1948 SUMMER OLYMPICS IN LONDONThe most interesting facts about London Olympics

Karel ReiskoCo-Educational Grammar School of SaaremaaForm 10 A

Warning!This presentation may cause a

brain to overheat, because of the enormous amount of the information.

So please take a comfortable position and if you need something to drink, go and have it right away, because no one knows what might happen...

Here we go... The official name was “Games of the XIV

Olympiad” It began on the 29th of July and ended

on the 14th of August 59 nations participated 4,104 athletes participated, including

3,714 men and 390 women Official stadium of the games was

Wembley Stadium

Actually, the London Games were scheduled to 1944, but it was postponed because of the World War II

The games were the first ones after the 1936 Berlin’s Olympic Games

London was selected ahead of Baltimore, Lausanne, Los Angeles and Philadelphia to host the next Olympic Games

The Opening ceremony: 29th of July was brilliantly sunny day The competitors entered the stadium in 50

minutes The last team who entered was the UK-s

team At 4 p.m. 2500 pidgeons were set free to

spread the peace-spirit of the games Greece was the first one to leave the

stadium, and UK-s team was the last one

Overview of the sports events: Athletics: 33 athletics events were contested;

24 for men and 9 for women. 4 of these were making their debut - the men's 10km walk, the women's 200 meters, long jump and shot put

Duncan White won the first ever medal for Sri Lanka in Ahtletics

Basketball: 23 nations entered the competition. The United States defeated France 65-21 in the final. Brazil was the third

Football: 18 teams were contested. The shiniest medal was claimed by Sweden, who defeated Yugoslavia 3-1 in the final. Denmark won the bronze medal

Hockey: 13 nations participated. Surprisingly, the gold medal went to India, who won Great Britain. It was the first medal for India as an independent nation

Swimming: 11 events were contested, 6 for men and 5 for women. USA won 8 gold medals, and 15 medals in total

London was the first Olympics to have a politican deflection: Marie Provaznikova, who won a gold medal with Czechoslovakian gymnastics team, refused to return home because the lack of freedom, effectuated by The Soviet Union

14 countries made their debut: Burma, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Korea, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago and so on

It was the only time Korea performed as a united team

Medals: First: The United States with 38 gold, 27

silver and 19 bronze medals Second: Sweden with 16 gold, 11 silver and

17 bronze medals Third: France with 10 gold, 6 silver and 13

bronze medals The host nation was placed on the 12th

place with 3 gold, 14 silver and 6 bronze medals

Thank You for your attention!!

Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_1948http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6490421.stmhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/972394/88012/Micheline-Ostermeyer-putting-the-shot-at-the-

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