The Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics

Historias: The Spanish History Podcast

As the 2020 Summer Olympics, postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, take place in Tokyo, we take a look at another Olympics planned under difficult circumstances, one that was never able to take place. The July 1936 Popular Olympics were planned to take place in Barcelona as a counter to the games held in Nazi Germany that year, but the Spanish Civil War broke out the day before the games were scheduled to begin. In this episode, James Stout, an investigative journalist with a PhD in modern European history and the author of the recent book The Popular Front and the Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics: Playing as if the World Was Watching, joins us to tell the amazing story of these games and anti-fascist athletes involved.