History

The "Olympic cold war" began in 1952, when the Soviet Union entered competition for the first time. Originally, the USSR had planned to base its athletes in Leningrad and to fly them into Helsinki as needed. As it turned out, a separate Olympic village was set up in Helsinki for the Communist bloc countries - Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.

For the hosting Finns, the high point of the games came at the opening ceremony, when the great Paavo Nurmi entered the stadium bearing the Olympic torch. Still a national hero though he had retired from competition nearly 20 years earlier, the 55-year-old Nurmi was greeted with a mighty burst of applause, accompanied by tears from many spectators.

He passed the torch on to Hannes Kohlemainen, the winner of three gold medals in 1912, who jogged up the stadium steps to light the official Olympic flame.

With the addition of several Communist countries and the re-admission of Japan and Germany (actually represented only by West Germany), the number of countries represented in 1952 increased from 59 to 69 and the number of athletes leaped by nearly 25 percent, from 4,099 to 4,925.

More than 100 Olympic records were broken at Helsinki, and there were many outstanding performances, by any standard. Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia scored a remarkable triple in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs and the marathon--the first time he had ever run that event. (His wife, Dana, won the javelin gold medal on the same day he won the 5,000-meter.)

As in 1948, the men's 100-meter final featured an upset winner in a photo finish. Four runners crossed the finish line within 14 inches of each other. Lindy Remigino, the second-place runner at the U. S. Olympic trials, congratulated Herb McKenley of Jamaica, who had broken the tape. But the judges concluded, after a long study of the photograph, that Remigino's right shoulder had crossed the line before McKenley's chest hit the tape, and Remigino was awarded the gold medal while McKenley received the silver.

An even more remarkable upset occurred in the 1500-meter run. Roger Bannister, who was to become the first man to break the 4-minute barrier two years later, was one of the favorites in the race, along with Robert McMillen of the United States and Werner Lueg of Germany. But a virtual unknown, Josef Barthel of Luxembourg, beat them all, running 3.3 seconds faster than he had ever run before. His victory was so unexpected that the medal ceremony had to be delayed while officials searched for the music to Luxembourg's national anthem.

The United States won 14 of the 23 men's events in track and field. Harrison Dillard, the surprise winner of the 100-meter in 1948, won his "real" event, the 110-meter hurdles, and claimed his fourth career gold medal with the U. S. 400-meter relay team. Mal Whitfield was the 800-meter champion for the second time, and Bob Mathias won his second Olympic decathlon championship by more than 900 points, shattering the world record.

In women's track, Marjorie Jackson of Australia won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and her teammate, Shirley Strickland, won the 80-meter hurdles. Gold medals for women's field events were well distributed: Two to the Soviet Union and one each to Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Hungary dominated women's swimming, winning four of the five events, while the United States won four of the six men's swimming events. As usual, United States divers captured all four gold medals and Pat McCormick became the second woman to win both the platform and the springboard events.

Two future heavyweight champions, Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson, were Olympic competitors in 1952. Patterson won the middleweight title, but Johansson not only lost in the heavyweight final, he was denied the silver medal by judges for failing to put up a fight.

Those two later combined to make boxing history. Johansson in 1959 upset Patterson with a third-round knockout to win the heavyweight championship. In a rematch a year later, Patterson scored a fifth-round knockout to become the first fighter ever to regain the title.

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