February 10, 1916: The Olympics Are Canceled Due to World War I

The Deutsches Stadion

February 10, 1916: The Olympic Games, set for Berlin, Germany, are canceled, due to World War I.

The Olympics were based on the version of the games in ancient Greece, when city-states at war with each other would declare a truce, so that their athletes could safely travel to Olympia for the competitions. This time, sports stopped due to war.

Berlin was selected as the host city during the 14th International Olympic Committee Session in Stockholm, Sweden on July 4, 1912, defeating bids from Alexandria, Egypt; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Brussels, Belgium; Budapest, Hungary; and Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

Work on the Deutsches Stadion began in 1912 at what was the Grunewald Race Course. It was planned to seat more than 18,000 spectators. On June 8, 1913, the stadium was dedicated with the release of 10,000 pigeons, and 60,000 people were in attendance.

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, organization for the Games continued, as it was not expected that the war would continue for several years. But by February 1916, it became clear that the war was not going to end anytime soon, and the best athletes were in military uniforms rather than athletic ones.

In other words, the Olympics were canceled not to punish Germany for being the aggressor in the war, but because the war was happening at all. It was logistics, not retribution. That would come after the war, at Versailles.

Due to its suffering during the war, Belgium got the 1st Games afterward, in 1920, in Antwerp. Amsterdam hosted in 1928, and Berlin in 1936. For those Games, the Deutsches Stadion was torn down, and the Olympiastadion was built on the site, and is still in operation.

Cleveland built its 85,000-seat Municipal Stadium in 1931, hoping to one day host the Olympics. It never has.

The Olympics would be canceled due to World War II in 1940 and 1944, and postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thought was given to suspending them after the terrorist massacre in Munich in 1972, and to postponing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but these ideas were discarded.

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February 10, 1916 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And while the National Hockey Association and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association seasons were in progress, neither league scheduled any games. So there were no scores on this historic day.