Our Campaigns - XIV Olympiad - 1948 Summer Games Race

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XIV Olympiad - 1948 Summer Games

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> International Olympic Committee > Summer Olympic Host City

Office

Host City

Honorific

- Abbr:

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

00, 0000 - 12:00pm Central

Polls Open

September 04, 1946 - 02:00am Central

Polls Close

September 04, 1946 - 12:00pm Central

Term Start

September 05, 1936 - 12:00pm

Term End

August 14, 1948 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Thomas Walker

Last Modified

IndyGeorgia July 23, 2021 05:53pm

Data Sources

Description

The 1948 London Games were the first to be shown on home television, although very few people in Great Britain actually owned sets. A women’s canoeing event was held for the first time - and won by Karen Hoff of Denmark. 17-year-old American Bob Mathias won the decathlon only four months after taking up the sport. He is the youngest athlete in Olympic history to win a men’s athletics event. Two athletes who were Olympic champions in 1936 managed to defend their titles twelve years later. They were Ilona Elek of Hungary in women’s foil fencing and Jan Brzak of Czechoslovakia in the canoeing Canadian pairs 1,000m. Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands was the world record holder in six events, but, according to the rules of the day, was only allowed to enter four. She won all four: the 100m dash, the 80m hurdles, the 200m and the 4x100m relay. Concert pianist Micheline Ostermeyer of France won both the shot put and the discus throw. Karoly Takacs was a member of the Hungarian world champion pistol shooting team in 1938 when a grenade shattered his right hand - his pistol hand. Takacs taught himself to shoot with his left hand and, ten years later, he won an Olympic gold medal in the rapid-fire pistol event.

59 NOCs (Nations)

4,104 athletes (390 women, 3,714 men)

136 events
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