The 14th Olympics games in 1948 were held in London and were the first games held for 12 years since the 1936 games in Munich due to the outbreak of World War II. The 1940 games had been scheduled for Tokyo and in 1944, London was due to be the host city.

 

A total of 59 nations took part although Germany and Japan were not invited as World War II had recently finished. 14 of the nations were taking part in their first Olympics (British Guiana, Burma, Ceylon, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Korea, Lebanon, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Syria, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.

 

The main venue for the games was the Empire stadium (Wembley Stadium) but as with all games, many other venues in London and south-east England were used.

 

The games were officially opened by King George VI on 29th July 1948 and last just over 2 weeks and 136 events in 17 sports had been completed. The United States led the medals table with a total of 84 medals (38 gold, 27 silver and 19 bronze). Britain were 12th with 23 medals including 3 gold.

 

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