1976 Summer Olympics

Games of the XXI Olympiad, in Montréal, Canada

The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were held in 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games in May 1970, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles. Moscow would later host the 1980 Summer Olympics, and Los Angeles would later host the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Games of the XXI Olympiad
Host cityMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Nations92
Athletes6,084 (4,824 men, 1,260 women)
Events198 in 21 sports (27 disciplines)
OpeningJuly 17
ClosingAugust 1
Opened by
Cauldron
StadiumOlympic Stadium
Summer
Munich 1972 Moscow 1980
Winter
Innsbruck 1976 Lake Placid 1980

Non-participating National Olympic Committees

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Twenty-nine countries boycotted the Games[2][3] due to the refusal of the IOC to ban New Zealand, after the New Zealand national rugby union team had toured South Africa earlier in 1976.[4] The boycott was led by Congolese official Jean-Claude Ganga. Some of the boycotting nations (including Morocco, Cameroon and Egypt) had already participated, however, and withdrew after the first few days. Senegal and Ivory Coast were the only African countries that competed throughout the duration of the Games. Elsewhere, Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, El Salvador, Iraq, Guyana, Sri Lanka and Syria also opted to join the Congolese-led boycott. South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 due to its apartheid policies. Other countries, such as El Salvador and Zaire, did not participate in Montreal for purely economic reasons.[2] Seychelles did not participate in Montreal beacause their National Olympic Committee was not created and recognized by the IOC. Malta was the only country to boycott both the 1956 and 1976 Games.

 
Countries boycotting the 1976 Games are shaded blue

Republic of China boycott

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An unrelated boycott of the Montreal Games was the main issue between the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). The ROC team withdrew from the games when Canada's Liberal government under Pierre Trudeau told it that the name "Republic of China" was not permissible at the Games because Canada had officially recognized the PRC in 1970.[5] Canada attempted a compromise by allowing the ROC the continued use of its national flag and anthem in the Montreal Olympic activities; the ROC refused. In 1979 the IOC established in the Nagoya Resolution that the PRC agreed to participate in IOC activities if the Republic of China was referred to as "Chinese Taipei". Another boycott would occur before the ROC would accept the provisions of the 1979 Resolution although the reason that so many other countries boycotted were not all the same as the ROC.

Non-participating National Olympic Committees

Other websites

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 "Factsheet - Opening Ceremony of the Games of the Olympiad" (PDF) (Press release). International Olympic Committee. October 9, 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 14, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Africa and the XXIst Olympiad". Olympic Review. IOC. 1976. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 30, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
  3. "BBC ON THIS DAY | 17 | 1976: African countries boycott Olympics". London: News.bbc.co.uk. July 17, 1976. Retrieved October 21, 2008.
  4. "The Montreal Olympics boycott | NZHistory.net.nz, New Zealand history online". Nzhistory.net.nz. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008. Retrieved October 21, 2008.
  5. Chan, Gerald (Autumn 1985). "The "Two-Chinas" Problem and the Olympic Formula". Pacific Affairs. 58 (3): 473–490. doi:10.2307/2759241. JSTOR 2759241. Retrieved 20 June 2022.