1952 Oslo, Norway
Olympic Games finally come to Scandinavia
Last Updated: Friday, December 18, 2009 | 3:28 PM ET
CBC Sports
American skier Jack Reddish approaches the finish line in the Men's Downhill competition at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. (FPG/Getty Images)
Norway became the first Scandinavian country to host the Winter Olympics when Oslo welcomed the world in 1952. The Norwegians were the powerhouse in winter sports, leading the medal count in four of the previous five Winter Games, yet Oslo was denied the Games in 1940 and 1944.
With the 1952 Games, Norwegian athletes finally could showcase their supremacy before an enthusiastic hometown crowd, and the country’s passion for winter sports would be on display for the world. Thirty thousand spectators attended the Opening Ceremony, which honoured Norwegian inventors and explorers of wintry climes. For the first time, the Olympic torch reached the Winter Games by a relay. Eighty-nine athletes on skis carried the torch from to Oslo from Morgedal, a town in southern Norway where Sondre Nordheim invented the first operational ski binding.
As a tribute to Fridtjof Nansen, who crossed Greenland on skis in 1888, his grandson Eigil Nansen carried the torch along the stretch into Bislett stadium. Norwegian explorer Olav Bjaaland lit the Olympic flame. Bjaaland and Roald Amundsen were the first explorers to reach the South Pole in 1911.
Nearly 700 athletes from 30 countries participated in Oslo, as Germany and Japan were readmitted to the Games for the first time since the Second World War. The Soviet Union’s hockey application arrived too late for consideration and no other Russian athletes competed in the 1952 Games.
Men's and women's giant slalom and women's 10-kilometre cross-country skiing made their Olympic debuts. Finnish skier Lydia Wideman won gold by almost a full minute ahead of her competitors in the 10km event. At age 31, she was the oldest athlete to compete at the 1952 Games.
Hjallis Andersen
Norwegian speed skater Hjallis Andersen powers his way to victory during the men's 1500m at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway. (STAFF/AFP/Getty Images) It was only fitting that the top performance of these Games would come from a Norwegian. Hjallis Andersen thrilled the hometown crowd by winning three speed-skating gold medals – the most of any Olympian in Oslo. While Anderson breezed through the 5,000 and 10,000m – he won those events by the largest margin in Olympic history – it was Andersen’s performance in the 1,500m that surprised and impressed even his most ardent supporters. Andersen wasn’t expected to contend in the event but beat Dutch skater Willem van der Voort by two-tenths of a second.
During his spectacular career, Andersen set five world records and won three world championships. The 10,000m world record he set in 1949 (16:57.4) was the first official time under 17 minutes for that distance. He would hold on to that record for eight years.
New heights were reached in the well-established sports. American figure skater Dick Button successfully defended his 1948 gold medal, becoming the first figure skater to perform a triple-loop jump in competition. Button received first-place marks from all nine judges.
The ski jump event drew an unprecedented number of spectators, who took advantage of the site afforded by permanent spectator stands and referee boxes built around Mount Holmenkollen. Approximately 150,000 people witnessed Norwegians Arnfinn Bergmann and Torbjoern Falkanger win gold and silver, respectively.
No Olympics would be complete without controversy. The Germans managed to grab headlines with their shrewd team shuffling in the bobsleigh. In 1952 there was no limit on an athlete’s weight in the bobsleigh, so two German teams were rejigged to make one super-heavyweight team. Teams of the other countries were composed of considerably heavier athletes than the original German bobsleigh teams but after observing the other teams in training, the Germans put their heaviest athletes together to form one team. In competition, Andreas Ostler, Friedrich Kuhn, Lorenz Nieberl and Franz Kemser combined to weigh nearly 500 kilograms and easily claimed the gold. Following the Olympics, the International Bobsleigh Association introduced weight limits for competition.
Norway again led the medal standings with 16, well ahead of the 11 won by the Americans. Canada finished seventh, with its two medals.
Canada's performance
The Edmonton Mercurys hockey team represented Canada in Oslo. The team won its first seven games before facing the Americans in the gold-medal game. The final wound up deadlocked at 3-3, but the Canadians were declared champions on the strength of their tournament record. The victory gave Canada its sixth Olympic gold in seven attempts. (While the Winter Games formally began in 1924, hockey was included in the 1920 Summer Olympics).
Canada's other medal came from an unlikely, but inspiring athlete. Gordon Audley, a Winnipeg railway worker, trained on an ice-covered gravel pit along the Red River. The 23-year-old athlete won a speed-skating bronze in the 500m race, tying Norway's Arne Johanson.
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Norway | 7 | 3 | 6 | 16 |
| 2. USA | 4 | 6 | 1 | 11 |
| 3. Finland | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| 4. Austria | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 5. Germany | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 8. Canada | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
