London basked in a heatwave in the summer of but, as films such as the Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico showed, it still bore the physical scars of the blitz. Labour's priorities were to find jobs for the millions of demobilised servicemen, convert factories back to peacetime use, rebuild Britain's shattered infrastructure and find the resources for the welfare state.
Even so, other European countries were in worse state than Britain, and London agreed to host the first Games since Hitler's carefully orchestrated Berlin Olympics 12 years earlier. The event was short on bombast, the finale to the opening ceremony being the release of thousands of pigeons above north London. Only a strings-attached loan from Washington had rescued Britain from an economic Dunkirk after the fighting stopped in Not only was there no new Olympic stadium, there was no new velodrome, aquatics centre or handball arena either.
Nor was there a purpose-built Olympic village: male athletes were billeted in RAF camps in Uxbridge, West Drayton and Richmond; female athletes were housed in London colleges. The organisers laid on bedding but asked contestants to bring their own towels. The frugality was harsh but deemed necessary by Sir Stafford Cripps, who set the benchmark for all subsequent austerity chancellors.
Cripps, who would rise before dawn and take a cold bath to prepare himself for the rigours of the day ahead, encapsulated the spirit of the age and presided over an economy where rationing was even tougher than it had been during the war.
A concession to the UK team was that their rations were increased to those of a heavy industrial worker while the Games were on. The previous year had begun with one of the coldest winters of the century, with power cuts to industry and a big loss of exports. However, only those fortunate enough to afford a television and live within a mile radius of the only transmission station at Alexandra Palace in North London could actually enjoy the spectacle.
Nonetheless, this new medium helped to promote the Games in a way never seen before by the British public, as the spirit of the event captured the nation. Germany and Japan were not invited to participate due to their roles as aggressors in WWII and whilst the Soviet Union was invited, they declined to send any athletes to compete.
Otherwise known as the The Flying Housewife, the year-old mother of three, whom many believed was too old to compete, took home four gold medals in the m and m, 80m high hurdles and the 4xm relay. Another record breaker was American, Bob Mathias who became the youngest gold medalist to win a track and field event at the tender age of The British pair of Dickie Burnell and Bert Bushnell defied all odds to take gold in the men's double skull, having been thrown together just a month before.
This was the last Olympic gold for rowing Britain was to win until Steve Redgrave and his teammates won in the coxless four 36 years later. As the Games of the XIV Olympiad came to a close, Britain finished with a total of 20 medals, 3 of which were gold and good enough for a final position of 12th.
The US walked away in pole position as their medal haul reached 84, including 34 gold medals. In London, , Alice Coachman became the first African American woman in the history of the modern Olympics to win a gold medal in track and field.
The footage is taken from a BBC documentary. With thanks to John Craven. Throughout the London Olympic Games, news of the day's events were summarised in specially prepared Olympic Newsreels. He also broke the Olympic record in the 5, metres, even though he was narrowly beaten into second place by the Belgian, Gaston Reiff. She won both the and metres sprints and in a photo-finish the 80 metres hurdles, too, as well as helping Holland to victory in the 4x metres relay.
No woman athlete had ever won three events before, and she had not even been entered for the long jump, although she held the world record. Despite the prevailing austerity, the games were generally rated a success and ended on August 14th. Four Czechs and a number of other competitors from Eastern Europe decided not to return home.
Months Past. Richard Cavendish remembers the opening of the 'Austerity Olympics', July 29th,
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