| 1948 Summer Olympics medals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | London, Great Britain | |||
| Highlights | ||||
| Most gold medals |  United States (38) | |||
| Most total medals | United States (84) | |||
| Medalling NOCs | 37 | |||
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The1948 Summer Olympics (also known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad) was an international multi-sport event held from July 29 through August 14, 1948, in London, United Kingdom.[2] It was the first Olympic Games to take place in twelve years, due to theSecond World War (and was known informally as "The Austerity Games" – largely due to countries having to bring their own food due to shortages in Britain), with London being chosen as the host city in May 1946.[3][4]
London had previously hosted the1908 Summer Olympics, and was due to have hosted theevent in 1944.[1] A record 59 nations were represented by 4,104 athletes, 3,714 men and 385 women, in 19 sport disciplines. Following the Second World War, Germany and Japan remained under military occupation and had not yet formed theirNational Olympic Committee,[5] and so were not invited.[6] The only majorAxis power to take part in the Games wasItaly.[5] The Soviet Union was invited to compete, but chose not to send any athletes, sending observers instead to prepare for the1952 Summer Olympics.[7] Following the threats of a boycott from Arab countries should an Israeli team fly their flag at the opening ceremony, theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded Israel from the Games on a technicality.[8][1]
Several countries participated for the first time, includingBurma,Ceylon,Lebanon,Puerto Rico andSyria.[9] TheOlympic medals themselves were the standardTrionfo design used for the Olympic medals between 1928 and 1968.[10]
It was not until 2010 that BelgianEugène Van Roosbroeck received his gold medal for his part in thecycling road race as there was no podium for winners following the race and the team returned to Belgium two days after the event having received no medals.[11]
This is the full table of the medal count of the1948 Summer Olympics, based on the medal count of the IOC. These rankings sort by the number of gold medals earned by a nation. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This information is provided by the IOC. However, the IOC does not recognize or endorse any ranking system.[13]
In thegymnastics events there were three athletes placed first for the men'spommel horse, withPaavo Aaltonen,Veikko Huhtanen andHeikki Savolainen all receiving gold medals forFinland in the same event, while no silver or bronze medals were handed out. Meanwhile, in the men'svault, three athletes finished in joint third place and so were awarded a bronze medal each, resulting in five medals being handed out for that one event.[1]
Mexico,[14]Peru and won their first gold medal,[15] andIndia won its first medal as an independent nation.[16]
* Host nation (Great Britain)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 38 | 27 | 19 | 84 |
| 2 |  Sweden | 17 | 11 | 18 | 46 |
| 3 |  France | 11 | 6 | 15 | 32 |
| 4 |  Finland | 10 | 8 | 6 | 24 |
| 5 |  Hungary | 10 | 5 | 13 | 28 |
| 6 |  Italy | 9 | 12 | 10 | 31 |
| 7 |  Turkey | 6 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| 8 |  Czechoslovakia | 6 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| 9 |  Switzerland | 5 | 12 | 6 | 23 |
| 10 |  Denmark | 5 | 8 | 9 | 22 |
| 11 |  Netherlands | 5 | 2 | 9 | 16 |
| 12 | Great Britain* | 4 | 16 | 7 | 27 |
| 13 |  Argentina | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 14 |  Australia | 2 | 6 | 5 | 13 |
| 15 |  Austria | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 16 |  Belgium | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 17 |  South Africa | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 18 |  Egypt | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 19 |  Mexico | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 20 |  Norway | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| 21 |  Jamaica | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 22 |  Poland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 23 |  India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Peru | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 25 |  Canada | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 26 |  Yugoslavia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 27 |  Portugal | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Uruguay | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 29 |  Ceylon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Cuba | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Spain | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 33 |  Panama | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
 South Korea | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 35 |  Brazil | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Iran | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Ireland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Puerto Rico | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (38 entries) | 146 | 146 | 151 | 443 | |
※ Disqualified athlete(s)
| Ruling date | Sport/Event | Athlete (NOC) |  |  |  | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 April 1949 | Equestrian Team dressage | −1 | –1 | The Swedish dressage team, which had originally won gold at the 1948 Games, was subsequently disqualified on April 27, 1949, by theFédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) and with the approval of the IOC.Gehnäll Persson had been promoted tolieutenant three weeks before the competition. Just two and a half weeks after the competition, theSwedish army demoted him back tosergeant. According to the regulations at the time, only officers and “gentlemen riders” were eligible to take part, but not non-commissioned officers. Since Persson had only been promoted for the period surrounding the games, this was considered a violation of the rules. The incident led to the FEI modernizing its entry conditions, which were perceived as outdated.[18] | |||
| +1 | −1 | 0 | |||||
| +1 | −1 | 0 | |||||
| +1 | +1 |
| NOC | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Net Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden (SWE) | −1 | 0 | 0 | −1 |
| France (FRA) | +1 | −1 | 0 | 0 |
| United States (USA) | 0 | +1 | −1 | 0 |
| Portugal (POR) | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 |
