1908 — Charles Hefferon is the first South African to finish fourth at an Olympics, an unfortunate result that has afflicted the nation at every Games it has competed at up until and including Tokyo 2020. Hefferon missed the podium in the five miles event by less than seven seconds, failing to hold on after taking the lead with two laps to go. But he had the consolation of winning a marathon medal five days later.
1938 — Finland accepts the invitation by the International Olympic Committee to host the 1940 Games in Helsinki, after Japan had ceded the showpiece set for Tokyo to focus efforts and resources on military action in China. But the start of World War 2 the following year saw the Olympics being cancelled.
1980 — The Olympics in Moscow kick off under the pall of a massive boycott led by the US because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But a large number of countries that chose not to attend did so because they didn’t think their teams were strong enough to send.
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