Editing 1952 Summer Olympics (section)

===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}}