1952 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XV Olympiad
Host city	Helsinki, Finland
Nations participating	69
Athletes participating	4,955 (4,436 men, 519 women)
Events	149 in 17 sports
Opening ceremony	July 19
Closing ceremony	August 3
Officially opened by	Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Athlete's Oath	Heikki Savolainen
Olympic Torch	Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen
Stadium	Olympic Stadium

The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were celebrated in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki had been elected as the host city over rival bids from Amsterdam, Athens, Lausanne, and Stockholm and five American cities: Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Philadelphia on the 40th IOC session on June 21, 1947. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics but they were canceled due to World War II.

[edit] Highlights

Paavo Nurmi and the Olympic Flame

• To the enjoyment of the Finnish crowd, the Olympic Flame was lit by two heroes, runners Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen.
• For the first time, a team from the USSR participated in the Olympics. The first gold medal for the USSR was won by Nina Romashkova in the women's Discus Throwing event, and the Soviet women's gymnastics team won the first of its eight consecutive gold medals.
• Israel made its Olympic debut. The Jewish state could not participate in the 1948 games because of the War of Independence. Previous Mandate era teams did not participate in the Olympics because of the Second World War and a boycott of the 1936 games in protest of the Nazi regime.
• Hungary, a country with a mere 10 million inhabitants, won an astonishing 42 medals at these games, coming in third place behind the USA and the USSR with one of the most outstanding exhibitions ever.
• Hungary's Golden Team won the football tournament in style, beating Yugoslavia 2-0 in the final.
• Germany and Japan were invited again after being barred in 1948. After occupation and partition, three German states had been erected. Only West German athletes took part, from the Federal Republic of Germany and the Saarland which joined the FRG after 1955, the East German Democratic Republic being absent. Despite ranking 5th by total medals with 24, Germans failed to score Gold for the first and only time.
• Rules in equestrianism now allowed non-military officers to compete, including women. Lis Hartel of Denmark became the first woman in the sport to win a medal.
• Emil Zátopek of Czechoslovakia won three gold medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m and the Marathon.
• Bob Mathias of the USA became the first Olympian to successfully defend his decathlon title with a total score of 7,887 points.
• Josy Barthel of the tiny country of Luxembourg pulled a major surprise by winning the 1500 m.

[edit] Sports

A Romanian poster promoting the 1952 Olympics

[edit] Demonstration sports

• Field handball
• Finnish baseball

[edit] Participating nations

Participating nations. Pictured in blue are nations participating for the first time.

A total of 69 nations participated in these Games, up from 59 in the 1948 Games. Twelve nations made their first Olympic appearance in 1952: The Bahamas, Gold Coast (now Ghana), Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Netherlands Antilles, Nigeria, Saar, Soviet Union (USSR), Thailand, and Vietnam.

[edit] Medal count

Main article: 1952 Summer Olympics medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	40	19	17	76
2	Soviet Union	22	30	19	71
3	Hungary	16	10	16	42
4	Sweden	12	13	10	35
5	Italy	8	9	4	21
6	Czechoslovakia	7	3	3	13
7	France	6	6	6	18
8	Finland (host nation)	6	3	13	22
9	Australia	6	2	3	11
10	Norway	3	2	0	5

[edit] See also

• International Olympic Committee
• IOC country codes
• Modern Olympic coins

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

1952 Summer Olympics

• IOC Site on 1952 Summer Olympics