|
War and Exclusions
Differently from what was the case in the Greek antiquity, when the famous "Olympic truce" signified the interruption of warfare during the Games, the modern  Olympics were not held three times due to the war. The first cancellation was the result of the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Berlin had been chosen to host the fifth Olympic Games. The war ended in 1918 and in 1920 the ruined city of Antwerp was awarded the sixth Olympic Games. The selection of Antwerp took place only 18 months prior to the Games and was a gesture to honour the suffering that had been inflicted on the city during the war. On the other hand, the exclusion from the 1920 Olympics of Germany, Bulgaria and the countries that succeeded Austria-Hungary (Austria and Hungary) and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) represented a punishment for those who were responsible for the war.
The second time the Olympic Games were cancelled due to the war was in 1940. The organization of the twelfth Olympic Games was initially awarded, as from 1936, to Tokyo, Japan, but the Sino-Japanese war (1938) led to the resignation of Japan. Therefore, the IOC entrusted the Olympics to Helsinki, Finland. World War II cancelled both the Helsinki Olympics (1940) and the Olympics of 1944, which had been awarded to London. After the termination of the war (1945) the organization of the fourteenth Olympic Games was awarded to London. As in the Games of 1920, the countries that were considered responsible for the war, in this case Germany and Japan, were not invited to the Olympic Games.
For similar reasons New Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro) was excluded from the 1996 Olympics. More specifically, this country was held responsible for the war that broke out among the states that were formed after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the recognition of new ones, such as Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. More precisely, the new countries were accepted to the Games and their athletes paraded under their flags, whereas the athletes of Serbia and Montenegro were accepted only in the individual contests and under the flag of the IOC. Nevertheless, the case of New Yugoslavia is the exception rather than the rule with regard to regional small-scale wars that have taken place in the 20th century. Naturally, the practice of the exclusion of countries for political reasons is not an exception. The exclusion of South Africa in the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s due to the regime of racial segregation in this country, is probably the most typical case of such exclusions.
In all the cases of exclusion, irrespective of whether the cause thereof has been the war or some other "political" reason, the decisions of the IOC have been an expression of the relations of power and of the balances in the international system of power relations. Besides, this is the reason why the exclusions are selective (e.g. Italy was invited to the Olympics of 1948, whereas Germany, only, was excluded from the Games of 1924) rather than consistent with a rigid implementation of some general principles and rules concerning the participation in the Olympic Games. Such a thing was attempted in 1992 with the declaration of the Olympic Truce. However, this did not change the actual decision-making framework, which relates to the participation in or the exclusion from the Olympic Games of countries that have a recognized National Olympic Committee. This framework is no other than the international power relations that prevail each time among nations.
|
