The 1920 Summer Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; Dutch: Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; German: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (French: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; Dutch: Spelen van de VIIe Olympiade; German: Spiele der VII. Olympiade) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (French: Anvers 1920; Dutch and German: Antwerpen 1920), were an international multi-sport event held in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
In March 1912, during the 13th session of the IOC, Belgium's bid to host the 1920 Summer Olympics was made by Baron Édouard de Laveleye, president of the Belgian Olympic Committee and of the Royal Belgian Football Association. No fixed host city was proposed at the time.
The 1916 Summer Olympics, to have been held in Berlin, capital of the German Empire, were cancelled due to World War I. When the Olympic Games resumed after the war, Antwerp was awarded the hosting rights to the 1920 Summer Games as a tribute to the Belgian people. The aftermath of the war and the Paris Peace Conference affected the Olympic Games not only due to new states being created but also by sanctions against the nations that lost the war and were blamed for starting it. Hungary, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire were banned from competing in the Games. Soviet Russia had just emerged from the Civil War and chose not to attend the Games. Germany did not return to Olympic competition until 1928 and instead hosted a series of games called Deutsche Kampfspiele, starting with the Winter edition of 1922 (which predated the first Winter Olympics).
The United States won the most gold and overall medals at the 1920 Summer Games.
In March 1912, during the 13th session of the IOC, the bid on behalf of Belgium to host the 1920 Summer Olympics was made by Baron Édouard de Laveleye, president of the Belgian Olympic Committee and of the Royal Belgian Football Association. No fixed host city was proposed at the time.
The organizing committee was created on 9 August 1913. It had four presidents:
Édouard de Laveleye, president of the Belgian Olympic Committee
Henri de Baillet-Latour, member of the IOC
Robert Osterrieth, president of the Royal Yacht Club of Belgium
Charles Cnoops, vice-president of the Belgian Fencing Association
Among the 22 vice presidents of the committee were people with a military or industrial background and further people from sports organizations, like Paul Havenith, president of the football and athletics club K. Beerschot V.A.C., and Nicolaas Jan Cupérus, president of the Belgian Gymnastics Federation.
The first action of the committee was to send an official letter to the IOC in Paris, confirming Antwerp as the city for the Belgian Olympic bid. With Antwerp confirmed as the Olympic Games host, Belgium began reconstructing the Beerschot Stadium into the Olympisch Stadion. Construction on the new Olympic stadium began in July 1919 and finished in May 1920.
In 1914, a 109-page brochure was created to promote the idea of Antwerp as a host city for the Olympics: Aurons-nous la VIIème Olympiade à Anvers? (Will we have the 7th Olympiad at Antwerp?). It was sent to all IOC members and was used during the 6th Olympic Congress in Paris in 1914, where the candidacies of Amsterdam (which would eventually host the 1928 Summer Olympics), Antwerp, Budapest, and Rome (which would eventually host the 1960 Summer Olympics) were discussed. Despite a slight preference at the time for Budapest, no final choice was made, and the outbreak of World War I soon afterwards prevented any further progress.
In 1915, Lyon made a bid for the 1920 Games, but after some discussion, they agreed to support Antwerp and postpone their bid until 1924 if Antwerp was liberated in time to organize the Games. The support for Belgium by cousin country France, then the leading country of the IOC, also meant that Amsterdam and Budapest (in an enemy state) had no chance for the 1920 games against Antwerp.
New candidacies from American cities did not have that disadvantage, and bids were received from Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Atlanta (which would eventually host the 1996 Summer Olympics), while Cuba also submitted a bid for Havana.
However, shortly after the armistice in November 1918, the IOC decided to award Antwerp their first preference if they were still willing to host the 1920 Games. In March 1919, the Belgian Olympic Committee decided to go ahead with the organization of the Games: on 5 April 1919, at a meeting in Lausanne, Antwerp was officially declared the host city for the games of the VIIth Olympiad.
The 1920 Summer Games organizers had very little time to prepare. The time between the IOC's decision of choosing Antwerp as the host city and the opening ceremony was 1 year, 4 months, and 9 days, making this the shortest time for a host city to plan and organize an Olympic edition.
An executive committee was established on 17 April 1919, with Henri de Baillet-Latour as chairman and Alfred Verdyck, the secretary of the Belgian Union of Football Clubs, as general secretary. Seven commissions were created to deal with finances, accommodation, press relations, propaganda, schedules, transport, and festivities. Finances and scheduling proved to be the two hardest parts to tackle: the program of events was not published until February 1920, six months before the official start of the Games.