Editing 1920 Summer Olympics (section)

==Host city selection==
In March 1912, during the 13th [[List of IOC meetings|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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Renson|first=Roland|title=The Games Reborn. The VIIth Olympiad Antwerp 1920|year=1996|publisher=Pandora|location=Antwerp|isbn=90-5325-051-4|page=11}}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Renson|first=Roland|title=The Games Reborn. The VIIth Olympiad Antwerp 1920|year=1996|publisher=Pandora|location=Antwerp|isbn=90-5325-051-4|page=12}}</ref>

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 {{Lang|nl|[[Olympisch Stadion (Antwerp)|Olympisch Stadion]]|italic=no}}.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-28|title=Olympisch Stadion - Olympic News|url=https://olympics.com/ioc/legacy/antwerp-1920/olympisch-stadion|access-date=2021-05-09|website=International Olympic Committee|language=en}}</ref> Construction on the new Olympic stadium began in July 1919 and finished in May 1920.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Home|first=John|title=Understanding the Olympics|last2=Whannel|first2=Garry|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2012|isbn=9781317495208|pages=160}}</ref>

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 [[List of IOC meetings|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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Renson|first=Roland|title=The Games Reborn. The VIIth Olympiad Antwerp 1920|year=1996|publisher=Pandora|location=Antwerp|isbn=90-5325-051-4|page=13}}</ref>

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 give 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Renson|first=Roland|title=The Games Reborn. The VIIth Olympiad Antwerp 1920|year=1996|publisher=Pandora|location=Antwerp|isbn=90-5325-051-4|page=14}}</ref>