The 1916 Summer Olympics, to have been held in Berlin, capital of the German Empire, were cancelled due to World War I.

[5] 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 Olympisch Stadion.

[7] 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?

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.

Seven commissions were created, to deal with finances, accommodation, press relations, propaganda, schedules, transport, and festivities.

Finances and scheduling proved to be the two hardest parts to tackle: the program of events only was published in February 1920, six months before the official start of the Games.

[12] The first stone of the new Olympisch Stadion was laid on 4 July 1919 by Jan De Vos, mayor of Antwerp, and inaugurated less than a year later on 23 May 1920 with a gymnastics demonstration.

[14] The nautical stadium or Stade Nautique d'Antwerp was built at the end of the Jan Van Rijswijcklaan, using the city ramparts there as a spectator's stand.

[49] A total of 29 nations participated in the Antwerp Games, only one more than in 1912, as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were not invited, having lost World War I and sanctioned for starting it.

Soviet Russia was busy with the Polish-Soviet War and therefore was unable to form an Olympic team (Poland in turn, had never participated in the games before, only doing so in later editions).

[citation needed] At the time, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and South Africa were all part of the British Empire.