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Home > Olympics > Summer Olympics > Helsinki 1952
Helsinki 1952
The Olympic Games, or Olympics, are an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C., the modern games started from 1896. The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent at least one color of the participating country’s national flag.
The 1952 Olympics were held at Helsinki as a part of summer Olympic XV games. The event included 69 nations, 149 events and 4,955 athletes including 519 women and 4,436 men. The event started on 19 July through a grand opening ceremony and lighting of the Olympic lamp by President Juho Paasikivi.
Helsinki 1952 included 17 sports comprising of aquatics, athletics, basketball, boxing, canoe, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, hockey, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, weightlifting and wrestling. It seemed appropriate that the most impressive achievements in Helsinki should be those of another long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia, who became the only person in Olympic history to win the 5,000 meter, 10,000 meter and marathon at the same Olympics.
The Soviet Union entered the Olympics for the first time. One of the first women allowed to compete against men in the equestrian dressage was Lis Hartel of Denmark. Despite being paralyzed below the knees after an attack of polio, Hartel, who had to be helped on and off her horse, won a silver medal. Lars Hall, a carpenter from Sweden, became the first nonmilitary winner of the modern pentathlon. Bob Mathias was the first person to win two successive Olympic decathlon titles.
The 1952 Olympics concluded through a grand closing ceremony on 3 August, 1952. The United States of America presented leading position with too many medals. They achieved 40, 19, 17 Gold, Silver and Bronze medals respectively for the specific year.
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