporting event to take place in the Finnish capital.
Finally, Helsinki was put in charge of organizing the Games in 1952, while Tokyo was awarded the event in 1964.
The British capital was selected to host the 13th Games in 1944. Other contenders included Rome, Detroit, Lausanne, Athens, Budapest, Helsinki and Montreal.
However, WWII continued in Europe so the British capital had to wait until 1948 to hold the sporting event.
London also held the Olympics in 1908 and 1948 and once again hosted the them in 2012 after seeing off competition in 2006 from other candidates such as Madrid and Paris. Endit