When have the Olympics not been held on schedule?

The last edition of the Olympics in Tokyo was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it wasn’t the first time an Olympics was postponed or cancelled. Although the Olympic Games have been called off or rescheduled on other occasions in the past as well, the Tokyo Games was the first Olympics not held due to a health hazard. 

In this article, Sportstar looks at the other instances when the Olympics have been cancelled or postponed. 

1916 Summer Olympics (Berlin)

The 1916 Summer Games was the first Olympics to be cancelled due to the outbreak of war. Germany topped the likes of Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, Alexandria and Cleveland to win the official bid to host the Games. However, when the First World War broke out on July 14, organisers cancelled the event. The Games returned to Germany in the 1936 Berlin Olympics but was clouded with controversy as the city was then under the Nazi regime.

1940 Summer and Winter Olympics (Tokyo and Sapporo)

Tokyo and Sapporo in Japan achieved the unique feat of becoming the first non-Western cities to be selected as Olympic hosts after winning the bid to host the 1940 Summer and Winter Games, respectively.

However, before the Games started, war broke out between Japan and China in 1937, leading to the Japanese Government forfeiting its right to host the Games.

Finland’s capital Helsinki was chosen as the new host city for the Summer Olympics and the German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the Winter Games. However, there were further roadblocks for the 1940 Olympics as World War II broke out in September 1939 after the Nazi invasion of Poland, which led to the event being ultimately cancelled.

1944 Summer and Winter Olympics

The Summer and Winter Olympics of 1944 were scheduled to take place in London and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy, respectively. That edition, too, was cancelled because of the Second World War.