When French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympics in 1894, he imagined the Games as an occasion for world peace as countries came together in amicable sporting events. But the Games were soon caught up in nations' rivalries and political agendas. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) struggled – and failed – to distance itself from the 20th century's global crises and conflicts, from holding the Berlin Olympics in 1936 during Nazi rule to rival boycotts of the Games during the Cold War.