History

The IOC in 1936 selected Tokyo to host the 1940 Games. It was a bold idea to stage the Olympics in Asia and in a country which was still rather mysterious to the West.

But Japan and China went to war in 1938 and the Japanese government ordered the organizing committee to stop preparation after sixteen sites had already been pretty well prepared to host Olympic events.

The IOC then called on Helsinki to take over. War again intervened, as the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939. By September, most of Europe was engulfed in war and it became obvious, even to the stubborn IOC, that the Olympics would have to be canceled.

In June of 1939, the IOC awarded the 1944 Olympics to London. Again, World War II forced cancellation. A year after the war ended, London was once again selected, this time to host the 1948 Olympics.

As in Antwerp after World War I, a lot of improvisation was necessary to prepare London for the 1948 Olympics. Again, school buildings were used to house athletes. A temporary track was built at Wembley Stadium, and many government buildings were converted to temporary uses, especially for the media.

There truly were media in 1948. Many events were broadcast on television, though only within the British Isles, while radio coverage was carried around the world via short-wave transmission.

London set new records with 59 countries and 4,099 athletes competing. The number of male competitors was down slightly, from 3,738 to 3,714, but the number of women increased from 328 to 385.

And it was a woman, Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands, who emerged as the star of the 1948 games. A 30-year-old mother of two children, Blankers-Koen won individual gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 80-meter hurdles, and won a fourth gold running the anchor leg on Holland's 400-meter relay team.

At the other end of the track-and-field age spectrum was 17-year-old Bob Mathias. Just two months after graduating from high school in Tulare, California, Mathias was competing in only his third decathlon. He was third after the first day of competition, but he pulled into the lead with a tremendous discus throw on the second day and held on to win with a plodding but gutsy 5:11 in the concluding 1500-meter run.

The surprising winner in the men's 100-meter dash was Harrison "Bones" Dillard of the United States. The world record holder in the 120-yard hurdles, Dillard failed to qualify in that event and barely made the team by finishing third in the 100-meter trials. He and teammate Barney Ewell were both clocked in 10.3 seconds, tying the world record, but judges awarded Dillard the gold medal after studying the photo-finish results. (This was the first time, incidentally, that the photo-finish camera was used at the Olympics.)

Dillard won a second gold as a member of the 400-meter relay team. Mel Patton, the winner of the 200-meter dash, also won gold in the relay. The only other double gold medalist in track and field was Mal Whitfield, who won the 800-meter run and ran the anchor leg on the 4 by 400-meter relay team. Whitfield also took a bronze in the 400-meter run.

Although there was no really dominant swimmer, the United States won all six men's events. Jimmy McLane, Wally Ris, and Bill Smith each won an individual gold medal and a second gold in the freestyle relay. Ann Curtis was the only individual gold medalist among American women, in the 400-meter freestyle, and she too added a second in the relay, swimming the anchor leg in an incredible 1:04.4. That was nearly two seconds better than the winning time in the 100-meter freestyle, in which Curtis had finished second.

For the fifth straight time, Americans took gold medals in all four diving events, with Vicki Draves becoming the first woman to win both the springboard and the platform.

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