The anticipated
1940 Winter Olympics, which would have been officially known as the
V Olympic Winter Games, were to be celebrated in 1940 in
Sapporo,
Japan.
The games were cancelled due to the onset of
World War II. Sapporo was selected to be the host of the fifth edition Winter Olympics scheduled February 3-12, 1940, but
Japan gave the Games back to the
IOC in July 1938, after the outbreak of the
Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Sapporo subsequently hosted the
1972 Winter Olympics.
The IOC then decided to give the Winter Olympics to
St Moritz,
Switzerland, which had hosted in
1928. Due to controversies between the Swiss organizing team and the IOC, the Games were withdrawn again.
In the spring of 1939, the IOC gave the 1940 Winter Olympics, now scheduled for February 2-11, to
Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
Germany, where the previous
1936 games had been held. Three months later Germany invaded
Poland on September 1 to ignite
World War II, and the Winter Games were cancelled in November. Likewise, the
1944 games, awarded in 1939 to
Cortina d'Ampezzo,
Italy, were cancelled in 1941.
St Moritz held the first post-war games in
1948; Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted in
1956, and Sapporo in
1972.
Germany has not hosted the winter games since 1936; a bid by Munich for the 2018 winter games was denied on 6 July 2011, when Pyeongchang, South Korea, was awarded the games. Neighboring
Austria hosted at
Innsbruck in
1964 and again in
1976, as a substitute following
Denver's withdrawal in late 1972.
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