1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1976), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad (French: Jeux de la XXIe Olympiade) and commonly known as Montreal 1976 (French: Montréal 1976), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam on May 12, 1970, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles. It was the first and, so far, only Summer Olympic Games to be held in Canada. Toronto hosted the 1976 Summer Paralympics the same year as the Montreal Olympics, which still remains the only Summer Paralympics to be held in Canada. Calgary and Vancouver later hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1988 and 2010, respectively.
"Games of the XXI Olympiad" redirects here. For the album by Black Cab, see Games of the XXI Olympiad (album).Twenty-nine countries, mostly African, boycotted the Montreal Games when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to ban New Zealand, after the New Zealand national rugby union team had toured South Africa earlier in 1976 in defiance of the United Nations' calls for a sporting embargo due to their racist apartheid policies. The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals.
Cost and cost overrun[edit]
The Oxford Olympics Study estimates the outturn cost of the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics at US$6.1 billion in 2015 dollars and cost overrun at 720% in real terms.[11] This includes sports-related costs only, that is, operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast centre, and media and press centre, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are not included, such as those for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost overrun for Montreal 1976 is the highest cost overrun on record for any Olympics. The cost and cost overrun for Montreal 1976 compares with costs of US$4.6 billion and a cost overrun of 51% for Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and $15 billion and 76% for London in 2012. The average cost for the Summer Games from 1960 to 2016 was $5.2 billion in 2015 dollars, and the average cost overrun was 176%.
Much of the cost overruns were caused by the Conseil des métiers de la construction union, whose leader was André "Dede" Desjardins.[12] French architect Roger Taillibert, who designed the Olympic stadium, recounted in his 2000 book Notre Cher Stade Olympique that he and Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau tried hard to buy off Desjardins, even taking him to a lunch at the exclusive Ritz-Carlton hotel in a vain attempt to end the "delays".[12] Ultimately Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa made some sort of secret deal to buy off Desjardins, which finally allowed work to proceed.[12] Taillibert wrote in Notre Cher Stade Olympique "If the Olympic Games took place, it was thanks to Dede Desjardins. What irony!"[12]
Doping[edit]
East Germany encouraged and covered up a culture of doping across many sports for decades, and GDR doping was present at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.[32] Doping of West German athletes, too, was prevalent at the Games.[33]
Television coverage[edit]
ABC Sports paid US$25-million for television broadcast rights in the United States, and produced 76.5 hours of coverage.[34]
CBC Sports budgeted less than CAD$2-million and produced 169 hours of coverage, compared to 14 hours of programming at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The network expanded its coverage when convinced there would be increased media interest from Canadians. When the network was criticized for spending taxpayer dollars, executive producer Bob Moir toured the country to explain the project and boasted that, "the biggest team in Montreal will be the CBC team... It will be bigger than the Canadian Olympic team".[34] CBC Sports had 245 people on its crew, and aired from 9 am until 11 pm daily, taking breaks only for newscasts. Ted Reynolds and Lloyd Robertson co-hosted coverage of the opening ceremonies. In 1976, CBC Sports began its practice of talking live with athletes immediately after events, and built a studio for the interviews.[34] CBC broadcasters were given information kits on the athletes, prepared by Jack Sullivan, the former sports editor of The Canadian Press.[35]
Controversies[edit]
Illegal presence of Quebec flag at closing ceremony[edit]
On 16 March 2023, the Canadian satirical show Infoman revealed an unprecedented controversy from the 1976 Montreal Olympics. During the closing ceremony, an 8-foot-wide by 16-foot-long Quebec flag (bigger than the another national flags) mysteriously appeared on the technical ring between two Olympic flags, only to disappear immediately after.
The flag was found a year after its mysterious appearance under the stands of the Olympic Stadium, in a plastic bag, by the boss of a former employee of the organizing committee of the Games. He offered to keep the flag and she accepted. Thirty years later, she entrusted the flag to her brother-in-law, a history professor and stage manager during the Games, with the intention of giving it to Quebec independence.
According to the stage manager, the flag appeared before or during the equestrian competitions that took place on the same day as the closing ceremony. He suspects that a member of the organizing committee of the Games may be responsible for its appearance.
When the controversy was revealed by Infoman, Cédric Essiminy, a public relations advisor for the Parc Olympique, stated that no one knew that this event had taken place. He claimed that installing a flag of this size would have required a team of several people.
The Quebec flag was provocative for two reasons: it is illegal to fly a flag that does not represent a country at the Olympic Games, and it was larger than the Olympic flags.
Finally, Jean-René Dufort raised the flag again to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Quebec flag in the Olympic Stadium.
To date, the identity of the individuals responsible for this event remains unknown.[36]
Video Clips