The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and commonly known as Montreal 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. 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. The Soviet Union won the most gold- and overall medals. Host city selection The vote occurred at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, Netherlands on May 12, 1970. While Los Angeles and Moscow were viewed as the favourites, given that they represented the world's two main powers, many of the smaller and neutral countries supported Montreal as an underdog and as a relatively neutral site for the games. Los Angeles was eliminated after the first round, and Montreal won at the second round. Moscow and Los Angeles would go on to host the next two Summer Games 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics, respectively, also marred by political boycotts (for instance, the U.S.-led boycott of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979). One blank vote was cast in the second and final round. Toronto had made its third attempt for the Olympics, but failed to win the support of the Canadian Olympic Committee, who selected Montreal instead. Organization Robert Bourassa, then the Premier of Quebec, asked Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to advise Canada's monarch Elizabeth II to attend the opening of the games. However, Bourassa later became unsettled about how unpopular the move might be with sovereigntists in the province, annoying Trudeau, who had already made arrangements. René Lévesque, the leader of the Parti Québécois at the time, sent his own letter to Buckingham Palace, asking the Queen to refuse her prime minister's