History
Back to NewsroomThe inter-allied games
In the aftermath of the First World War, as soldiers started to be demobilised, the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) decided to celebrate the spirit of sport and keep the men busy and fit until they could return home by holding an international sporting event.
This year sees the 33rd edition of the Olympic Games in Paris, France. Held every four years since 1896, the Olympics bring together thousands of athletes from all over the world to compete in a wide range of sporting disciplines.
In 1916, with the world in the midst of the First World War, the Berlin Olympic Games were cancelled. The following Olympic Games were held in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium, as a tribute to the Belgian people who had endured the war and its consequences. However, the 1920 Olympic Games were not the first international sporting events to be held after the end of the First World War.
''THE OPENING SESSION OF THE VIIth OLYMPIADE"
"It was on 14 August [1920] that the VIIth Olympiad was officially opened. The King of Belgium, the Queen and Cardinal Mercier honoured this grandiose gathering with their presence, as all the delegations of the nations represented marched past."
La Vie au Grand Air, 20 September 1920 - Source BnF
As Europe emerged from a violent and traumatic four-year war, demobilisation began for the soldiers of Great Britain and her Empire. However, given the number of soldiers from all over the world involved in the war, it was a long and arduous process. This, compounded by the Spanish flu epidemic that was raging on the continent had a major impact on the morale of those solders waiting to return home.
To address this, the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) stepped forward with an idea to celebrate the spirt of sport and keep the men fit and busy until they could return home. Its leader, Edward Clark Carter, proposed the idea of organising sporting games for the soldiers to General John Joseph Pershing of the US Army.
The aim of the Inter-Allied Games was to allow soldiers to be stimulated both physically, and as a collective military unit, as they were during combat, something that was not possible with simple physical military exercises. This same reasoning had already been advanced by the Allied command during the war, who were well aware of the virtues of sport and the enthusiasm with which soldiers practised it, compared with traditional military exercises.
Thus, between 22 June and 6 July 1919, the Inter-Allied Games were held. This competition brought together nearly 1,500 athletes from the Allied nations to compete in 19 individual and team sports. The Games were held in Paris, at the then newly built Pershing Stadium in the Bois de Vincennes. According to the press at the time, nearly 20,000 spectators attended the opening of the Games.
With some great university athletes in their ranks, the Americans won these games by a wide margin, followed by the French and the New Zealanders. Australia finished fourth overall, doing particularly well in the relay and swimming competitions.
At the end of the games, the main objectives had been met, having enabled the Allied soldiers to come together over the space of two weeks to provide stimulation and foster esprit de corps as they awaited their return home. The Games also helped to revive enthusiasm for sport and the Olympics after four years of war, and in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Antwerp the following year.
Other sporting competitions took place during this period, either in an official and supervised manner, such as the Rugby King’s Cup in April 1919, as a means of keeping the troops occupied before their demobilisation, which for some would not take place until 1920.
Merkel Michel, 14-18, Le sport sort des tranchées : Un héritage inattendu de la Grande Guerre, Toulouse, Le Pas d’oiseau, 2013, 227 p.
Compiled under the direction of MAJOR GEORGE WYTHE, The Inter-allied games, Paris 22nd June to 6th July 1919, The Games Committee, edited by CAPTAIN JOSEPH MILLS HANSON, 1919, 554 p.