London 1948 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

29 Jul 1948

End:

14 Aug 1948

Countries:

Athletes:

4104

Women:

390

Events:

136

City:

London, Great Britain

After a twelve year absence caused by Second World War, the Olympic games came back to London, United Kingdom in 1948.
The other candidate cities were Lausanne, Switzerland and four american cities: Baltimore, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Philadelphie.
It was the first Games after the death of Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1937, the founder of the modern Olympic movement.

His Majesty King George VI officially opened the Games of the 14 Olympiad at the soccer Wembley Stadium, which had recently been equipped with temporary tracks for athletics.
Germany and Japan, the aggressors of World War II, were not invited to participate.
No new facilities were built for these Games.
No Olympic Village was built. The male athletes were housed at an army camp in Uxbridge and the women housed at Southlands College in dormitories.
The Head of Czechoslovakian gymnastics team Marie Provaznikova (she was not an athlete) became the first, who took the opportunity to defect from a communist state to the West during the Olympic games.