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Home > Olympics > Summer Olympics > London 1948
London 1948
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 1948 Olympics were held in London and were a part of summer Olympic XIV games. The Olympic event started on 29th of July with a grand opening ceremony that quenched the thirst of all the spectators. Later, the opening ceremony was followed by the lighting up of the Olympic flame by His Majesty King George VI. Almost 59 nations participated in 136 events with a total of 4,104 athletes including 390 women and 3,714 men.
The 1948 London Olympics was comprised of 17 sports including aquatics, athletics, basketball, boxing, canoe, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, hockey, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, weightlifting and wrestling. Such an event was the first to be shown on home television. A women’s canoeing event was held for the first time and won by Karen Hoff of Denmark. 17year old American Bob Mathias won the decathlon only four months after taking up the sport. He is the youngest athlete in Olympic history to win a men’s athletics event.
Two athletes who were Olympic champions in 1936 managed to defend their titles twelve years later. They were Ilona Elek of Hungary in women’s foil fencing and Jan Brzak of Czechoslovakia in the canoeing Canadian pairs 1,000 meter. Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands was the world record holder in six events, but according to the rules of the day, was only allowed to enter four. She won all four events of the 100 meter dash, the 80 meter hurdles, the 200 meter and the 4x100 meter relay. The United States of America achieved 38 gold medals, 27 silver medals and 19 bronze medals to become the first ranked nation that year.
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