On the edge of a world war and a devastating global pandemic that left more than 50 million dead, the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, the battered Belgian port city, were a beacon of recovery and hope.
Nearly three decades later, London hosted the 1948 Olympics freshly scarred by the relentless bombs dropped during Nazi air raids — and with food still being rationed across the country following World War II.
And in 1964, when Tokyo first hosted the Games, Yoshinori Sakai carried the Olympic flame and lit the cauldron. The 19-year-old runner was born two hours after his father saw the flash above Hiroshima from his nearby village, as the atomic bomb killed close to 80,000 people. It was symbolic of Japan emerging from the horrors of World War II, said Bill Mallon, an Olympic historian.
While each Olympic Games holds its own context and significance, some carry the weight of uniquely dire circumstances.
