Olympics Series

Olympics - 1948 London

World War two was barely over when, in August 1945 London, selected in 1938 to hold the 1944 Games, was awarded the poisoned chalice of organizing the Olympic revival of 1948. The world was healing its wounds and it was a time of austerity in a city that had shown courageous resistance and whose major priority was reconstruction. The Olympic Games would have to adopt the same tone.

The competitors were lodged in military barracks at Uxbridge and Richmond Park, or converted classrooms, in conditions that many athletes today would snub. There were problems in maintaining supply chains, and at times glaring inadequacies in conditions. These only got worse as the Games went on. Yet, given the circumstances, they were tolerated. The London Games were very austere, as they were poorly prepared. They were also, however, the Games where a record number of countries took part. The Games were the first global sporting event after the war, despite the absence of the Germans (who were not invited), the Japanese (who declined the invitation), and the Soviets (who were in sporting isolation). The Games had to go on, and the London Games put them back on track. It is true that there were limited resources, but there were symbols of the Games all around. And at the start of the television era, the event was brought into viewer’s home for the first time. Even if television sets were rare, the presence of cameras at Wembley Stadium and the Empire Swimming Pool were a promise of things to come.

Blankers–Koen, housewife and champion

At 30 the Flying Dutchwoman was more than a proud mother: she won the 100, 200 and 80 meters hurdles and 4x100 meters relay. Neither the birth of her children, nor the Second World War, could break Fanny Blankers-Koen stride. She was a female Jesse Owens, winning four Gold medals. At 14 years she took up competitive sport and two years later her physical education teacher, hearing of her dream of Olympic glory, shaped her career by telling her, “We already have plenty of good swimmers, choose athletics”. Under the supervision of former triple jump champion Jan Blankers, the 18- year old Blankers-Koen qualified for the Berlin Games, finishing sixth in the high jump and fifth in the 4x100 meters relay. At the London Games, on a water logged cinder track, she entered eight races and won them all. “All I’ve done is run fast. I don’t see what people are making such a fuss about it” .I’m not sure we should believe her.

A stocky 29 year old fireman from Argentina, Delfo Carbrera with jet black hair and a thick moustache won the marathon. When his coach of the San Lorenzo club, Francisco Moura asked him that he was looking for a marathon runner; Carbrera asked what is a marathon? In fact he had never run a marathon before and he ran on the road for the first time in London and finished first. Carbrera was amazed to have won and said “I am happy because it will encourage young people in Argentina to go running”.

Micheline Ostermeyer carried the weight of France on her shoulders and gave a unique and rare recital. But they were solid enough to allow her to take a double Olympics victory in the most muscular of women’s field events. Just three months ago she had graduated with honors from the Paris Conservatory of Music.

The Games in Brief

Opening Date                              29 July 1948

Closing Date                                14August 1948

Host Nation                                  Great Britain

Nations Represented                   59

Athletes                                        4,099

Sports                                           19 (8 open to women)

Games officially opened by        King George VI of England

Olympic flame lit by                   John Mark (athletics)

Olympic oath read by                 Donald Finlay (athletics)

IOC President                              Sigfrid Edstrom (Sweden)

The Communist States took part in the Games, and with them the first political defection occurred: Marie Provaznikova, President of the Technical Commission of Women’s Gymnastics refused to return to Czechoslavakia.

In athletics the starting block was used for the first time. Two Olympic Champions from the last Games in 1936 managed to retain their titles 12 years on.

In pistol shooting, Hungarian Karoly Takacs, who lost his right hand in the war when a grenade exploded; taught himself to shoot with the left hand and won the Gold medal in the rapid fire pistol event.

PS -: Matter researched from the archives in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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