Moments of Melbourne, Part 11 - Tuesday, December 4th, 1956

Of the145 gold medal winners at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games, Anatoli Bogdanov was probably the most mysterious. This was not due to his sporting achievements - in fact, on December 4th, the Russian defended his title in the most prestigious and difficult shooting competition, the three prone competition with the short calibre rifle. The aura of suspense surrounded his early life, which lies in the dark (picture: Backyard Safari).

Officially, Bogdanov was born on January 1st, 1932, which is probably wrong. In 1935, a few old women found a three year old boy in a train waggon between Gatchina and Leningrad, together with a sheet of paper with his name and date of birth. It was the time shortly after the great hunger wave in the USSR. The women brought Anatoli to the infant collection base on Leningrad's Kirov Prospect. From there, he came to a Leningrad orphanage.

Unlike many other successful shooters, Bogdanov did not learn his sport at the military. He took part in World War II as a teenage ship clerk with the Baltic Navy, but did not come into contact with sports weapons until 1947, when he attended a technical high school in Leningrad and had lots of time to train.

Bogdanov's win at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics at an age of merely 20 years - defeating Switzerland's Robert Buerchler and fellow Russian Lev Vainshtein - was a sensation. Additionally, Bogdanov scored an Olympic record of 1123 points. When he came to Melbourne, he was the favourite for the gold and delivered with 1138 points, outscoring his countryman Allan Erdmann by a single point (picture: Backyard Safari).

Although Bogdanov called it a career as early as 1958 in order to start studying philosophy, he remained well present in the scene. He published a lot of articles and books about shooting technique and training methods, even in western papers. "The basis for good results is permanent and systematic training," Bogdavon wrote in the German paper Sport und Technik in 1954. On the following four pages, he detailled what he meant by this.

As obscure as his childhood were the last years of Bogdanov's life. He was an instructor at the military high school in Moscow, but after that, it was said he tried to make some money as a night clerk. He died in 2001.

News of the day: Australia's swimmer Murray Rose wins his first gold in the 400 meters freestly +++ Vitali Romanenko of the USSR is best in the running deer shooting competition +++ The first cycling gold of the Games goes to Italy in the 4000 meters team pursuit.

Moments of Melbourne, Part 10 - Monday, December 3rd, 1956

Long before Greg Louganis became the most famous diver of all time, a young woman from California had achieved the very accomplishment as the legend. When she came to Melbourne, Patricia McCormick (26) had already cashed in two gold medals at the 1952 Helsinki Games (see film below). On December 3rd, 1956, she started her attempt to repeat the double - which she finally did successfully (picture: Team USA).

Already as a child, McCormick (called "Patsy Pest" by friends) was a daredevil of a diver, trying jumps considered to risky even for men and not allowed in female competitions. The Seal Beach, California native liked to show off her skills from Los Alamitos Bridge in Long Beach. "We loved to jump just before the boat passed under the bridge and we’d just splash them," she remembered.

Still, Olympic success did not come easily for McCormick. She missed the 1948 London Games by a margin of two points at the trials, which made her work even harder. In Helsinki, she was by far the best diver in the world and won both the springboard and the platform event. Back home in the States, the golden girl earned additional notoriety for putting the underwear of U,S, Olympic Comittee president Avery Brundage up on a flag pole.

Four years later (and five months after the birth of her first son), she again won relatively easy from the three meters springboard. But in the platform final, McCormick was only in fourth position with one dive to go. Climbing up the ten meters tower for her final dive, she remembered a friend's advice: "You can live a lifetime in a moment." Moments later, McCormick nailed a perfect one and a half summersault with a full twist that earned her her fourth Olympic gold (picture: China Daily).

Melbourne made the perfect glamour girl of Pat: She later worked as a model for California swimsuits, appeared on the CBS TV show "To Tell the Truth", had her own talent search foundation "Pat's Champs" and served on the organizing comittee for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. It was at these Games that Louganis's star began to shine - and that of another McCormick: Pat's daughter Kelly won a silver in springboard diving.

Patricia McCormick, who in 1965 became one of the first members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, still lives under the California sun.

News of the day: Australia's swimmers win the 4 x 200 meters freestyle relay ahead of the USA +++ Once again, the fencers from Hungary grab the gold in the men's sabre team event.

Moments of Melbourne, Part 9 - Saturday, December 1st, 1956

Whenever Hungarian athletes competed at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, it was a highly emotional affair. The bloody ending to the revolution in their home country, caused by the invasion of Soviet tanks, earned them sympathy around the world and also in Down Under. For the Hungarian athletes in Australia, the main topic (besides competition) was the question whether to go home after the end of the Games or to emigrate to the west.

One of the most famous athletes who would finally go home again, was legendary Laszlo Papp. He made history on December 1st by becoming the first boxer to win gold at three consecutive Olympics (picture: Sportschau).

Many Hungarian team mates gathered around the ring when Papp took on American future world champion Jose Torres for his light middleweight gold medal bout - and the 30 year old veteran did not disappoint them. Although Torres gave him a hard time (picture:ORF), Papp kept his unbeaten record thanks to a split 2-1 decision by the judges. Papp had dominated this weight class four years ealier in Helsinki - after he had become middleweight champion at the first post-war Games in 1948 at London

Boxing had not been on Papp's mind all his life. As a little boy, he tried many different sports. When he took up boxing, some experts thought his hands were too small and fragile. With superb technique and strategy, Papp proved all skeptics wrong, winning not only three Olympic gold medals, but also two European championships.

The re-established communist regime of Janos Kadar rewarded Papp's return to Budapest with the allowance to become a professional. "I fight for money, but I am not greedy. How many steaks can one man eat?", he remarked ironically.  In 27 professional bouts, Papp - who lived in Vienna and got an Austrian boxing license - remained unbeaten and became European middleweight champion. But when he had a chance to box for the world championship in the Unted States, promotors did not want a "communist champion". The government's allowance was subsequently withdrawn.

Papp retired and became a renowned coach of many young Hungarian boxing hopfuls. He died in 2003. Some of the team mates who watched his final amateur bout in Melbourne on December 1st, 1956, Laszlo Papp has never met again (picture: Boxrec).

News of the day: Bantam weight boxer Wolfgang Behrendt from Berlin wins the first ever Olympic title for the German Democratic Republic (as a member of the unified German team) +++ Further Boxing gold medals go to the USSR (three), the USA and Great Britain (two each) and Romania +++ In freestyle wrestling, Turkey and Iran both grab two golds +++ On the last day of athletics, France's Alain Mimoun wins the marathon, defeating his life-long nemesis Emil Zatopek (Czechoslovakia/sixth place) +++ The USA wins both men's relays, Australia the women's sprint relay +++ Ireland's Ron Delaney surprisingly prevails in the men's 1500 meters, while Mildred McDaniel (USA) wins the women's high jump +++ Led by future NBA star Bill Russel, the US team grabs another basketball crown +++ In shooting, Wassili Borissov (USSR) wins the free rifle competition and Italy's Galliano Rossini the litter pigeons +++ Swimmer Bill Yorzik (USA) becomes the 200 meters butterfly champion, while Australia's Dawn Fraser is fastest in the women's 100 meters freestyle +++ Bob Clotworthy wins another springboard diving gold for the USA +++ In canoeing's 1000 meters finals, the gold medals are won by Romania (two), Sweden and Germany, Russia's Jelisaveta Dementijeva wins the women's 500 meters K1.

Notice: On December 2nd, 1956, no competitions were held due to Sunday sports restrictions. Our next post comes to you on December 3rd.

Moments of Melbourne, Part 8 - Friday, November 30th, 1956

A Harvard analyst named Gert Fredriksson the second most dominant Olympian of all time, second only to American jumper Ray C. Ewry, but still ahead of Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps. The Swedish flatwater canoe racer won six of eight Olympic finals in his long career and added one silver and one bronze medal each. From 1948 to 1960, Fedriksson (picture: Sportschau) became a legend on the water. When he won the K1 10,000 meters on Lake Wendouree on November 30th, 1956, it happened nine days after his 37th birthday.

Had it not been for Fredriksson's endurance and discipline, maybe World War II would have prevented him from winning any Olympic gold, like it did to his famous compatriot, runner Gunder Haegg. The fire fighter from Nykoeping had started canoeing in 1937 and was at world class level in the 1940s, losing only one race between 1943 and 1948. When the 1948 London Olympics came around, he was already 29 years old. His triumph in the K1 10,000 meters race on the River Thames came at a margin of 30.5 seconds - the largest ever in an Olympic final.

Fredriksson contined to dominate this way at Helsinki in 1952, Melbourne, and Rome in 1960. In Down Under, his preparation had been hampered by injuries, but he still won both the 10,000 and the 1000 meters. In the former event, he outraced Hungary's Ferenc Hatlaczki by almost ten seconds. His opponent was 15 years younger than Fredriksson.

The super athlete collected honours as well as medals. In 1956, he became one of only 15 athletes to be awarded the Mohammed Taher Trophy by the International Olympic Comittee. In 1949, he had already cashed in the "Svenska Dagbladet gold medal". Fredriksson died in the summer of 2006 after a long battle with cancer in his hometown of Nykoeping, which had honoured him with a statue during his lifetime (picture: 4-bp-blogspot).

News of the day: The other 10,000 meters finals in canoeing are won by the USSR, Hungary, and Romania +++ In track and field, Betty Cuthbert from Australia wins her second gold in the 200 meters, while Soviet shot putter Tamara Tyshkevitsh also earns highest honours +++ Milton Campbell (USA) becomes "king of athletes" by winning the decathlon +++ Pentti Linnosvuo from Finland wins the first shooting gold of Melbourne with the free pistol +++ In fencing, the individual epee contest is won by Italy's Carlo Pavesi +++ Swimming kicks off with two medal decisions: Australian John Henricks wins the men's 100 meters freestyle, Germany's Ursula Happe the women's 200 meters breaststroke.

Moments of Melbourne, Part 6 - Wednesday, November 28th, 1956

Almost nobody noticed, but Olympic history was made on this cloudy Wednesday, November 28th, 1956, at Oaklands Hunt Club in the north of Melbourne. When Lars Hall crossed the finish line of the cross-country run, the last part of the modern pentathlon, the carpenter from Karlskrona had achieved something nobody had done before him. He had defended the Olympic crown in the most versatile sport imaginable (picture: Getty).

Hall had taken up the complicated modern pentathlon in 1947 while he was at service in the Swedish navy. He was a good rider, swimmer, and an excellent fencer, but ironically had his problems at shooting. In 1950 and 1951, Hall became world champion and was one of the favourites for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In Finland, he won the gold mainly because he was the best in equestrian and swimming. As he had left the navy before, he was the first pentathlete to win the title without being an officer or in the military at all.

Four years later on the outskirts of Melbourne, many things had changed. First and foremost, in 1954 a new points system had been established, which replaced the old formula where the rankings of each event were added up. What had not changed, was Halls supremacy. The title holder, now 29 years old, started of with a fine fourth place in riding, had his usual problems with the pistol, shooting only 181 out of 200 points possible, but followed suit with a personal best in swimming. After a hell of a cross-country run, Hall had collected 4883 points, edging out the Finns Olavi Mannonen and Vaino Korhonen for his second gold (picture: China Daily).

For his achievement, Hall was awarded the "Svenska Dagbladet gold medal" for 1956, together with cross-country skier Sixten Jernberg - a kind of Sportsman of the Year award and an honour normally reserved for Sweden's winter sports heroes. Hall died in 1991 in Taeby (picture: Collnect).

News of the day: In athletics, Vladimir Kuts of the USSR wins his second gold in the 5000 meters. His countryman Leonid Spirine is the fastest race walker in the 20 km event. +++ American Lee Calhoun prevails in the 110 meters hurdles, while his US teammate Parry O'Brien defends his title in the shot put. +++ Also an encore after gold in Helsinki in 1952: Australia's Shirley Strickland de la Hunty grabs the 80 meters hurdles gold. +++ Best female javelin thrower is Inese Jaunzeme from the USSR. +++ Italy's fencers win the men's epee team competition.

Moments of Melbourne, Part 5 - Tuesday, November 27th, 1956

Long before Pertti Karppinen and Mahe Drysdale, there was another dominator of the single sculls rowing scene. He came from Moscow and started his unprecedented career on November 27th, 1956, on the picturesque Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, 100 kilometers to the west of Melbourne. On this day, Vyacheslav Ivanov (picture: Wikipedia) won the first of his three consecutive Olympic gold medals.

In the summer before the Games, at the age of merely 18 years, Ivanov had one the Soviet trials and edged 1952 Olympic champion Yuri Tjukalov for the berth at the Olympic regatta. As Karppinen in the 1970s and 1980s, Ivanovs best weapon was his devastating finishing sprint.

So the final in Melbourne developed in the same way as many Ivanov races later: He trailed by the 1500 meters mark as dead last of the four finalusts, but then he catched one after the other: first Poland's Teodor Kocerka, then Grace Kelly's brother and American Olympic rowing legend John B. Kelly jr, whose father had won the event in 1920. And finally Australian Stuart Mackenzie, who went on to win the Diamond Sculls at Henley six times (picture: 3ba). With only 100 meters to go, Mackenzie suddenly stopped in the wrong assumption the race was over - and Ivanov powered by him.

Ivanov made this tactics his trademark strategy, and it paid off two more times, in the Olympic finals at the 1960 Rome and the 1964 Tokyo games. At both occasions, East German Achim Hill fell victim to Ivanov's sprint - like West Germany's Peter-Michael Kolbe later fell to Karppinen twice, in 1976 and 1984.

Ivanov, who later worked as a navy officer, was so overcome with joy and excitement, that he threw his freshly gained medal into the air and it flipped into Lake Wendouree. The IOC gave him a replacement.

The three time Olympic single sculls champion was a sports multi-talent: Ivanov also excelled in nordic skiing, wrestling, boxing, football, and volleyball. He was a heavy smoker his whole life and had a simple explanation for it: His grandfather had done so and died at age 106. Ivanov is now 78 years old, so he has still a long way to go in this race.

News of the day: The USA dominate the rest of the rowing finals, winning three gold medals, including the coxed eight. The USSR, Canada, and Italy win the other races. +++ In track and field, Bobby Morrow (USA) earns his second gold in the 200 meters. +++ While Brazil's Adhemar da Silva defends his triple jump title, Al Oerter from the USA starts his incredible Olympic career with the first of his four consecutive wins in the discus throw. +++ Poland's Elizabete Krzesinka wins the women's long jump.

Josy Barthel - The One and Only, Part 1

Some countries have won just one single gold medal in their Olympic history. We portray them in our series "The One and Only". One of them: Luxemburg. 

Josy Barthel was shaken by tears of joy and his picture moved the world. On July 26th, 1952, the 25 year old student stormed past Robert McMillan (USA) and world record holder Werner Lueg from Germany to win Olympic gold in the 1500 meter race at the Helsinki Games. It remains Luxemburg's only Olympic victory until today (pictures: Luxemburger Wort, family archive).

Barthel was an outsider, but far from being a nobody. He had started running at the age of 15, won student's and military world titles, and had finished ninth at the 1948 London Games. In Helsinki, he won both his heat and his semifinal run. The field he beat in the final included fourth placed Britain Roger Bannister, who became the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes two years later.

Barthel's triumph made him no friends in Germany, the country which had occupied his homeland in 1940, which forced Barthel to run his first races for the German Gau Moselland. In the Winter of 1951/52, Barthel started training by instructions of legendary German coach Woldemar Gerschler, who had made Rudolf Harbig a world record runner in the 1930s. When Barthel denied Lueg the gold medal, German media called Gerschler "a traitor of the fatherland". In Helsini, Germany did not win a single gold medal.

Barthel, whose sports teacher Lucien Bentz had been executed by the Nazis in 1944 in the concentration camp at Hinzach, kept on running until 1956. He retired after bowing out in the heats at the Melbourne Olympics. In the 1970s, he became president of his country's National Olympic Comitee and minister for transportation, energy, tourism and environment.

Josy Barthel died in 1992. The national stadium of Luxemburg was renamed after her only Olympic champion (picture: mzhopping.de).

The Best of Summer - 5th Place: Helsinki 1952

Let's start our Top Five countdown of the best Summer Games with the 1952 edition staged in Helsinki. The Olympics in Finland probably were the most peaceful ever - which sounds ironic, as they were also the first Games of the Cold War era.

Surely, the Soviet Union made a big splash in their first Olympic appearance, winning 71 medals, second only to the United States' 76. Surely, they made a political statement by living in an own Olympic village in Otaniemi, reserved for Eastern Bloc athletes. But these were not the Games of political struggles as they came to be from the 1960s to 1980s. Seven years after the end of World War II, these Games in this small, sport loving country in the north of Europe came close to the ideals of the Olympic founding fathers. They were purely about the athletes and the competitions.

And what athletes there were on stage! After retired Finish runner Paavo Nurmi had lit the Olympic flame, Emil Zatopek (picutre: www.sportschau.de) followed in his footsteps, winning the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and the marathon. His wife Dana took home the javelin gold at the same hour. Luxemburg's Josy Barthel gained his country's only gold medal ever wenning the 1,500 meters. Australia's Marjorie Jackson ("The Lithgow Flash") won both gold medals in the women's sprint. The gymnasts of the Soviet Union led by Viktor Choukarine were dominating, but Japan (while re-emerging on the Olympic scene) made a big impression - a precursor of a duel for decades to come.

Together with the Japanese, the Germans re-entered the Olympic arena (at least, from the West). They didn't win a gold medal, but it was German law student Barbara Rotraut Pleyer who made headlines during the opening ceremony. In a flowing white dress, the 23 year old ran through the stadium and captured the podium for a spontaneous peace adress. But she could only say the words "Ladies and gentlemen" before she was gently taken out of the arena (picture: www.sportschau.de)

This Finish documentary gives a good impression of the spirit of these Games. Don't care about the commentary, just let the pictures speak for themselves. This film includes some very rare colour footage of the 1952 Games and interview sections with second-time decathlon gold medalist and politcian-to-be, Bob Mathias.

It was a time when amateurism still had a meaning in the Olympic world, and the socialist state sponsored pseudo-amateur was just looming on the horizon as a vague shadow. This can also be seen by this rather unpretentious documentary produced by the U.S Army Signal Corps Pictoral Service as part of the series "The Big Picture":

When FBI officer Horace Ashenfelter defeated KGB agent Vladimir Kazantsev in the 3,000 meters steeplechase, it was nothing more than an interesting footnote in the news - still far away from "war on the track" talk.

A German offical called the Helsinki Games "the Olympics of the poor man and the wealthy hearts". This may sound awkwardly cosy and corny today, but in 1952, most observers will probably have agreed.

The Best of Winter - Bronze Medal: Oslo 1952

Norway was, is and always will be the home of winter sports. In no other country are people so enthusiastic and respectful about it, especially when it comes to endurance sports. It is a little surprising that it took the IOC 28 years since the inaugural Winter Games to come "home" to Oslo. The main reason: In the pre-war years, the Winter Games were always linked to the host nation of the Summer event (except for 1928).

The 1952 Games were by far the biggest in Winter Games history, concerning the number of spectators, the atmosphere and also the number of participants. Germany (West) and Japan were allowed to take part for the first time after the war. The "Olympic family" was reunited and almost complete, except for the USSR, that appeared a few months later at the Helsinki Summer Games.

To Norwegians, the undisputed hero of Oslo was hometown boy Hjalmar Andersen, winning the three long distance speed skating events.

When Andersen won his final Gold medal in the 10,000 meter event, a Norwegian newspaper heralded him by simply putting his winning time in the headline: "16:45,8". The scene of his triumph, Oslo's famous Bislett Stadium, is now decorated with a statue of "Hjallis" - like Paavo Nurmi greeting in front of Helsinki's Olympic Stadium (photo: NRK).

Germany re-entered the Olympic arena with a big, fat boom. Putting together a bunch of Bavarian super-heavyweights, the won both gold medals in the bobsleigh.

No wonder, the sports authorities "invented" a weight limit after this experience...