在芬兰赫尔辛基举行的第15届奥运会可说是大面积丰收的一次运动会，以破世界纪录为例，举重有5项，射击有2项，游泳有1项。而田径更是突出：男子全部24个项目有21项打破或平奥运会纪录。应邀参赛的有69个国家和地区的4925名运动员，其中女子518人，男子4407人。

KEY FACTS

Opening date:19 July 1952

Closing date:03 August 1952

The Host City: Helsinki (Finland)

Sports: 17

HELSINKI  1952 Games of the XV Olympiad

The 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki started in spectacular fashion with Pavvo Nurmi, then aged¹ 55, entering the stadium with the Olympic flame and lighting² the cauldron on the ground. Then, young football players carried the torch up to the top of the stadium tower, where another Olympic cauldron was lit by 62-year-old Hannes Kölehmainen.

It seemed appropriate that the most impressive achievements in Helsinki should be those of another long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia, who became the only person in Olympic history to win the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon at the same Olympics. The Soviet³ Union entered the Olympics for the first time.

Although their athletes were housed in a separate "village", warnings that Cold War rivalries⁴ would lead to clashes proved unfounded. Particularly impressive were the Soviet women gymnasts who won the team competition easily, beginning a streak⁵ that would continue for forty years until the Soviet Union broke up into separate republics.

Do You Know? 2个德国的故事

Germany came back under the aegis⁶ of a new National Olympic Committee (NOC), that of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). East German had also created a new NOC but did not send any athletes.

联邦德国在新的国家奥委会的庇佑下重新返回奥运会，而东德也设立了国际奥委会，但并没有派任何选手参赛。

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