The sun blazed down on Wembley Stadium in London on Thursday, July 29th, , when the fourteenth games of the modern Olympiad were formally opened by George VI in the presence of a host of dignitaries and a crowd of more than 80, people. The King, in naval uniform, was accompanied by the Queen and Princess Margaret. The members of the International Olympic Committee paraded on the turf in top hats.
The games had attracted some 6, competitors from countries ranging through the alphabet from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia. The Germans and the Japanese were not invited and the Soviet Union stayed away. The Olympics of would have been held in Britain, but had been cancelled because of the Second World War, and there was a certain appropriateness in the fact that the games in London were the successors to the notorious event in Berlin, which had been employed for Nazi propaganda by the German regime.
The competitors marched round the arena, with the smallest teams — one competitor from Malta and two from Singapore — receiving particularly warm applause before the King was formally invited to open the games by Lord Burghley, himself an Olympic gold medallist in the metres hurdles in The trumpeters of the Household Cavalry sounded a fanfare, the Olympic flag was raised, 7, pigeons were released to swoop and flutter around the stadium and a salute of twenty-one guns heralded the arrival in the arena of the Olympic flame.
The bowl was solemnly kindled in front of a hoarding with a famous quotation from Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, in words which had a certain ring to them in the circumstances.
The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. Britain was still in a state of post-war bankruptcy, austerity and exhaustion. Bread rationing, as it happened, ended on the same day that the games began. There had been no question of building an Olympic village and no money to create new stadiums.
Well-worn venues were used for the swimming in the Empire Pool at Wembley, the shooting at Bisley, the yachting at Cowes, the rowing at Henley. The competitors stayed at colleges and barracks in and around London. It was designed to accommodate 66, spectators but could hold as many as , standing on terraces. Over 2, athletes competed in the Games, more than three times the number than had competed at St Louis. A record number of twenty-two nations sent teams and for the first time thirty-seven women were amongst the competitors though Baron Pierre de Coubertin , the French aristocrat who had been the moving spirit behind the revival of the Olympics, was opposed to their participation.
The London Olympics were the first games in which medals were awarded to all winners, some previous winners having received only a diploma. They are the only Olympics in which Great Britain won most medals, with fifty-six golds and medals in total, three times the number won by the second-placed team, that of the United States.
Its inclusion at Paris in had attracted only two teams, the team representing France losing narrowly to Britain. The London Games were not without controversy. At the opening ceremony, performed by Edward VII on July 13th, the team from Finland refused to carry a flag when they were told that they would have to march under the standard of Tsarist Russia. This incident was the precursor of many arguments between the Americans and their British hosts who, by agreement with the International Olympic Committee, provided all the judges and timekeepers.
The disagreements reached a climax in the final of the metres which was contested by three Americans and one Englishman, Wyndham Halswelle. Halswelle was adjudged to have been obstructed by the American J.
Carpenter, who was disqualified. Further controversy followed in the marathon on the final day of competition. In previous Olympics the length of the race had varied slightly, around forty-two kilometres, but in the King requested that the race begin on the lawns of Windsor Castle so that his grandchildren the future Edward VIII and George VI amongst them could see the start of the race.
The runners followed a route through Stoke Poges, Ruislip and Wormwood Scrubs to the finish at White City, a distance of 26 miles yards, which thereafter was the official distance for the marathon. First of the seventy-five competitors to enter the stadium was an Italian confectioner called Dorando Pietri who first ran the wrong way round the track and then collapsed.
He was helped to the finishing line, loudly applauded by the crowd of 90, and disqualified, the gold medal being awarded to the following competitor Johnny Hayes, the youngest member of the US team. In the meantime the Italian flag had been hoisted above the Stars and Stripes, further enraging the Americans. The following day Queen Alexandra presented Pietri with a gold cup as a consolation prize. As a result of such controversies changes were made for future Olympics.
Henceforward judges would be chosen from all competing nations by the International Olympic Committee and a set of rules would be agreed beforehand. The Games ended on 31st October, having lasted over three months, and returned a small profit to the organizers while leaving them with a stadium which continued to be used as a sports venue until when it was demolished to make way for a new home for BBC television.
One legacy of the London Games did not endure.
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