Olympic Games of 1952

The Event First Olympic Games of the post-World War II era in which both the United States and the Soviet Union competed

Date Held July 19-August 3, 1952

Organizers of the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games came to refer to the event as the “last real Olympic Games” because the event was relatively unmarred by politics or commercialism and showed exceptional sportsmanship among the athletes.

The 1952 Summer Games marked the first time that the Soviet Union participated in the Olympics. The Soviets sent 381 athletes to Helsinki and won twenty-two gold and seventy-one total medals. It was not until the final day of competition that United States athletes overtook their Soviet counterparts to win the most medals of the Games. The Soviet medal tally was especially impressive because for many Soviet athletes, the 1952 Olympics marked the first time they had competed against world-class athletes from many countries.

The Soviet Union contributed to the Allied victory in World War II, but diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the United States eroded quickly after the war. The Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Airlift, the Soviets’ successful test of an atomic bomb, and the commencement of the Korean War each served to increase tensions between the two countries and among allies of each and led to the Cold War. The 1952 Olympics were impacted by the international climate as many wondered whether the political stresses affecting the American-Soviet relationship would extend to the sports world. Moreover, because the Helsinki Olympics marked the first time that Soviet and American athletes would meet in such large numbers and in such an internationally recognized event, the interaction between the two sides took on a more compelling interest.

Scoring System Controversy

In Helsinki, additional factors caused friction between the East and West. One factor stemmed from the unofficial scoring system used to determine which nations earned the most number of points in the medal race. Throughout its history, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has never regarded the country that earns the most medals as the “winner” of the Games; rather, the IOC promotes participation and friendship as more important than winning and losing. In 1952, Western media organizations reported that a gold medal was worth ten points; a silver medal, five; and a bronze medal, four; with three, two, and one points being awarded for fourth, fifth, and sixth places. However, the Soviets chose to adopt a new system that gave seven points for a gold medal and maintained the five-through-one Western system.

The scoring issue grew in importance as the Games progressed. Soviet athletes did especially well during the first week, with Soviet women dominating the gymnastics and track-and-field competitions. However, during the second week, American athletes began to give strong performances and steadily narrowed the medal and point gaps between them and their Soviet competitors.

With only two days of competition left, the Soviets began to assert that they would be the overall winners of the Games. This statement was based on their calculations from their own unique scoring system. Nevertheless, the Americans’ strong showing in swimming, diving, and boxing led Western-based news agencies to conclude that the U.S. team had overtaken that of the Soviet Union, given that the traditional scoring method was employed. These news organizations also noted that a scoreboard that stood outside the Soviets’ Olympic village since the commencement of the Games came down once the American team passed the Soviet squad in points. The debate continued after the Games with the Soviet Union claiming that its athletes and those from the United States had scored the same number of points.

Athlete Interaction

The Olympic Village has been a staple of the Games since 1936. However, in 1952, the Soviet Union chose not to allow its athletes to stay in the village with athletes from around the world. Instead, Soviet athletes, along with those from their Eastern Bloc allies, stayed at a separate location. This decision to segregate the athletes added more tension in the days leading up to the Games.

In the days immediately prior to the Olympics, Soviet and American athletes were informally and regularly meeting one another. The encounters were not friendly at first, but goodwill soon developed. For example, one news report described yachtsmen from both countries staring at one another during a practice session. Soon, rowers from both teams were working out together, and one American official later described the Soviet team in friendly terms. During the Games, the personal exchanges continued. Soviet weight lifters hosted their American counterparts at their village, a Soviet and American were photographed shaking hands after the conclusion of their track-and-field competition, and the Soviet rowing team hosted a dinner for members of the American team one day after the United States had defeated the Soviets for the gold medal in the sport.

Athletic Highlights

Although political posturing captured a great deal of attention at the Games, the sports matches and athletic accomplishments were also hailed by the media. Notably, several track-and-field events captured the hearts of the global audience. Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia won the 5,000- and 10,000-meters races as well as the marathon. Competing despite a gland infection and doctors’ warnings against doing so, Zatopek ran with a pained gait and was the antithesis of the elegant distance runner gliding over the track. A number of women in the track-and-field category earned the respect of spectators and judges alike: Marjorie Jackson of Australia won two medals, while Soviet discus thrower Nina Romashkova became the first Soviet athlete to win Olympic gold.

The American team, including shot-putter Parry O’Brien, pole-vaulter Bob Richards, runner Malvin Whitefield, and decathlete Bob Mathias garnered much media coverage. O’Brien won the shot, making his seemingly effortless gliding technique famous. Richards was singled out because he was a church minister. Whitfield narrowly beat Arthur Wint of Jamaica by two-tenths of a second in the 800-meters run, an exact rematch of their 1948 Olympics race in London. Finally, Mathias defended his 1948 decathlon title when he won the event at the 1952 Games.

In other sports, new rules in equestrianism allowed nonmilitary officers and women to compete. Lis Hartel of Denmark, paralyzed below the knees after being infected with polio, became the first woman to win a medal (silver) in that event. The Soviet women’s gymnastics team dominated their sport and won the team competition easily, beginning a streak that would continue for forty years until the Soviet Union broke up into separate republics.

Impact

Although the Soviet government used its athletes as part of its Cold War propaganda and at times tried to demonstrate that success on the athletic field was linked to the virtues of socialism, in the end, the Games displayed uncharacteristically good sportsmanship among all teams, which belied the international tensions of the era. The Summer Games in 1956 would be clouded by more overt political ideologies, and several subsequent international boycotts of the Games would ensue in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Bibliography

Buchanan, Ian, and Bill Mallon. Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement. 2d ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. Provides short, crisp descriptions of various individuals and events that played an important role in the development of the Olympics.

Guttmann, Allen. The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games. 2d ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Easy-to-read and comprehensive account that traces the development of the modern Olympics from their birth during the late nineteenth century to their maturity in the twentieth century.