Despite gaining support from some athletes, and most significantly the Soviet Union and the Communist International organization, the People's Olympiad was never held, as a result of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

During the same year, Spain had adopted a republican constitution, with King Alfonso XIII going into exile, and Catalonia was recognized as an autonomous region within the Spanish Republic.

Following the 1936 general election in Spain, the Catalonia's pro-People's Sports Committee (Catalan: Comitè Català pro-Esport Popular, CCPEP), supported by the Government of Catalonia, as well as by the newly elected Spanish Popular Front government, advocated for the boycott of Spain to the Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany and the organization of an alternative games in Barcelona.

[2] The proposed opening ceremony of the Olympiad included the parades of exiled Jews from Europe, as well as of people from North Africa under colonization, representing state and stateless nations.

A song composed by Hanns Eisler, an exiled left-wing German Jew whose lyrics would be written by Josep Maria de Sagarra, a Catalan poet, would play in the background of the ceremony.