Although the 1940 Olympic Games were

canceled due to World War II, Brundage

sought to organize Western Hemisphere
games that might be able to proceed
despite the troubled international
climate. Brundage was one of the
leaders in the founding of the Pan-
American Games, participating in the
initial discussions in August 1940
in Buenos Aires. On his return, he
arranged for the American Olympic
Association to be renamed the United
States of America Sports Federation
(USASF), which would organize
the United States Olympic
Committee (as the AOC would now be
called) and another committee to see to
American participation in the Pan-
American Games. Brundage became an
early member of the international Pan-
American Games Commission, although
the inaugural event in Buenos Aires was
postponed because of the war and was
eventually held in 1951, with Brundage
present.[61] Despite his role in founding
them, Brundage viewed the Pan-
American Games as imitative, with no
true link with antiquity.[62]