Share | Olympics Art  Olympic Years Athens 1896 London 1908 Stockholm 1912 Antwerp 1920 Paris 1924 Amsterdam 1928 Los Angeles 1932 Berlin 1936 London 1948 Helsinki 1952 Rome 1960 Tokyo 1964 Mexico City 1968 Munich 1972 Sydney 2000 Beijing 2008  Olympic Sports Baseball Basketball Bicycling Boxing Diving Fencing Gymnastics Soccer Swimming Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Water Polo Weightlifting Wrestling More Olympics Posters  Features The Ancient Olympic Games Olympic Mythology The Athletes The Sports Events Did You Know?	London Olympics, 1948
	An Official Souvenir Programme for the London Olympic Games Giclee Print 9 in. x 12 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed   Mounted The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, United Kingdom. After a 12 year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin. The 1940 Games had been scheduled for Tokyo, and then Helsinki; the 1944 Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the second occasion that London had hosted the Olympic Games, the city had previously been the venue in 1908. The event came to be known as the Austerity Games due to the economic climate and post-war rationing. No new venues were built for the games and athletes were housed in existing accommodation instead of an Olympic Village. A record 59 nations were represented by 4,104 athletes, 3,714 men and 390 women, in 19 sport disciplines. Because of their roles as aggressors in World War II Germany and Japan were not invited to participate; the USSR were invited but chose not to send any athletes. The United States team won the most total medals, 84, and the most gold medals, 38. The host nation won 23 medals, three of them gold. One of the star performers at the Games was Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen. Nicknamed "The Flying Housewife" the 30-year old mother of three children won four gold medals in athletics. In the decathlon American Bob Mathias became the youngest ever Olympic gold medallist at the age of 17. The most individual medals were won by Veikko Huhtanen of Finland who took three golds, a silver and a bronze in men's gymnastics.