The , officially known as the '''Games of the XV Olympiad''', were held in ,
Detroit ,
Los Angeles ,
Minneapolis and
Philadelphia on the 40th
IOC Session on
June 21 1947 . Helsinki had been earlier given the
1940 Summer Olympics but they were canceled due to
World War II .
- To the enjoyment of the Finnish crowd, the Olympic Flame was lit by two heroes, Runners Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen .
- For the first time, a team from the USSR participated in the Olympics. The first gold medal for the USSR was won by Nina Romashkova in the women's Discus Throwing event, and the Soviet women's gymnastics team won the first of its eight consecutive gold medals.
- Hungary , a country with a mere 10 million inhabitants, won an astonishing 42 medals at these games, coming in third place behind the USA and the USSR with one of the most outstanding exhibitions ever.
- Hungary 's '' Golden Team '' won the Football tournament in style, beating Yugoslavia 2-0 in the final.
- Germany and Japan were invited again after being barred in 1948 . After occupation and partition, three German states had been erected. Only West German athletes took part, from the Federal Republic Of Germany and the Saarland which joined the FRG after 1955, the East German Democratic Republic being absent. Despite ranking 5th by total medals with 24, Germans failed to score Gold for the first and only time.
- Rules in Equestrianism now allowed non-military officers to compete, including Women . Lis Hartel of Denmark became the first woman in the sport to win a medal.
- Emil Zátopek of Czechoslovakia won three gold medals in the 5,000m , 10,000m and the Marathon .
- Bob Mathias of the USA became the first Olympian to successfully defend his Decathlon title with a total score of 7,887 points.
- Josy Barthel of the tiny country of Luxembourg pulled a major surprise by winning the 1500 m.
