Cancelled Olympic marathons
London 1944 - The anticipated 1944 Summer Olympics, what were to be officially known as the Games of the XIII Olympiad, were cancelled due to World War II. They were to have been celebrated in London, which won the bid in a June 1939 IOC election, beating out Rome, Detroit, Lausanne, Athens, Budapest, Helsinki and Montreal on the first ballot. London hosted the next Olympiad, the 1948 Summer Olympics, awarded without election. In spite of the war, the IOC organized many events to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Held from 17 June to 19 June 1944, this celebration was referred to as the "The Jubilee Celebrations of IOC" by Carl Diem, the originator of the modern tradition of the Olympic torch relay. Polish prisoners of war in the Woldenberg camp were granted permission by their German captors to stage an unofficial POW Olympics in 1944: the event has been considered to be a demonstration of the Olympic spirit transcending war.
Tokyo / Helsinki 1940 - The anticipated 1940 Summer Olympics, which were to be officially known as Games of the XII Olympiad and originally programmed to be celebrated between September 21 and October 6, 1940 in Tokyo, Japan, were cancelled due to World War II. The Games were retracted from Tokyo by the IOC due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. They were awarded to the runner-up Helsinki, Finland, and were scheduled to be celebrated between July 20 to August 4, 1940. When World War II broke out, and the Soviet Union attacked Finland, the Summer Games were cancelled indefinitely.
Berlin 1916 - The anticipated 1916 Summer Olympics, which were to be officially known as the Games of the VI Olympiad, were to have been held in Berlin, Germany. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, organization continued, as no one foresaw the war dragging on for four years. Eventually, though, the games were cancelled.
