1940 & 1944 - Winter Olympics

The Second World War interrupted the celebration of the Winter Olympics in 1940 and 1944.

Sapporo, Japan was scheduled to host the fifth version of the Winter Olympics. However, three years before they were to stage the games, the city was stripped of the honour due to the breakout of the Sino-Japanese War.

St. Moritz, Switzerland agreed to stage the games but they lost them after a dispute arose over the eligibility of professional ski instructors as athletes.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which had staged the games less than four years earlier, began to plan for the 1940 games but the outbreak of World War II forced a complete cancellation of the Winter Olympics.

With both the 1940 Winter and Summer Olympics cancelled due to war, the International Olympic Committee attempted to revive the winter games in 1944. The northern Italian town of Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected ahead of Oslo, Norway, St. Moritz, Switzerland and Montreal, Canada.

However, the on-going conflict of World War II would once again force the games to be postponed.