The 1952 Helsinki Games took place from July 19th until August 3rd. Helsinki beat out Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia to get the games. It turned out to be a great decision by the IOC. The games were well-organized. The fans were found to be extremely knowledgable and enthusiastic. There were some at the time who even said that maybe they should give Scandinavia the games permanently.

There would be a record 4879 competitors at the Helsinki Games, 518 were women, another record at the time. 69 nations including the Soviet Union for the first time and Israel made their first appearance. There were 149 events in 17 different sports.

The games were opened by the President of Finland, Juho Kusti Paasikivi. One of the highlights of the entire games was when the great Paavo Nurmi now 55 years old entered the stadium carrying the torch. Nurmi and his fellow Flying Finn Hannes Kolehmainen lit the cauldron.

More world records would be broken during these games than any other up until Beijing in 2008. Some of the highlights of the games. The Soviet Union women gymnasts would begin their dynasty. The won the team completion and would win the team competition in every games they participated in. Bob Mathias repeated as Decathlon champion.

The athletic hero of these games was Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia-the winner of a gold and silver in 1948, in the Helsinki Games he would win gold in the 5000 and 10,000 meters. He would enter the Marathon, a race he had never run before and would win gold in that race, winning by 2 1/2 minutes. Incredible. {below Zatopek in the lead} His wife Dana would win the gold in the javelin.

The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki was built in 1938. It is still in use today. It was renovated in 2005.

The medal count- The United States led the way with 40 gold and 76 total. The USSR in their first games won 22 gold and 71 total. In third place was Hungary with 16 gold and 42 total. Fourth place Sweden had 12 gold and 35 total medals and coming in 5ifth was Italy with 8 gold and 21 total medals.