OLYMPIC GAMES FOR HELENSKI AND OSLO

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1947, Page 6

OLYMPIC GAMES FOR HELENSKI AND OSLO

STOCKHOLM, June 21.

The summer and winter Olympic Games in 1952 had been allotted to Helsinki and Oslo respectively, in order to make the games simpler and more in line with the ideals of the founder, said Mr J. S. Edstrom, president. of the International Olympic Committee. ‘‘When the games have been held in big countries of the past, there has been too much ostentation and too much business surrounding them,” he added. The first entry for the 1952 games came from Sweden.

The Finnish delegate, Mr Ernest Krgius said: “We should be able to arrange the thing. The whole country is behind it. I am happy, on behalf of all Scandinavia, that Oslo got the winter games.” The Korean representative said the Korean Olympic Committee had been recognised and invited to the London Olympics. The International Olympic Committee approved the definition of an amateur as “one of those to whom sport is nothing more than recreation without material gain of any kind, direct or indirect.”

Many delegates think it has given international and national federations wider powers to define an amateur, and has made easier the payment of “broken time” to Olympic players. Delegates point out that the Olympic rules allow a competitor to receive broken time only under strict conditions, the most important being that they are “piece-workers” and sole supporters of a family.”