Sardines for breakfast, hypothermia saves story of cash-strapped, post-pandemic 1920s Games-Sports News, Firstpost

Since the beginning of the global pandemic, there has been a debate about whether Tokyo should continue with the Olympics, which must now open on 23 July.

The same heated debates were heard last time when the Olympics were held after the global pandemic at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) strongly believed that the Olympics would help bring the world together except in the wake of the devastating Spanish flu pandemic. killed at least 50 million people, but also the storm of the First World War.

Just six months after the ceasefire that ended the conflict and in the midst of a pandemic, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics and president of the IOC, be called an extraordinary IOC session to reward the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp in recognition of Belgium’s suffering.

Newspapers around the world agreed. Frances’ leading sports paper, Carreporters asked Belgium did not earn games?.

Despite the IOC’s enthusiasm, concerns about the recovery of the Spanish flu waned the competition. Although the last wave hit Europe spring 1920, newspapers continue to report rumors of new outbreaks in the weeks leading up to the games.

Although many Olympic athletes died of the flu in the years leading up to the Games, historical data show the virus had no direct effect about the event itself. However, planning the Olympics in the aftermath of both the war and the pandemic was not very easy for resource-stricken and overburdened Belgians.

The games in Antwerp followed closely Allied games, held in Paris in 1919, which brought together soldiers from the Allied forces who were in France and Belgium and who had not yet been transferred for repatriation.

The popular event saw large crowds despite the flu and gave more impetus to move forward with even more ambitious Olympics. British Olympic officials said in a letter To the Sydney Referee newspaper: “By renewing his claims for this Olympics, he [the city of Antwerp] says yesterday to his tyrants: You thought you had broken my life and ruined my property. You have failed. “

The Belgian Olympic Committee refused to invite central government athletes who had fought in the war in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. Also the new Soviet Union refused to participate.

This policy intrusion into the games proved challenging for the IOC. During the First World War, de Coubertin had recognized Olympic neutrality and was borrowed in an Italian newspaper Print in 1915 to be open to Germany, which will host the games the following year. (1916 Berlin Olympics eventually withdrawn because of the war.)

The IOC also made every effort to sell the 1920 Olympics as a celebration of peace. Antwerp, for example, was the first in the Olympics to feature the famous five locking rings designed to represent union of five continents and meeting athletes from around the world.

But not everyone supported the idea that the Olympics could promote peace after the war. Eyre Crowe, Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, declared the Olympics international farce and joined a choir of government officials who denied funding for the British Olympic team.

The Belgian Olympic Committee and the athletes themselves specifically linked the games to the war.

At the opening ceremony, the organizers released the pigeons into the air, but also held a religious service in memory of the killed Allied athletes. Military officers also played a key role in organizing and organizing events: the U.S. team arrived in Europe only thanks to last-minute military transports.

A few fans and financial failure

Just like the Tokyo Games, De Coubert and the IOC were under considerable pressure to ensure that the Antwerp Olympics progressed despite challenging conditions.

After an eight-year hiatus after the 1912 Olympics, de Coubertin realized that hosting the Olympics in 1920 was necessary to defend their position as the world’s leading international sports competition.

He was aware that alternative games were being held, including 1921 Women’s Olympics In Monte Carlo, which was designed in part because the Olympics didn’t want to allow all women’s events.

On August 14, 1920, the Antwerp Games opened with more than 2,600 competing athletes. Several achieved significant success, including a Hawaiian-American swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku, who won gold and set a world record In the 100-meter freestyle. But overall, the quality of competition had dropped significantly.

The war was the cause: many star athletes died or returned injured and were unable to compete. For example, the British team lost several athletics stars Gerald Anderson, Kenneth Powell and Henry Ashington all from Oxbridge Sports Clubs.

Other athletes had died of the flu, including a nine-time Olympic medalist Martin Sheridan.

The number of fans was also lower than the organizers expected: many locals could not afford the high ticket prices. Low local interest led to a loss of 600 million francs In the case of Belgium, and within three years, the Belgian Olympic Committee had: gone bankrupt.

The rush to host games could only partially explain its financial failure. The Belgian Government 4 million reserved francs to finance the competition, but the money ran out quickly and was forced to pour money through local fundraising events and the sale of memorabilia.

The American, British, and French Olympic Committees, respectively, faced difficulties in raising funds to send athletes to Belgium. After the war, in the midst of a global economic downturn, few governments had money to spend on sports.

We were heart disease when we saw it

Money-constrained Belgium was barely ready to receive athletes, let alone a large number of fans. Walker Smith, an American athlete, described sleeps in cots without mattresses in dormitories with 10-15 men per room.

The food situation was similarly gloomy, and the athletes only got a roll, coffee and one small sardine for breakfast. They were forced to buy their own food. Belgium continued to receive aid due to food shortages.

The sports facilities were also messed up. The Olympic Stadium was barely ready when the matches started. The track was unfinished and many races were conducted in muddy conditions.

The swimmers faced even harsher conditions: the Belgians had not built a swimming pool, but built a wooden frame on the existing waterway.

Aileen Riggin, women’s three-meter springboard gold medalist, remember diving in the canal, part of the city’s ancient defenses, and in the water that is common to all maritime sports.

We were heart disease when we saw it. [] The 50-meter pool didn’t ask for too much, but of course Belgium did its best. This happened right after the war.

It was so cold that many swimmers had to be rescued from hypothermia. They were unconscious, and some of them were in a really bad way, and they had to be pulled out.

The heritage of Antwerp

Despite these difficulties, the Belgians announced a successful Olympics. The IOC report called games noble things, but admitted it for Belgians, success was relative.

According to the IOC, one of their teachings was how expensive it was to play games [and] that it makes sense to implement them without the necessary capital in hand.

In a hurry to host the 1920s games, the IOC, local organizers and other national committees made avoidable and costly mistakes.

Unfortunately, as the long history of politicized and expensive Olympics has shown, some of these mistakes were doomed to repeat.

Keith Rathbone, Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University

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