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 aged 55, entering the stadium with the Olympic flame and lighting 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 Soviet Union entered the Olympics for the first time.

Although their athletes were housed in a separate "village", warnings that Cold War rivalries would lead to clashes proved unfounded. Particularly impressive were the Soviet women gymnasts who won the team competition easily, beginning a streak 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 aegis 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。

注释：Cauldron: n. 大锅炉
Impressive: adj. 感人的
Rival: n. 竞争者