1940 Summer Olympics

The anticipated 1940 Summer Olympics, which were to be officially known as Games of the XII Olympiad and originally scheduled to be celebrated between September 21 and October 6 1940 in Tokyo, Empire of Japan, were cancelled because of World War II. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the International Olympic Committee decided to have the games in Helsinki, Finland. The Games in Finland were scheduled to be celebrated between July 20 to August 4 1940. When World War II started, the Summer Games were cancelled until after the war. They were next held in London in 1948.

With the Olympics cancelled, the major international athletics event in 1940 turned out to be the annual Finland-Sweden athletics international, held at the new Helsinki Olympic Stadium.

Helsinki eventually held the 1952 Summer Olympics and Tokyo the 1964 Summer Olympics.