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You never know what is written on the next page of the script of destiny. 11 cities submitted their candidacy to host the 1936 Olympic Games. Barcelona was one of them. In 1929, the city had organized a Universal Exhibition, with great success in terms of attendance and image. The International Olympic Committee decided to hold its XXIX Congress there. It was 1931. The dates chosen, April 24 to 27. Ten days before the start, the Republic was proclaimed in Spain. The situation meant that only 19 of the 57 summoned attended the appointment. Voting was done by mail. Berlin won with 43 votes to 16 over Barcelona. There were eight abstentions. On January 30, 1933, Hitler seized all power. At first, the IOC was not overly concerned. When their atrocities became known, they decided to keep the Games. An appointment that incorporated what was then a new rite: the Olympic flame would not be lit in the city that hosted the events, but in Olympia, and would travel from there in an immense human chain of runners that would cover 200-meter sections. In Barcelona, that same summer, the “Workers’ Olympiad” was organized as a response to Nazism. 6,000 athletes from 22 countries registered. The outbreak of the Civil War forced it to be cancelled. More than half a century later, the city of Barcelona would host Games that would go down in history.
If sport is surrounded by an aura of exaltation of the physical and moral values of human beings, the Olympic Games would be the sublimation of it. A universal quote. A factory of stories. In 366 stories from the Olympic Games that you should know (Espasa), journalist Alfredo Relaño offers a complete, erudite, fun and educational tour of the history of the Games. In his pages are the great idols, the intrastories or the great political events. All the moments that have turned Olympism into something that goes far beyond sport.
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