1952 Summer Olympics

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 President Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Athlete's Oath Heikki Savolainen
Olympic Torch Paavo Nurmi and
Hannes Kolehmainen
Stadium Olympic Stadium

The 1952 Summer Olympics (Finnish: Kesäolympialaiset 1952) (Swedish: Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland, in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier selected to host the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II. It is the northernmost city at which a summer Olympic Games have been held. It was also the Olympic Games at which the most number of world records were broken until surpassed by the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[1] The Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Israel, and Saarland made their Olympic debuts in Helsinki 1952.

Host city selection

Helsinki was chosen as the host city over bids from Amsterdam and five American cities at the 40th IOC Session on June 21, 1947, in Stockholm, Sweden. Minneapolis and Los Angeles finished tied for second in the final voting.

The voting results in chart below:[2]

1952 Summer Olympics bidding results[3]
City Country Round 1 Round 2
Helsinki  Finland 1415
Minneapolis  United States 4 5
Los Angeles  United States 4 5
Amsterdam  Netherlands 3 3
Detroit  United States 2 —
Chicago  United States 1 —
Philadelphia  United States 0 —

Highlights

Paavo Nurmi and the Olympic Flame

Sports

The 1952 Summer Olympic programme featured 149 events in the following 17 sports:

Demonstration sports

Venues

Participating NOCs

Participating nations. Pictured in blue are nations participating for the first time. Yellow dot: Helsinki
Number of athletes per country

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

Japan and Germany were both reinstated and permitted to send athletes after being banned for 1948 for their instigation of World War II. Due to the division of Germany, German athletes from Saar entered a separate team for the only time. Only West Germany would provide athletes for the actual Germany team, since East Germany refused to participate in a joint German team.

Medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1952 Games.[6]

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States 40191776
2 Soviet Union 22301971
3 Hungary 16101642
4 Sweden 12131035
5 Italy 89421
6 Czechoslovakia 73313
7 France 66618
8 Finland (host nation)631322
9 Australia 62311
10 Norway 3205

50th anniversary coin

The 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Olympic Games was the main motif for one of the first Finnish euro silver commemorative coins, the €10 silver coin minted in 2002. The reverse depicts part of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, as well as a section of the 1952 500 markka coin. The obverse has lettering SUOMI FINLAND 10 EURO, a flame, and Finland is the only country highlighted on earth.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Bascomb, Neal (2005). The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It. Mariner Books. ISBN 9780618562091.
  2. ↑ "International Olympic Committee Vote History". 9 September 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "Past Olympic Host City Election Results". Games Bids. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Mulvenney, Nick (7 August 2008). "Chen Chengda, China's almost Olympian". Reuters. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  5. ↑ "On This Day: 1952: 20 July: Zatopek wins gold at Helsinki". BBC News. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  6. ↑ Byron, Lee; Cox, Amanda; Ericson, Matthew (4 August 2008). "A Map of Olympic Medals". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2015.


External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1952 Summer Olympics.
Preceded by
London		 Summer Olympic Games
Helsinki
XV Olympiad (1952) 		Succeeded by
Melbourne/Stockholm
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