---
title: "When were the Olympic Games last cancelled?"
description: "The 1944 Summer Games, awarded to London and never held, 1944. What happened, why it has not happened since, and whether it plausibly could again."
url: https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/olympics-cancelled/
site: "At One Place"
---

# When were the Olympic Games last cancelled?

**When were the Olympic Games last cancelled?: 1944**

The 1944 Summer Games, awarded to London and never held

Games were cancelled in 1916, 1940 and 1944, all for war, and the numbering continued through them — so the 1948 London Games were the Games of the XIV Olympiad even though only thirteen had been held. Tokyo 2020 was postponed rather than cancelled and kept its name, which is why the 2021 event was branded 2020 throughout.

- **What:** The 1944 Summer Games, awarded to London and never held
- **When:** 1944
- **Category:** Everyday things
- **Could this change?:** Not in any foreseeable way. The event is closed.

## Everyday things

| Question | When |
| --- | --- |
| When did the London Underground last gain a line? | 24 May 2022 |
| When did the tallest building in the world last change? | 2010 |
| When did the prime meridian last move? | 1984 |
| When did the Olympics last award medals for art? | 1948 |
| When was a leap year last skipped? | 1900 |
| When was a letter last added to the English alphabet? | The 1500s and 1600s |

> This page gives a date and never a "years ago". These pages are built as static files, so a computed interval would freeze at build time and quietly become wrong — which on a reference site is worse than making the reader do the subtraction.

## Common questions

### When were the Olympic Games last cancelled?

1944 — The 1944 Summer Games, awarded to London and never held.

### What happened?

Games were cancelled in 1916, 1940 and 1944, all for war, and the numbering continued through them — so the 1948 London Games were the Games of the XIV Olympiad even though only thirteen had been held. Tokyo 2020 was postponed rather than cancelled and kept its name, which is why the 2021 event was branded 2020 throughout.

## Related pages

- [When did the London Underground last gain a line?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/london-underground-line/)
- [When did the tallest building in the world last change?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/tallest-building/)
- [When did the prime meridian last move?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/prime-meridian/)
- [When did the Olympics last award medals for art?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/olympic-art/)
- [When was a leap year last skipped?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/leap-year-skipped/)
- [When was a letter last added to the English alphabet?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/letter-added-alphabet/)
- [When did the US flag last change?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/us-flag-change/)
- [When was a US state last admitted?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/us-state/)
- [When did the Olympics last award medals for art?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/olympic-art/)
- [When did Vesuvius last erupt?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/vesuvius/)
- [When did the last thylacine die?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/thylacine/)
- [When did a European country last change calendar?](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/calendar-change/)
- [Everything, most recent first](https://atoneplace.net/the-last-time/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]