1948 SUMMER OLYMPICS IN LONDON The most interesting facts about London Olympics Karel Reisko Co-Educational Grammar School of Saaremaa Form 10 A

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Here we go...  The official name was “Games of the XIV Olympiad”  It began on the 29th of July and ended on the 14th of August  59 nations participated  4,104 athletes participated, including 3,714 men and 390 women  Official stadium of the games was Wembley Stadium

 Actually, the London Games were scheduled to 1944, but it was postponed because of the World War II  The games were the first ones after the 1936 Berlin’s Olympic Games  London was selected ahead of Baltimore, Lausanne, Los Angeles and Philadelphia to host the next Olympic Games

 The Opening ceremony:  29th of July was brilliantly sunny day  The competitors entered the stadium in 50 minutes  The last team who entered was the UK-s team  At 4 p.m pidgeons were set free to spread the peace-spirit of the games  Greece was the first one to leave the stadium, and UK-s team was the last one

 Overview of the sports events:  Athletics: 33 athletics events were contested; 24 for men and 9 for women. 4 of these were making their debut - the men's 10km walk, the women's 200 meters, long jump and shot put  Duncan White won the first ever medal for Sri Lanka in Ahtletics  Basketball: 23 nations entered the competition. The United States defeated France in the final. Brazil was the third

 Football: 18 teams were contested. The shiniest medal was claimed by Sweden, who defeated Yugoslavia 3-1 in the final. Denmark won the bronze medal  Hockey: 13 nations participated. Surprisingly, the gold medal went to India, who won Great Britain. It was the first medal for India as an independent nation  Swimming: 11 events were contested, 6 for men and 5 for women. USA won 8 gold medals, and 15 medals in total

 London was the first Olympics to have a politican deflection: Marie Provaznikova, who won a gold medal with Czechoslovakian gymnastics team, refused to return home because the lack of freedom, effectuated by The Soviet Union  14 countries made their debut: Burma, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Korea, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago and so on  It was the only time Korea performed as a united team

 Medals:  First: The United States with 38 gold, 27 silver and 19 bronze medals  Second: Sweden with 16 gold, 11 silver and 17 bronze medals  Third: France with 10 gold, 6 silver and 13 bronze medals  The host nation was placed on the 12th place with 3 gold, 14 silver and 6 bronze medals

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