Olympic GamesOlimpiadi - Sochi 2014
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Fifth episode of the novel of the Winter Games, the edition in which the'' Italian'' finally wins the first gold "white" thanks to Nino Bible in the skeleton.
Monday 6 January 2014 14 minutes reading time
A year after it was chosen as the site of the Tokyo Summer Games in 1937, the 36th Session of the IOC for the 1940 Winter Olympics opt for Sapporo, the Japanese city on'' island of Hokkaido, and also fixed the dates of the event: from February 3 to 12. But the country of the Rising Sun, went to war against China, in 1938 at the Winter Games renunciation keeping the summer ones. The Olympic Committee should look for a new venue for the Olympic white, the choice falls on St. Moritz, but the dispute between the IOC and the leaders of the Swiss Confederation to the issue of professional ski instructor is still open. The venue of the Games of 1928 waives his time, so in 1939 the 38th session of London appoints new Garmisch-Partenkirchen, moving the start date and end at 2:11 of February, also states that the Winter Olympics of 1944 were to be play in Cortina d'' Ampezzo.
But the Second World War broke out on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland'', blasting both the Games of 1940 and those of 1944. The IOC met again in 1946, a year after the end of the terrible conflict, and in the 39th session of Lausanne, in addition to'' election of the new president of the International Olympic Committee Sigfrid Edström, are designated the premises of the Summer Olympics of 1948 , London, and the winter of the same year. St. Moritz and Lake Placid are identified as possible organizers having already hosted the "five white circles" and belonging to nations that have not been touched at all or only marginally from the war. Are not considered Chamonix, France since the output is on her knees by the conflict, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany because it was the cause for the'' chain explosion that shook the planet. In the end,'' twenty years after the first time, St. Moritz Winter Olympics to win the scenes, in fact, the first since the terrible conflict, those of the final revival of the sport.
C'' is always, as two decades earlier, the relative risk foehn with higher temperatures, but this time the damage will be minimal so that no race will be canceled. As in 1936, the 28 participating countries are Germany and Japan but are excluded from the CIO because they were guilty of having triggered the World War. In the official program returns to the skeleton, and could not be otherwise given that there had already been'' in 1928, being the town'' s Engadine home of the sport, also the downhill and slalom alpine ski men's and women not are valid only for the combo but assigning new medals. The total number of events has thus risen to 22 compared with 17 twelve years ago in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Two disciplines demonstration: a curious winter pentathlon (consisting of skiing, shooting, downhill, fencing and horse riding) and, for the third and last time, the military patrols, in which, for the record,'' the Italian does not repeat the triumph Unofficial 1936 and settles for fourth place.
About Italy, this year finally arrives the first medal at the Winter Games for our colors and even a gold, winning its skeleton Nino in the Bible, born March 15, 1922 in Bianzone, in Valtellina, but moved to St . Moritz young age with his family, which has a store of fruits and vegetables. In his spare time he has left out of his job as a greengrocer practice countless sports, including football, but especially in winter, as the'' ice hockey and skiing both alpine and Nordic. When just a few weeks at the Games in St. Moritz discovers the bobsled and skeleton, is one of the fastest to get down to fun and down the Cresta Run is reported that the Italian engineers fit into the team of both disciplines. In the two-man bobsleigh you square in the eighth and four in the sixth but "sled head forward" triumphs with 1 "4 of Jack Heaton, the very one who twenty years before had arrived on the same track at the back of his elder brother Jennison .
The U.S. will not be the only one to win a medal 20 years after the first, he succeeds in ice hockey Bibi Torriani, the reader of the Olympic oath at the opening ceremony, which is bronze along with the rest of the team as the Swiss in 1928. In team sports, winter par excellence, dominated by Canada that precedes it in the round-robin Czechoslovakia (in which there rose Jaroslav Drobný great tennis future winner of Roland Garros and Wimbledon) and returns to the top of the podium five circles after 16 years, it happens an astonishing fact: the United States will have two teams, one made up entirely of amateur players, the other with some professional. In the end it is the latter, under pressure from the international hockey federation and the organizing committee, to play and is ranked fourth at the end of the tournament but was disqualified by the IOC which had always opposed his participation in favor of the other team Use .
The king of alpine skiing and also the Games in St. Moritz because only one to win two gold medals in individual events is French Henri Oreiller, who triumphs in the descent with the incredible detachment (for the time) of 4 "on 1 ' Austrian Franz Gabl, and combined. A lover of wild life and speed Oreiller will then race car crashed and died at the wheel of a Ferrari Gran Turismo at the circuit of Monthlery October 7, 1962 at the age of 36. The slalom if he wins the Swiss Edy Reinalter, the hosts should also be the title of the women's downhill for about Hedy Schlunegger, the grandmother of Martina Schild in Turin 2006 will be silver in the same event, the slalom wins the U.S. Gretchen Fraser and the combined Austrian Trude Beiser.
Cross-country skiing hat-trick of Sweden who won 6 of the 7 medals available triumphing in the relay, in the 18 km by 50 km in Martin Lundströme Nils Karlsson in the Nordic combined gold is the Finn Heikki Hasu but most do not There is a Norwegian in the top five after the first four editions of the Winter Games the nation that invented the ski racing had always monopolized the podium of this race, i Norge console themselves by making a hat-trick in the leap where the eternal Birger Ruud came in second behind fellow countryman Petter Hugsted. In figure skating 18 year-old American Dick Button enters the story because it is the first to successfully perform a double axel in the free program and the artistic male conquers a well-deserved gold in the women's race wins while the Canadian Barbara Ann Scott in that pair Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Baugniet won what is still the only Winter Olympic gold for Belgium.
In speed skating three titles out of four go to Norway: Finn Helgesen won the 500, Sverre Farstad 1500, Reidar Liaklev 5000, 10000 instead go to the Swedish Åke Seyffarth. Finally, in the Swiss bobsleigh excel Felix Endrich in race two and the American Frank Tyler in one to four. Italy could have won another gold in the men's downhill but Zeno Colo, risking even more Oreiller falls after obtaining the best mid-range, his compatriot Celina saws, Abetone like him, is fourth in the downhill and the combined female, the Cortina Silvio Alverà is fourth in slalom, fifth and sixth in the combined ex-aequo with altroatesino Charles (Karl) Gartner downhill. The Italian relay team of fund drops by two notches than 12 years before finishing sixth.
Summary
5th edition of the Olympic Winter Games
Host city and date of the event: St. Moritz (Switzerland), January 30th-February 8, 1948
Athletes participating: 668 (591 men, 77 women)
Participating countries: 28
Italian participants: 53 (50 men, 3 women)
Standard Bearer Italian: Vittorio Chierroni (Alpine skiing)
Securities allotted: 22 in 9 sports
Official opening: president of the Confederation Enrico Celio
Olympic athletes' oath: Richard "Bibi" Torriani (ice hockey)
The medal
Norway: 4 gold 3 silver 3 bronze
Sweden: 4 gold 3 silver 3 bronze
Switzerland: 3 gold 4 silver 3 bronze
United States: 3 gold 4 silver 2 bronze
France: 2 gold 1 silver 2 bronze
Canada: 2 gold 1 bronze
Austria: 1 gold 3 silver 4 bronze
Finland: 1 gold 3 silver 2 bronze
Belgium: 1 gold 1 silver
Italy: 1 gold
Czechoslovakia: 1 silver
Hungary: 1 silver
Britain: 2 bronze
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