1976 Summer Olympics

The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were held in 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games in May 1970, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles. Moscow would later host the 1980 Summer Olympics, and Los Angeles would later host the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Games of the XXI Olympiad

Host city	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nations	92
Athletes	6,084 (4,824 men, 1,260 women)
Events	198 in 21 sports (27 disciplines)
Opening	July 17
Closing	August 1
Opened by	Queen Elizabeth II
Cauldron	Stéphane Préfontaine Sandra Henderson
Stadium	Olympic Stadium
Summer
← Munich 1972 Moscow 1980 →
Winter
← Innsbruck 1976 Lake Placid 1980 →

Non-participating National Olympic Committees

Twenty-nine countries boycotted the Games due to the refusal of the IOC to ban New Zealand, after the New Zealand national rugby union team had toured South Africa earlier in 1976. The boycott was led by Congolese official Jean-Claude Ganga. Some of the boycotting nations (including Morocco, Cameroon and Egypt) had already participated, however, and withdrew after the first few days. Senegal and Ivory Coast were the only African countries that competed throughout the duration of the Games. Elsewhere, Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, El Salvador, Iraq, Guyana, Sri Lanka and Syria also opted to join the Congolese-led boycott. South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 due to its apartheid policies. Other countries, such as El Salvador and Zaire, did not participate in Montreal for purely economic reasons. Seychelles did not participate in Montreal beacause their National Olympic Committee was not created and recognized by the IOC. Malta was the only country to boycott both the 1956 and 1976 Games.

Countries boycotting the 1976 Games are shaded blue

Republic of China boycott

An unrelated boycott of the Montreal Games was the main issue between the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). The ROC team withdrew from the games when Canada's Liberal government under Pierre Trudeau told it that the name "Republic of China" was not permissible at the Games because Canada had officially recognized the PRC in 1970. Canada attempted a compromise by allowing the ROC the continued use of its national flag and anthem in the Montreal Olympic activities; the ROC refused. In 1979 the IOC established in the Nagoya Resolution that the PRC agreed to participate in IOC activities if the Republic of China was referred to as "Chinese Taipei". Another boycott would occur before the ROC would accept the provisions of the 1979 Resolution although the reason that so many other countries boycotted were not all the same as the ROC.

1976 Summer Olympics Media

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  Préfontaine and Henderson lighting the Olympic Flame

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  East German athletes Waldemar Cierpinski, Hans-Georg Reimann and Karl-Heinz Stadtmüller at the Olympic Village

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  The Olympic Village in January 2008.

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  Velodrome (foreground) and Olympic Stadium (its tower completed after the Games), Montreal

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  SummerOlympicgamescountries

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  Olympische Sommerspiele 1976 — Anzahl der Athleten

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  Olympic Stadium, seen next to the Montreal Botanical Garden.

Other websites

• IOC page for the 1976 Summer Olympics

References

Olympic Games
Summer Games: 1896, 1900, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1912, (1916), 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028
Winter Games: 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940), (1944), 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
Athens 2004 — Turin 2006 — Beijing 2008 — Vancouver 2010 — London 2012 — Sochi 2014 — Rio 2016 — Pyeongchang 2018 — Tokyo 2020 Games in italics will be held in the future, and those in (brackets) were cancelled because of war. See also: Ancient Olympic Games