Compared to Berlin 1916 and Tokyo 1940, the cancellation of
the London Olympic Games was almost obvious: there was never the full belief
that they could actually be played. The Games were assigned by the IOC in 1939,
the year in which the first fights of the Second World War began, however only
a few months after the move of the Tokyo 1940 Olympics to Helsinki due to the
war events in Asia.
The move to Helsinki also proved unnecessary, because the
winter war of 1939 between Finland and the Soviet Union immediately led to the
definitive cancellation of the Games scheduled for the following year.
The IOC also preceded in its candidacy assessment procedures
for 1944 - just as the various national Olympic committees also committed
themselves to formulating their nominations - because it was his job to do so.
Not being able to predict the duration of the conflicts, the IOC continued to
guarantee the four-year organization of the Olympics stopping only in the face
of the impossibility dictated by the events.
The London nomination was chosen in 1939 after being
preferred to those of Rome, Detroit, Lausanne, Athens, Budapest, Helsinki and
Montreal. At the same time, the IOC assigned the Winter Olympics to Cortina
d'Ampezzo, which however followed the same fate as the summer event, soon being
canceled. London 1944 had little hope of disputing immediately, considering the
evolution of the situation in Europe.
