The 40-Year Curse

Last month, when they were still debating whether to postpone the Olympics or not, Taro Aso, Japan's deputy prime minister, called the upcoming Tokyo Games "cursed."  Every 40 years, something happens in the world that screws up the planning for the Olympics.  Maybe he's on to something.  Because, sure enough, the Olympics were postponed for the first time in their history.  The 40-year curse rears its ugly head once again!

This curse is so powerful it goes back 120 years!  When Pierre de Coubertin founded the Modern Olympics, he wanted to hold the first Games in his hometown of Paris.  The rest of the international sporting representatives in attendance (the first IOC members) suggested that the inaugural Olympics should instead be held in Greece, and Athens was selected as the host, with the second edition set for Paris in 1900.  

Those 1896 Games (which celebrate their 124th anniversary this week) were a resounding success.  Such a success that there were calls for the Olympics to be held in Athens permanently.  But de Coubertin wanted the Olympics to move all over the world, so it was off to Paris in 1900. 

The 1900 Olympics, however, turned out to be a disaster.  They were incorporated into the World's Fair, and that turned out to be a horrible mistake (a mistake that would be repeated four years later in St. Louis)!  The Olympics were completely overshadowed and spread out over many months.  There was so much confusion over which events were actually part of the Olympics that some of the athletes didn't even know!  (There's still uncertainty today.  The IOC records include different numbers, simply because they aren't sure which sports and events were actually "official.")

I don't know what Tokyo, in particular, did to piss off the Olympic gods, but this is the second time the city has fallen victim to the 40-year curse.  The first time was 80 years ago.  In 1936, they won the bid to host the 1940 Olympics, which would've been the first to be held in Asia, and began aggressively planning for the Games.  

However, war broke out between Japan and China in 1937, forcing the Japanese to forfeit the Games a year later.  The Olympics were then moved to Helsinki before being cancelled altogether after World War II broke out in Europe (Japan, obviously, would play a pretty significant role in that war, too).  The 1944 Games were cancelled, as well, and Japan (along with fellow losing aggressors Germany and Italy) was actually banned from the Olympics when they returned in 1948.  Tokyo, meanwhile, would have to wait until 1964 to get its first Olympic hosting opportunity.

It wasn't World War that affected the Olympics in 1980.  It was Cold War.  That was the height of U.S.-Soviet tensions, and they cast a huge shadow over the Moscow Games.  Such a big shadow, in fact, that the U.S. wasn't even there.

In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, President Carter indicated that the United States would not attend the Olympics if the Soviet troops didn't withdraw by his deadline (which conveniently came after the Lake Placid Winter Games, where the U.S. had its "Miracle on Ice" hockey victory over the Soviets).  They didn't and Carter followed through on his threat.  A majority of Western countries joined the U.S. boycott, and 65 nations didn't go to Moscow.  Others went but refused to march in the Opening Ceremony, while still others (like Great Britain and Australia) allowed their athletes to compete, but under the Olympic flag instead of their own.

As a result of the boycott, only 80 (predominantly Eastern Bloc) nations participated.  Not surprisingly, the Soviet Union and East Germany dominated the severely watered-down competition, winning a combined 321 medals and 127 golds.  Four years later, the Soviets retaliated when the Olympics were held in Los Angeles, leading their own 14-nation boycott that also included the East Germans, giving the U.S. its turn to dominate a home Olympics.

For a while, it looked like 2020 might break the 40-year curse.  Tokyo has been praised for its preparations, everything was well ahead of schedule, and we were on track for the July 24 Opening Ceremony of a fully-attended Olympics that promised to be the biggest in history.  Then the coronavirus took over all of our lives.

Despite country after country being completely shut down, they kept chugging along in Tokyo and were still planning to hold the Games as scheduled.  Even as the calls to postpone the Olympics grew louder, they soldiered on.  The Olympic flame was even lit in Olympia and the torch relay began.  Eventually, though, Tokyo organizers and the IOC were left with no other choice and succumbed to the inevitable--postponing an Olympics for the first time in history.

They were so well-prepared, in fact, that they thought they might be able to pull it off (probably for longer than they should've) until ultimately determining it wouldn't be possible.  As a result, the 2020 Olympics will actually be held in the summer of 2021 and Tokyo will go down in history as the first host city to see its Olympic Games postponed.  Through no fault of its own.

Still think curses aren't real?  In fact, this curse is so powerful that it carried over into the next Olympics each time (St. Louis had the same problems as Paris, the world was still at war in 1944, and there was a counter-boycott in LA).  Although, the 1984 Olympics are regarded as one of the best in history, so there might be hope for Paris 2024 yet.  

Good luck trying to find a city that's willing to host in 2060, though.  Although, who knows?  That might be the one to break the curse!