 Poster for the People's Olympiad | |
| Purpose | Alternative sporting event to protest against the1936 Summer Olympics being held inBerlin underNazi rule. |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Barcelona (Catalonia,Spain) |
ThePeople's Olympiad (Catalan:Olimpíada Popular,Spanish:Olimpiada Popular) was a planned internationalmulti-sport event that was intended to take place in 1936 inBarcelona,Catalonia within theSpanish Republic. It was conceived as a protest event against the1936 Summer Olympics being held inBerlin, which was then under control of theNazi Party.
Despite gaining support from some athletes, and most significantly theSoviet Union and theCommunist International organization, the People's Olympiad was never held, as a result of the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War. Fifty-six years later, Barcelona hosted the1992 Summer Olympics.
The People's Olympiad was the first ever global attempt to boycott a modern Olympics.[1]
In 1931, theInternational Olympic Committee had selected Berlin, then the capital of theWeimar Republic, to host the 1936 Summer Olympics at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona. Berlin had defeated Barcelona, which was also vying to host the games, by 43 votes to 16. During the same year, Spain had adopted arepublican constitution, withKing Alfonso XIII going into exile, andCatalonia was recognized as an autonomous region within the Spanish Republic.
Following the1936 general election in Spain, theCatalonia's pro-People's Sports Committee (Catalan:Comitè Català pro-Esport Popular, CCPEP), supported by theGovernment of Catalonia, as well as by the newly elected SpanishPopular Front government, advocated for the boycott of Spain to the Berlin Olympics inNazi Germany and the organization of an alternative games in Barcelona.[2] Invitations were made to many countries, and it was planned to use the hotels built for the1929 Barcelona International Exposition as anOlympic-style Village. The games were scheduled to be held from July 19 to 26 and would have therefore ended six days prior to the start of the Berlin games. In addition to the usual sporting events, the Barcelona games would also have featuredchess,[citation needed] folkdancing, music and theatre.[3]
A total of 6,000 athletes from 49 nations registered for the games.[3] The largest contingents of athletes came from theUnited States, theUnited Kingdom, theNetherlands,Belgium,Czechoslovakia,Denmark,Norway,Sweden andFrench Algeria. There were also teams fromGermany andItaly made up of political exiles from those countries. Teams representing Jewish exiles,Alsace,Catalonia (the host),Galicia, and theBasque Country also registered. TheSoviet Union, under the rule ofJoseph Stalin, had been holding its own version of the Olympics, known as theSpartakiad, organised byRed Sport International. Despite this, the Soviets agreed to attend the Barcelona competition.
Many of the athletes were sent bytrade unions, workers' clubs and associations,socialist andcommunist parties, and left-wing groups, rather than by state-sponsored committees.[2]
| Participating national teams |
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The proposed opening ceremony of the Olympiad included the parades of exiled Jews from Europe, as well as of people from North Africaunder colonization, representing state andstateless nations. A song composed byHanns Eisler, an exiled left-wing German Jew whose lyrics would be written byJosep Maria de Sagarra, a Catalan poet, would play in the background of the ceremony. Women would be allowed to compete at more games than the International Olympic Committee did at the time, in Berlin.[4]
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 andhostels and then in the reassignedHotel Olympic. Unforeseen greater visiting audiences for the games forced the Catalan government to try and to find more lodging for athletes in a rush.[4]
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 asClara Thalmann, remained in Spain and joined workers'militias that were organized to defend theSecond Spanish Republic against the nationalists.[5]
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