Olympic Games of 1948

The Event Only Olympic Games of the 1940’s

Date July 29-August 14, 1948

Place London, England

Because of cancellations caused by World War II, the 1948 Games were the first Olympiad held in twelve years. They brought together many nations to engage in friendly competition in what had been one of the recent war’s most ravaged cities. Although nations such as Germany and Japan were banned from the Games because of their aggressive roles in the war, the Games were successful enough to be regarded as an important symbolic return to peace.

Between 1936 and 1948, the quadrennial Olympic Games that had long symbolized freedom, peace, and world harmony for centuries were cancelled twice because of the disruptions of World War II, which began in East Asia with Japan’s invasion of China in mid-1937 and in Europe two years later with Germany’s invasion of Poland. Although many nations that would eventually become involved in the war did not enter the conflict until 1940 or later, the unstable conditions prevailing in Europe and East Asia prompted the cancellation of the 1940 Olympic Games.

Many ironies were involved in the selections of Olympic venues during this period. In 1936, the last city to host the Olympic Games before World War II began was Berlin—the capital of Nazi Germany. The 1940 Games were scheduled for Tokyo, the capital of Japan—which not only started the war in Asia but which would also bring the United States into the war by attacking Pearl Harbor in Hawaii at the end of 1941. The 1944 Games were scheduled for London, which at that time was being heavily bombarded by German planes and rockets. After the war ended in 1945, the 1944 London games were, in effect, moved to 1948. By then, London was rebuilding, and the city’s Olympic Games were an important symbol of its postwar recovery.

Inauspicious Conditions

Fifty-nine nations sent athletes to the London Games, including fourteen that had never before participated in the Olympics. Some of these first-time participants were former colonies that had won their independence from European empires after World War II. One such newly independent nation was India, which, appropriately, won its first Olympic gold medal by beating its former colonial master and Olympic host nation, Great Britain, in men’s field hockey.

Although the return of the Olympic Games after a twelve-year hiatus was eagerly welcomed around the world, many people had low expectations for the Games themselves. Because many participating nations were still recovering from the devastation they had suffered during the war and postwar economic slumps, they lacked the resources to train their athletes well. Moreover, cancellation of the previous two Olympiads and the distractions of war had taken many of the world’s best athletes out of competition and left them with little time to prepare for the 1948 Olympics. Few medal winners from 1936 were expected to defend their Olympic titles. London itself was ill prepared for hosting the Olympics. After having accepted the offer to host the 1948 Games in March, 1946, it had only two and one-half years to prepare for them, and repairing wartime damage was a higher priority. With all these problems, few observers expected to see high levels of competition in London.

Prior to the Games, many Americans had feared that many of the athletes they were sending to England were too raw, too untested, and too new to their sports to compete at the Olympic level. These concerns proved unfounded. Indeed, not only was the American athletes’ haul of eighty-four medals the most of any participant nation, it was nearly double that of Sweden, whose forty-four medals were the second-highest totals. Moreover, Americans also won the most gold medals (38), the most silver medals (27), and the most bronze meals (19). The United States was especially strong in the swimming events, in which its athletes won 15 medals. It also won 10 of 12 possible medals in the diving events.

One of the most outstanding American performances was turned in by a track and field athlete whose youth and lack of experience made him one of the most unlikely Olympic champions of the Games. When seventeen-year-old Bob Mathias won the men’s decathlon event, he was the youngest gold-medal winner in Olympic track and field history up to that time. Even more surprising, he had competed in the demanding ten-event competition for only five months before going to London.

Impact

After the long hiatus following the 1936 Berlin Games, the 1948 London Games brought together athletes from nations and colonial territories ranging from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia. The London Games have come to be remembered as the game of firsts: They were the first to be held in twelve years, the first to be televised, the first to use starting blocks for runners, the first to use photo-finish judging, and the first to offer such women’s events as canoeing singles. They also involved fourteen nations participating for the first time and were the first games to ban nations for having participated in a war. Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union all were disallowed from competition due to their involvement in World War II.

Bibliography

Hampton, J. The Austerity Olympics: When the Games Came to London in 1948. London: Aurum Press, 2009. Explains how the success of the 1948 games provided a model for later Olympiads.

Phillips, Bob. The 1948 Olympic Games: How London Rescued the Games. Cheltenham, England: Sportsbooks, 2007. Appreciative examination of what made the 1948 Games important and what London did to save the modern Olympic movement.

Terrence, Chris, and Randall Preister. Bob Mathias: Across the Fields of Gold. Lenexa, Kans.: Addax, 2000. Biography of the 1948 Olympic decathlon champion. richly illustrated, telling of Mathias’s track-and-field accomplishments and public life.

Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press, 2008. Up-to-date compendium of all the modern Olympiads, with full details on the results of the 1948 Games, along with interesting anecdotal material.