In a prelude to the Paris Olympics 2024, Channel 5 showed a fascinating programme about the London Olympics 1948 last night. Being immediately post war when the country was suffering severe after effects, they were known as the Austerity Games. It is a somewhat sad reflection that the wondrous London Olympics 2012 might now be known as the Pre Austerity Games.

In 1948 facilities were converted rather than built. The army offered their convalescent camp in Richmond Park for accommodation.  (A video clip is available on Google.) The 15-acre site near Isabella Plantation took in 1,740 male competitors, despite protests from some locals that resources should be given to bombed-out families ahead of overseas athletes. The site has now been cleared, with only a flight of still visible steps surviving.

GB won only three gold medals. The better fed USA and Swedish competitors cleaned up. But the heroines of the Games were three British women silver medal athletes: Dorothy Manley, Maureen Gardner and Audrey Williamson. Successfully taking the risks to run the Games and demonstrating the importance of the Olympic spirit must have been a massive fillip to the country.

And who knew that Goldfinger’s Oddjob, aka Harold Sakata, won a silver medal for weightlifting. 

24 July 2024