Montreal 1976 Olympic Games

The Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were held in Montreal, Canada between July 17 and August 1 1976. 6,084 athletes (4,824 men and 1,260 women) from 92 countries participated, competing in 21 sports and 198 specialties.

Contrary to the Olympic spirit, politics appeared again, and the first massive boycott in the history of the Olympic Games took place. Some African delegations requested the exclusion of New Zealand because its national rugby team had played against South Africa, a country excluded from the International Olympic Committee due to its racist policy, apartheid. The IOC does not accept the pressure and rejects the request, with the result that 24 African countries rejected the invitation, and finally 32 states in total ended up joining the boycott. For their part, China and Taiwan also did not attend in protest over mutual recognition problems.

Choice

Background

Montreal, Canada, had tried to host the Olympic Games on four previous occasions, without success. The first time it was presented was to host the 1944 edition, which it lost to London and was never held. He returned to apply for the 1956 Games that were held in Melbourne, and those of 1972 that were for Munich. After a new failure, the Canadian city tried again and presented a candidacy for those of 1976.

His two rivals in the vote were Los Angeles (United States) and Moscow (Soviet Union). The city of Los Angeles had already hosted the Olympics in the 1932 edition, and like Montreal, had appeared on numerous occasions to host them again. In the case of Moscow, it was the first time it had been presented. Both the US and the USSR maintained a strong rivalry for their role as economic and political powers, while Canada played a more neutral role within the international arena.

Voting

The choice of venue took place at the 69th Session of the International Olympic Committee, held on May 12, 1970 in Amsterdam (Netherlands). 70 members participated, who had to choose between the options of Montreal, Moscow and Los Angeles.

In the first round, Moscow won by a narrow margin of 28 votes to the Canadian city's 25, while Los Angeles was eliminated with just 17 votes. However, in the final round, Montreal prevailed over Moscow, because it attracted the vote of all the members who had previously chosen Los Angeles. With 41 votes for the Canadian city, 28 for the Soviets and one blank, Montreal became the site of the 1976 Olympic Games.

Voting results
69th Session of the International Olympic Committee 12 May 1970, Amsterdam, Netherlands
City		Country	Round 1	Round 2
	Montreal	Canada	25	41
	Moscow	Soviet Union	28	28
	Los Angeles	United States	17	-

Offices

Gold Medal of the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Inside the Montreal Olympic Park

• Stade Olympique de Montréal
• Piscine Olympique
• Vélodrome de Montréal
• Arena Maurice Richard
• Centre Pierre-Charbonneau
• Village Olympique

In the rest of Montreal

• Notre-Dame
• Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard
• Centre Étienne Desmarteau
• St. Michel Arena
• Paul Sauvé Arena
• Montreal Forum
• Winter Stadium
• Memorial Percival Molson

Outside Montreal

• Olympic Tyre Field, L'Acadie, Quebec
• Tiro Olympic Field, Joliette, Quebec
• Equestre Olympic Centre, Bromont, Quebec
• Le pavillon d'éducation physique et des sports de l'Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec
• Municipal Stadium, Sherbrooke, Quebec
• Palais des Sports, Sherbrooke, Quebec
• Portsmouth Olympic Port, Kingston, Ontario
• Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Ontario
• Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, Ontario

Olympic Torch

Olympic Torch Montreal 1976

On July 13, 1976, the journey of the Olympic torch began, as is tradition, in Olympia (Greece). From there the torch passed to Athens and then, thanks to a satellite signal, the Olympic fire reached the Canadian city of Ottawa. From there, the Olympic torch began its journey in Canada, ending in the city of Montreal on July 17 (the day of the opening ceremony).

1,214 relievers traveled 775 kilometers to carry the torch to Montreal. Time was saved because in Athens, a sensor detected the ionized particles of the flame, which were converted into a satellite signal that reached Ottawa. There the signal activated a laser that "recreated" the Olympic flame in its original form.

A secondary relay carried the torch to Kingston.

Participants

Countries

Map of the world with participants in Montreal 1976. In blue, the debutants are listed.

Athletes belonging to 92 national federations affiliated to the International Olympic Committee registered for the Montreal Olympic Games, a figure significantly lower than the previous edition held in Munich, with 121 states. The states of Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, the Cayman Islands and Papua New Guinea made their debut in an Olympic Games.

These were the countries that competed in these games:

West Germany, East Germany, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Netherlands Antilles, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Chile, Colombia, North Korea, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Spain, United States, Fiji, Philippines, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Iceland, Cayman Islands, US Virgin Islands, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, San Marino, Senegal, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Suriname, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Soviet Union, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.

It should be noted that Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia competed in the first days of the games, before joining the boycott.

Boycott

Countries that boycotted the Montreal Olympics.

For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, there was an official boycott involving 32 states, mostly from Africa. The reason was that the African countries requested the exclusion of New Zealand, because their rugby team had played against the Springboks in South Africa, a country excluded from the IOC for its racist policy of apartheid i>. The IOC did not give in to pressure and kept the New Zealand delegation, so 29 African states rejected the invitation to participate in Montreal 1976 in July 1976. The American nation of Guyana also supported the decision in solidarity, while Zaire also Contrary to the IOC's decision, he claimed economic reasons to justify his absence.

To the boycott of the African states must be added that of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. In the case of China, it was absent again because the IOC recognized both parties, while the Republic of China refused to participate because the Government of Canada, which recognized the People's Republic and maintained relations with Taiwan, did not want the island participate as the "Republic of China". Although there were negotiations in which a participation with its national anthem was allowed, the delegation refused to participate with the name of Taiwan and broke off the negotiations. From the Nagoya resolution of 1979, the IOC ruled that China could participate under that name, while the Taiwan Olympic Committee would be forced to participate as Chinese Taipei.

These were the countries that boycotted the games:

Upper Volta, Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, China, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Iraq, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Somalia, Swaziland, Sudan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zaire and Zambia.

Other countries, such as Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, El Salvador, Syria and Sri Lanka, did not participate in Montreal for purely economic reasons.

Great moments

• Basketball competitions for women were included for the first time, as well as rowing and basketball.
• The 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci made a sense of being the first to which they gave a perfect score of 10 in asymmetric bars. She totaled seven scores 10.
• On the male side, Japanese Shun Fujimoto broke his leg while performing his routine floor exercises. The Nippon team had a tight competition with the Soviet Union, so Fujimoto kept his injury in secret; but when he removed from the rings he dislocated his knee and was forced to retire.
• The individual stars included Klaus Dibiasi of Italy, who won his third consecutive gold medal in leap of the platform; the Soviet Viktor Saneyev who won his third gold medal in triple leap; and Irena Szewinska of Poland, winner of the 400 m, who added to his career a total of seven medals -in five different specialties.
• Alberto Juantorena of Cuba was the first to win a double victory at 400 m and 800 m.
• Miklos Németh of Hungary won the gold in the javelin launch and became the first son of an athletic gold medalist. His father, Imre, had won the hammer launch in 1948.
• They were one of the most expensive Olympic Games. The construction of much of the facilities, including the stadium, was funded by a tax on cigarettes sold in the province of Quebec. This special tax continued to be charged until December 2006, when the debts incurred were completely settled.

Sports

	Sports at the Montreal Olympic Games 1976
Athleticism Basketball Δ Balonmano Δ Boxing Δ Cycling Å Equivalent. Farming Δ 日本語 Gymnastics Halterofilia Δ Hockey 日本語 Judo ̄ Lucha ̄s Swimming 日本語 Modern Pentathlon Piragüismo Δ Remo LIC Swimming balances Δ Tyre Δ Shooting with Arc 日本語 Vela. Volleyball Č Waterpolo ⋅

Medal table

No.	Country				Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	49	41	35	125
2	Eastern Germany (GDR)	40	25	25	90
3	United States (USA)	34	35	25	94
4	Western Germany (FRG)	10	12	17	39
5	Japan (JPN)	9	6	10	25
6	Poland (POL)	7	6	13	26
7	Bulgaria (BUL)	6	9	7	22
8	Cuba (CUB)	6	4	3	13
9	Romania (ROU)	4	9	14	27
10	Hungary (HUN)	4	5	13	22
27	Canada (CAN)	0	5	6	11