When Baron Pierre de Coubertin created the modern Olympics in 1896, he wanted to showcase amateur athletes in a competition without politics. This was perhaps unrealistic, given the inherent nationalism of athletes competing on behalf of their home country. Nonetheless, the first postwar Olympiad in 1948 had managed to capture the spirit of sportsmanship and goodwill that Coubertin had first imagined. Organizers hoped to repeat that success in 1952.
This article was originally published by The Cold War Blog.
Having sat out the Olympics since its own inception in 1919, the Soviet Union took a second look at the games in 1950. Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, and later Joseph Stalin, had rejected the Olympics out of hand due to its emphasis on competition, which was incompatible with socialist egalitarianism. The insistence on amateur athletes also smacked of bourgeois elitism, because it limited participation to those who had the time and money to train and compete.
As Cold War tensions heated up, however, Stalin began to see the propaganda value of showcasing Soviet athletes on the world stage. He hoped that, in the war of ideas, a winning Soviet team might convince spectators of the superiority of Communism. In 1950, the Soviet Union requested membership in the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In an unusual strategy, Soviet representatives approached the IOC with three demands: that Russian be included as an official language of the Olympics, that Spain be banned from membership as long as its Fascist dictator Francisco Franco was in power, and that the Soviet Union be permitted to appoint its own delegates to the IOC.
All three requests were denied. The Olympics already had two official languages, English and French. Nearly everyone spoke at least one of the two languages, making the addition of a third language unnecessary.
Banning Spain on account of its government would be a political decision, and the committee explicitly rejected mixing politics and sport. For this reason, they also rejected the Soviet proposal to appoint its own delegates. If the Soviet government were allowed to control the selection of its delegates to the committee, those delegates would be accountable to Moscow, not the IOC.
In the end, the Soviets chose to go ahead with their application to the IOC, even though their demands were rejected. The opportunity to introduce the world to Communism was too good to pass up.
Now the IOC needed convincing, especially committee president J. Sigfrid Edstrom. The biggest hurdle was the fact that Soviet athletes could in no way be considered amateurs. Recreational sport simply did not exist in the Soviet Union. Sports were used as physical education, and competitions were staged for the purpose of propaganda. Athletes, coaches, and trainers were paid employees of the Soviet state. Though committee members expressed reservations, the Soviets claimed that their practice of paying athletes had ended.
When Swedish Olympic official Tage Ericson visited the Soviet Union on a fact-finding mission in late 1950, it was clear to him that politics and sports were inextricably connected in the centrally controlled Soviet state. Sports programs were not privately run, but funded and operated by the government. Coaches and trainers were employed by the state, which also provided equipment and facilities. The athletes themselves held “jobs” with the Red Army or another government entity, but in reality spent all of their days training for their sport. This was in sharp contrast with athletes from other nations, whose athletes trained on weekends after working day jobs all week. Clearly, the Soviet athletes were still professional.
Furthermore, the Olympic Committee hesitated to provide a global platform on which the Soviets could promote a system of government which had committed numerous human rights abuses, including the Great Purge, the gulag prison system, and the forced Ukrainian famine. However, excluding the Soviet Union on political grounds would be a political act in itself. Edstrom was now in a bind.
Hoping to fulfill Coubertine’s vision of diplomacy through sports, Edstrom reluctantly chose to approve the Soviet Union for membership. Perhaps friendly competition between nations would help to foster better relations between individuals, leading someday to better relations between east and west.
The Soviets chose not to compete in the Winter Games in Oslo, focusing instead on preparing for the Summer Games in Helsinki. The Ministry of Sport was created to organize and train the athletes, and Stalin was confident that the new Soviet team would win the Olympic medal count.
The IOC dealt with other issues in the rapidly changing Cold War world. Germany, which had been banned from the 1948 Olympics due to its role in the Second World War, was once again invited to compete in 1952. However, Germany was now divided, with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the West, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR, a Soviet satellite) in the east. The Communist GDR was not recognized by western nations, nor by the IOC. Their application was therefore denied. As a compromise, the two German states were invited to compete together as a unified team. East Germany declined to participate, and the West Germans went ahead without them.
In another seismic geopolitical change, there were now two Chinas. After Mao Zedong and his Communist forces prevailed in the Chinese Civil War, Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, establishing a government in exile, the Republic of China (ROC). Mao Zedong became the leader of the Communist People’s Republic of China (PRC). Unlike Germany, the PRC and the ROC were both invited to compete in the Olympic Games. The ROC, however, boycotted the games in protest of the recognition of the PRC.
The Winter Games
The Winter Olympics were hosted by the city of Oslo, Norway and took place from February 14 through the 25, 1952. Thirty countries participated, including first-time winter competitors New Zealand and Portugal. Japan and Germany returned to the games following their prohibition after the war.
The politics of the Winter Games, like those of 1948, largely reflected the fallout from World War Two. Among Norwegians, there was some concern over the readmission of Japan, but there was outright hostility toward the participation of Germany, which had occupied Norway during the war. The Norwegian Olympic Committee even banned their own Norwegian speed skater, Finn Hodt, due to his past collaboration with the Nazi occupiers.
The opening ceremony, held on February 15, featured the first torch relay of the Winter Olympics. The relay, run entirely on skis, began in the town of Morgedal, thought to be the birthplace of modern skiing. All flags at the newly renovated Bislett Stadium were flown at half mast in honor of King George VI, who had died eight days earlier. The games were presided over by Princess Ragnhild in place of her grandfather, King Haakon VII, who was in London attending King George’s funeral.
Six hundred ninety-four athletes competed in twenty-two events. Women’s cross country skiing was introduced, and a demonstration tournament of bandy, a Nordic sport similar to hockey, was held. Highlights included the Finnish podium sweep of the new women’s cross country event and the German domination of the bobsled events. American figure skater Dick Button won his second gold medal after landing the first triple loop jump in competition. American skier Andrea Mead Lawrence became the first American to win two gold medals in alpine skiing.
Canada took home the gold in hockey, but it was the battle for bronze that created some drama. Czechoslovakia beat Sweden in their matchup, but, because both teams were tied in points, had to hold a second tiebreaker game. Sweden emerged victorious, leading Czechoslovakia to blame a “capitalist plot” for their loss.
Norwegian truck driver Hjalmar Andersen thrilled the hometown crowd by capturing gold in three of the four speed skating events. Norwegians dominated, but did not sweep, the ski jump and Nordic combined events. Norway won the overall medal count with sixteen, including seven gold medals. The United States placed second with eleven medals, followed by Finland’s nine.
The city of Oslo presented a flag, depicting the five Olympic rings, to be displayed at future Winter Olympics. The Oslo flag, as it became known, still travels from city to city today, though a replica is now used in ceremonies.
The Summer Games
The 1952 Summer Olympics were held in Helsinki, Finland from July 19 through August 3. Thirteen countries made their Olympic debut: The Bahamas, Gold Coast, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Netherlands Antilles, Nigeria, Thailand, Saarland (a French protectorate on the border with Germany), Vietnam, the People’s Republic of China, and the Soviet Union. The total number of countries was 69, with a record 4,932 athletes competing.
The debut of the Soviet delegation sparked a new interest in the Olympics, with both the American and Soviet press hyping the matchup of superpowers weeks ahead of the games. Cold War tensions had ratcheted up since the 1948 games. The Soviet Union had tested its first atomic weapon in 1949, numerous espionage scandals had come to light, and Communism was spreading through Asia like wildfire. China was now a Communist nation, and American troops were embroiled in the Korean War. The American athletes reported that they felt additional pressure when facing Soviet opponents, as if more was at stake than just friendly competition.
While Stalin was excited about the propaganda value afforded his nation by the games, he was also concerned about the corruption of the Soviet athletes upon their exposure to western culture. He was right to be worried; a gymnastics coach from the Czechoslovakian team, Maria Provaznikova, had defected to the west during the 1948 Olympics.
The original plan was for the athletes to stay in Leningrad, and fly to Helsinki for competition every morning. The IOC insisted, however, that all athletes must stay in the Olympic Village. The Soviets grudgingly agreed, but their athletes ended up segregated anyway. When Helsinki was first planning the athletes’ lodging arrangements, they were meant to stay at the Otaniemi Polytechnic Institute. As more nations signed up to compete, it became clear that more housing was needed. A new, larger Olympic Village was built to accommodate the growing number of athletes. The Soviets insisted on staying instead at Otaniemi, along with athletes from the Communist East Bloc nations.
Stalin had been confident that the Soviet athletes would dominate the track and field events, but they won only seventeen medals, none of which were gold. Their American rivals took home thirty-one, including nine gold medals. The best Communist runner was actually a Czech, Emil Zatopek, who broke world records in the 5,000 meter, 10,000 meter, and the marathon.
The Soviets really cleaned up in gymnastics, winning twenty-two medals, nine of which were gold. Viktor Chukarin was the most decorated male gymnast, winning four gold medals and two silver. Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya captured a record-breaking seven medals (two gold,five silver), winning a medal in every event of women’s gymnastics. Hungary and Switzerland came in second and third in the gymnastics medal count, with eight and seven medals, respectively, The United States did not medal in any gymnastics events.
The United States wasn’t Stalin’s only rival. Communist Yugoslavia had landed itself on the Stalin’s enemies list after their leader, Marshal Broz Tito, had refused to submit to Stalin’s control during the Greek Civil War. The men’s football (soccer) match between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union served as a small proxy battle between the two states, with both Tito and Stalin sending personal telegrams to their teams ahead of the competition. The matchup was exciting, with the Soviet team coming back from a 5-1 deficit to tie the game at 5-5. A repeat tiebreaker was held, in which Yugoslvia bested the Soviets 3-1. The Soviet team was soon disbanded by Stalin, and their coach, Boris Arkadiev, was stripped of his professional title.
One of the most anticipated events was the final round of men’s basketball, which featured the United States and the Soviet Union. The Americans won the game 36-23, securing the gold.
Legacy
The 1952 Olympics, particularly the Summer Games, were a resounding success, with the highest participation of countries and athletes thus far. They are sometimes remembered fondly as the last Olympic games which were largely devoid of politics and corporate sponsorship, where the spirit of sportsmanship and friendly competition carried the day.
The inclusion of the Soviet Union proved to be a mixed blessing for the future of the Olympics. Matchups between the two superpowers drove up public interest in the games, but the aspiration of a non-political event was nearly impossible with rising global tensions as a backdrop.
The double standard on the part of the IOC concerning the amateur status of athletes left a sour taste in the mouths of those countries who took the rule seriously, in particular their athletes, who often worked full time jobs while training on evenings and weekends. The de facto professionalism of the Soviet athletes, who were free to train full time while being paid by the government, was a thorn in the side of Americans that would fester throughout the Cold War.
Nineteen fifty-two marked a turning point in the history of Olympic sport. For the first time, the medal count became an important metric for sports journalists covering the games, and the country with the most medals was declared the overall winner. Head to head competitions between the United States and the Soviet Union now carried a symbolic weight that hadn’t existed in matches between friendly nations. The competition of later Olympic Games were often overshadowed by defections, doping scandals, and judging conspiracies. These blights were almost all related to the Cold War tensions between east and west, as the two superpowers, and later their allies, used the games as proxy battles in the war for hearts and minds.
