Editing 1952 Summer Olympics (section)

==Background and preparation of the Games==
===Host city selection===
[[File:Souvenir cloth of OL 1940 at Sporvejsmuseet.jpg|thumb|A rare souvenir cloth of the cancelled 1940 Summer Olympics in Helsinki at Sporvejsmuseet Skjoldenæsholm in Denmark. The small picture shows some of the Copenhagen tram trailers which was exported to Helsinki due to the Olympics before it was cancelled]]

Inspired by the success of the Swedish [[1912 Summer Olympics|1912 Olympics]], Finnish sports fans began to arouse the idea of their own Olympic Games: for example, [[Erik von Frenckell]] publicly presented his dreams of the Finnish Olympic Games at the opening of the 1915 [[Töölön Pallokenttä]].<ref>{{cite web | url= http://itsenaisyys100.fi/suursota-esti-suomalaisten-odottaman-helsingin-olympiaisannyyden-1940/ |title = Suursota esti suomalaisten odottaman Helsingin olympiaisännyyden 1940 | trans-title = The Great War prevented the Helsinki Olympics 1940 |work= Suomifinland100.fi |publisher = Helsinki Finnish Club |access-date= 2017-07-16 |language=Finnish}}</ref>

As the Olympic success continued in the 1920s, enthusiasm for one's own Olympics grew, and after the [[1920 Summer Olympics|1920 Antwerp Olympics]], Finnish sports leaders began planning to build a stadium in Helsinki in 1920. Finland's main sports organizations and the City of Helsinki founded the Stadion Foundation in 1927 to get the stadium to Helsinki. In the same year, [[Ernst Edvard Krogius]], who represented Finland on the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC), announced Finland's willingness to host the competition.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=13}}

In 1930, preparations for the 1936 Games, which was accelerated by the launch of a design project for the [[Helsinki Olympic Stadium|Olympic Stadium]]. However, Helsinki was not a candidate in the first round in 1931,<ref name = "IOC vote history">{{cite web |url=http://www.aldaver.com/votes.html |title=International Olympic Committee Vote History |date=9 September 2013 |access-date=24 February 2015 |archive-date=May 25, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080525070757/http://www.aldaver.com/votes.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref> and [[Berlin]] won the competition, but Helsinki immediately registered as a candidate for the 1940 Games.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=13}} Those games were awarded to [[Tokyo]] in 1936, and two years later with the outbreak of the [[Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)|Sino-Japanese War]] Japan announced they were giving up the 1940 games, and four days later the IOC offered the Games to Helsinki, which agreed to take over, although there was little time left to prepare for the Games.<ref name = "dream">{{cite web | url= http://www.mrl.edu.hel.fi/eu/megaevents/haaveolympia.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080325112118/http://www.mrl.edu.hel.fi/eu/megaevents/haaveolympia.html | url-status= dead | archive-date= 2008-03-25 |title = SUOMEN HAAVE OLYMPIAISÄNNYYDESTÄ JA SEN TOTEUTUMINEN | trans-title = Finland 's dream of hosting an Olympics and its realization |publisher = City of Helsinki |access-date = 2018-10-22 |language=Finnish}}</ref>

World War II broke out on 1 September 1939, with the [[Nazi Germany|German]]–[[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[invasion of Poland]], which also drew [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and [[France]] to war. Despite the aggression, the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games continued to be optimistic about the preparations for the Games. However, the [[Winter War|Soviet invasion of Finland]] on 30 November 1939, halted planning for the games. After the Winter War, the Organizing Committee decided to abandon the Games on 20 March 1940 due to the hostilities across Europe, the suspension of preparations caused by the Winter War, and the deplorable economic situation. At the meeting of the [[Finnish Olympic Committee]] on 20 April 1940, the Olympic Games in Finland were officially canceled. In the meantime, World War II had already expanded, with Germany [[Operation Weserübung|occupying Denmark and fighting in Norway]].<ref name = "dream" /> Instead of the Olympic Games, Finland held a {{ill|Memorial Competitions for Fallen Athletes|fi|Kaatuneiden urheilijoiden muistokilpailut}} who died in the Winter War against Russia, at the opening of which actor [[Eino Kaipainen]] recited the poem ''Silent Winners'' written by {{interlanguage link|Yrjö Jylhä|fi}}. The memorial competitions were held on the initiative of the sports journalist {{ill|Sulo Kolkka|fi}}.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://seura.fi/asiat/historia/sotahistoria/talvisota-ja-olympiakisat/ | title = Winter War and Olympic Games |author1 = Antero Raevuori | work= Seura.fi | date = 2013-04-24 |publisher = Otavamedia |access-date= 2017-07-15|language=Finnish}}</ref>

At the end of World War II, [[London]] was awarded the [[1948 Summer Olympics]] after the city was originally granted the 1944 Games, which were canceled due to the war. Helsinki continued its attempt to have the Games organized and registered as candidates for the 1952 Games. At the IOC Congress in Stockholm on 21 June 1947, Helsinki was chosen as the host city, leaving behind the bids of [[Amsterdam]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Minneapolis]], [[Detroit]], [[Chicago]] and [[Philadelphia]].{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=20}} Helsinki's strengths included the fairly completed venues built for the 1940 Games.

=== Bidding results ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ 1952 Summer Olympics bidding results<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gamesbids.com/eng/past-bid-results/ |title=Past Olympic Host City Election Results |date=14 December 2013 |publisher=Games Bids |access-date=16 September 2015}}</ref>
|-
! rowspan=2 | City
! rowspan=2 | Country
! colspan=2 style="background:silver;"| Round
|-
! style="background:silver;"| 1
! style="background:silver;"| 2
|-
||[[Helsinki]] || {{flag|Finland}}
| style="text-align:center;"|'''14'''|| style="text-align:center;"|'''15'''
|-
|| [[Minneapolis]] || rowspan="2" | {{flag|United States|1912}}
| style="text-align:center;"|4 || style="text-align:center;"|5
|-
|| [[Los Angeles]] 
| style="text-align:center;"|4 || style="text-align:center;"|5
|-
|| [[Amsterdam]] || {{flag|Netherlands}}
| style="text-align:center;"|3 || style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|| [[Detroit]] || rowspan="3" | {{flag|United States|1912}}
| style="text-align:center;"|2 || style="text-align:center;"|—
|-
|| [[Chicago]] 
| style="text-align:center;"|1 || style="text-align:center;"|—
|- 
|| [[Philadelphia]] 
| style="text-align:center;"|0 || style="text-align:center;"|—
|}

===Organizing Committee===
After confirmation that Helsinki would host the Games, the "XV Olympia Helsinki 1952" was established as the organizing committee of the Games on 8 September 1947. Its members were the Finnish Olympic Committee, the Finnish State, the City of Helsinki and 26 various sports organizations. The mayor of Helsinki [[Erik von Frenckell]] was elected chairman of the committee, who at the time also chaired [[Finnish Football Association]]. {{ill|Akseli Kaskela|fi}}, {{ill|Olavi Suvanto|fi}} and [[Armas-Eino Martola]] were elected Vice-Chairs.<ref name = "Nygren">{{cite book |editor1-last= Nygrén |editor1-first=Helge |editor2-last=Siukonen |editor2-first=Markku |title =Suuri Olympiateos |trans-title=Great Olympic Work |pages = 268–269 | year = 1978 |location = Jyväskylä |publisher = |isbn=951-9466-05-3 |language=Finnish}}</ref> Among them, Kaskela and Suvanto were elected on political grounds as representatives of the bourgeois {{ill|Finnish Sports Federation|fi|Suomen Valtakunnan Urheiluliitto}} (SVUL) and the leftist [[Finnish Workers' Sports Federation]] (TUL), Martola, on the other hand, got a former officer to lead the organization of the practical arrangements.<ref>{{cite book | editor1-last=Findling |editor1-first=John E. |editor2-last=Pelle |editor2-first=Kimberly |title = Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement | page = 117 |year = 2004| location = Westport, Connecticut |publisher = Greenwood Press |isbn= 978-031-33227-8-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo0000unse_u3e3 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Other members of the Organizing Committee were {{ill|Yrjö Enne|fi}}, {{ill|Väinö A. M. Karikoski|fi}}, [[Urho Kekkonen]], [[Ernst Krogius]], [[William Lehtinen]], {{ill|Aarne K. Leskinen|fi}}, [[Eino Pekkala]], [[Väinö Salovaara]] and [[Erik Åström]]. In 1948–1949, Karikoski, Kekkonen, Krogius and Lehtinen resigned from the committee, and {{ill|Lauri Miettinen|fi}}, {{ill|Arno Tuurna|fi}} and [[Yrjö Valkama]] were elected to replace them. In the spring of 1952, Ente was replaced by {{ill|Arvi E. Heiskanen|fi}} and as completely new members by [[Mauno Pekkala]] and [[Aaro Tynell]].<ref name = "Nygren" />

Erik von Frenckell was the chairman of the organizing committee and the other members were Armas-Eino Martola (competition director), Yrjö Valkama (sports director), Olavi Suvanto (maintenance director), Akseli Kaskela, Aarne K. Leskinen and {{ill|Niilo Koskinen|fi|Niilo Koskinen (jalkapalloilija)}}. In addition, the head of the central office {{ill|Kallio Kotkas|fi}} and the head of information {{ill|Eero Petäjäniemi|fi}} were involved in the competition organization.<ref name = Nygren />

===Political situation===
The international political atmosphere was tense when the Helsinki Olympics were held. When the IOC held its meeting in [[Vienna]] in 1951, many difficult topics were on the agenda. The [[Cold War]] was under way, and the situation between [[Israel]] and [[Arab world|Arab countries]], [[Allied-occupied Germany|divided Germany]] had to be addressed as a team, and the [[Chinese Civil War]], with the [[Chinese Communist Party]] winning, forming the [[People's Republic of China]] and the [[Republic of China]] government exiled to [[Taiwan]].{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=59}}

Four years earlier, [[Japan]] was not invited to the London Olympics from the losing states of the Second World War. The [[Olympic Committee of Israel]] had not yet been recognized, and a successor to the [[German Olympic Committee]], which had been dissolved during World War II, had not yet been established, but all these countries already participated in the Helsinki Games, as did [[Saarland]].{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=61}}

The Cold War affected the participation of both the United States and the Soviet Union in the Games. The participation of the United States in the Games was decided only after the country had received an assessment of the political situation in Finland from its embassy in Helsinki. The Soviet Union was accepted as a member of the IOC in May 1951, and in December of the same year the country accepted the invitation to the competition, as the country's athletes were in medal condition.{{sfn|Raevuori|2002|p=17}} Although the Soviet leadership had previously considered the Games a bourgeois event, the Helsinki Games held [[propaganda]] value.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~bm35/coldwarolympics.doc | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100107110403/http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~bm35/coldwarolympics.doc | url-status =dead | archive-date =2010-01-07 | title = How the Cold War Affected the Olympic Movement | last1= Margol |first1=Brenna | publisher = Drexel University}}</ref> In the Soviet Union, billions of rubles were spent on coaching athletes in just one year.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816644,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101125202603/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816644,00.html | url-status = dead | title = Sport: The Games Begin | publisher = Time | date=July 28, 1952 | archive-date=November 25, 2010 }}</ref> The Soviet Union planned to fly its athletes every day between [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] and Helsinki. Another option was for Soviet athletes to stay in the Soviet [[Porkkala Naval Base|Porkkalanniemi]] garrison. However, Finland required that all competitors stay in the [[Olympic village]]. As a compromise solution for the [[Eastern Bloc]] athletes, a second Olympic village was established in [[Espoo]], [[Otaniemi]].{{sfn|Raevuori|2002|p=94}} [[Joseph Stalin]] allowed Soviet athletes to enter the 1952 Summer Olympics because he was sure that they would win the most medals. However, American athletes secured more gold and total medals and Stalin afforded more resources for the advancement of elite athletes in the Soviet Union in the build-up to the [[1956 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite book|author1 = Toby C. Rider |title = Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy |publisher = University of Illinois Press |date = 2016 |page = 84 |isbn = 9780252098451}}</ref>

The 1952 Games were also threatened with cancellation due to the deteriorating world situation. The [[Korean War]] had begun in 1950, which also caused concern in the organizing committee. At Von Frenckell's suggestion, the organizing committee decided to take out [[Lloyd's of London]] war insurance.{{sfn|Raevuori|2002|p=20}}

===Construction work===
[[File:Tower of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.jpg|thumbnail | right | [[Helsinki Olympic Stadium|Olympic Stadium Tower]]]]
Most of the venues for the competitions were completed prior to the 1940s in anticipation of successful bid attempts, but some expansion and refurbishment work was needed, including the construction of additional stands at the Olympic and Swimming Stadium.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=24}} A residential area, Kisakylä (Olympic Village) was built south of [[Käpylä]]'s Koskelantie to accommodate competitors. The area, which was built close to the 1940 Olympics, was already the residence of the people of Helsinki at that time.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=26}} Just below the opening, the competition area was completed for the use of visitors [[Kumpula Outdoor Swimming Pool]]. Female athletes got their own race village from the Nursing College in Meilahti.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=28}} The athletes of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc stayed in the Teekkarikylä in Otaniemi.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=26}} The Finnish team lived on the premises of the [[Santahamina]] Army School (later the Cadet School, now the [[National Defence University (Finland)|National Defence University]]).{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=30}}

The City of Helsinki prepared for the Olympics by building a new airport in [[Seutula]] (now [[Helsinki-Vantaan lentoasema]]),{{Sfn|Wickström|2002|p=34}} 11-story Hotelli Palace,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-12-13 |title=Hotelli Palace oli Helsingin moderni majapaikka |url=http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2011/12/13/hotelli-palace-oli-helsingin-moderni-majapaikka |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=yle.fi |language=fi-FI}}</ref> and the Olympic Pier in [[South Harbour, Helsinki|South Harbor]].{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=35}} A large electric scoreboard was procured. It attracted international attention because it represented the top of its time in the scoreboard field both in terms of its system and its technology.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-09-08 |title=Stadionin vanha tulostaulu |url=http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2006/09/08/stadionin-vanha-tulostaulu |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=yle.fi |language=fi-FI}}</ref> OMEGA debuted the OMEGA Time Recorder in Helsinki. This all-new quartz clock not only timed the events but also printed out the results. This breakthrough technology allowed official Olympic times to be accurate to 1/100 of a second. As a result, the company received the prestigious Croix du Mérite Olympique award for their efforts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Crown & Caliber |date=2016-08-05 |title=The History of OMEGA's Olympic Timer Technology |url=https://blog.crownandcaliber.com/omega-olympics-technology/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Crown & Caliber Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1950 cable television was tried for the first time in Finland, in the 1952 Olympics people could watch TV sending from the stadium through [[coaxial cable]] to Stockmann department store window.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-01-11 |title=Ylen vuosikymmenet |url=http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/ylen-vuosikymmenet |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=yle.fi |language=fi-FI}}</ref>

Helsinki paved tens of kilometers of roads, and a myriad of houses were painted. The city's first traffic lights were installed at the intersection of [[Aleksanterinkatu]] and [[Mikonkatu]] in October 1951.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=36}} The [[Palace Hotel, Helsinki|Palace Hotel]] and {{ill|Hotel Vaakuna|fi|Hotelli Vaakuna|lt=Vaakuna Hotel}} among others, were completed for the needs of the guests. However, due to the relatively low number of hotels in the city, tent villages were built for tourists in [[Lauttasaari]] and [[Seurasaari]], among others.{{sfn|Wickström|2002|p=32}} However, the preparations for accommodation turned out to be considerably oversized; at its best, the occupancy rate of the 6,000-seat tent village in Lauttasaari had an occupancy of only 8 per cent. With the support of the Olympia 1952 committee, Finland's first mini golf courses were completed to entertain guests.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://sibeliuspuistonminigolf.fi/historia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130329205238/http://sibeliuspuistonminigolf.fi/historia |archive-date=2013-03-29 | title = Sibelius Park Mini Golf: History |author = Sibelius Park Mini Golf |access-date=2012-01-29 | language =Finnish|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Anthem===
The International Olympic Committee had declared in 1950 that it did not have an official Olympic anthem, but that the organizers could decide their own anthems. An anthem competition was held in Finland. In the spring of 1951, a poetry competition was announced, which was surprisingly won by an unknown teacher candidate, Niilo Partanen. Second and third came the well-known poets {{ill|Toivo Lyy|fi}} and [[Heikki Asunta]]. These winning poems were allowed to be used in the composition competition. The selection of the 51 compositions by a jury chaired by {{ill|Jouko Tolonen|fi}} was also a surprise. When the winner was announced on 17 March 1952, an unknown teacher {{ill|Jaakko Linjama|fi}} was revealed behind the nickname, who had used Lyy's lyrics in his Olympic Hymn.<ref name = "fanfare and anthem">{{cite web | url = http://yle.fi/teema/sininenlaulu/artikkeli.php?id=268 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050215115032/http://yle.fi/teema/sininenlaulu/artikkeli.php?id=268 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2005-02-15 |title=Olympiafanfaari ja -hymni | trans-title = Olympic Fanfare and Anthem | author = Koskinen, Juha T. | publisher = Yle Theme | access-date =2018-10-22 |language=finnish}}</ref>

The nicknames of the other contestants were not opened. This caused a stir, and {{ill|Arijoutsi|fi}}, among others, doubted that the victory of the unknown would go to the honor of well-known composers. There were well-known members in the competition. The voters had identified the composing style of [[Uuno Klami]] and [[Aarre Merikanto]], among others. The only Finnish composer who congratulated Linjamaa was [[Jean Sibelius]], who did not take part in the anthem.<ref name = "fanfare and anthem" />