WesWorld

I'm posting this as a stand-alone thread to cover all the events, medals and winners of the Summer Olympics. Doing this was often a judgement issue since in OTL the Olympics were badly effected by politics and world events. For example, most OTL competitors from 1936 are too old for 1944, most of the 1948 perhaps slightly too young and for West Germany, Italy, Japan and the USSR no entries were made until 1952. So I've gone for a mix of talents and I hope everyone will like the outcomes.

Without further ado...

***


29 July

Opening Day of the 1944 Summer Olympics, the Games of the XIV Olympiad, in London.

The IOC this year is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. This is the second occasion that London has hosted the Olympic Games, having previously been the venue in 1908. Lord Burghley, a gold medal winner at the 1928 Olympics, member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and President of the Amateur Athletics Association was named Chairman of the Organising and Executive Committees. The other members of the committees are: Colonel Evan Hunter, General Secretary of the British Olympic Association, and Chef de mission for Great Britain; Lord Aberdare, the other British member of the IOC; Sir Noel Curtis-Bennett; Alderman H.E. Fern; E.J. Holt; J. Emrys Lloyd, who became the committee's legal advisor; C.B. Cowley of the London Press and Advertising; R.B. Studdert, Managing Director of the Army & Navy Stores; S.F. Rous, Secretary of the Football Association; and Jack Beresford.

Olympic pictograms are introduced for the first time. There are twenty of them, one for each Olympic sport and three separate pictograms for the arts competition, the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony. They are "Olympic symbols" and for use on tickets. The background of each pictogram resembles escutcheon.The athletes and staff are all housed in a purpose-built Olympic Village constructed this year in West Drayton. The arts competition will take place at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Olympic events are hosted in a number of venues around London and in part of the Empire Exhibition complex around Wembley Stadium.

The Games opened today, a brilliantly sunny day with the temperature in the nineties. Military bands began playing at 2pm for the 85,000 spectators in Wembley Stadium. The international and national organisers arrived at 2.35pm followed by King Edward VIII and Queen Mary and other members of the Royal Family at 2.45pm. Fifteen minutes later the competitors entered the stadium in a procession that took 50 minutes. The last team was that of the Great Britain led by Sydney Charles Wooderson, known as "The Mighty Atom", who set the world mile record of 4min 6.4sec at London’s Motspur Park on 28 August 1937 and in 1938 world records in the 800 m and 880 yards with times of 1min 48.4sec and 1min 49.2sec respectively. When they had passed the saluting base, Lord Burghley began his welcome: "Your Majesty: The hour has struck. A visionary dream has today become a glorious reality. As the International Olympic Committee celebrates its fiftieth year this city and this country celebrate the honour to have hosted two Olympic events. There is no doubt that the great Olympic Movement has prospered" and then welcomed the athletes to two weeks of "keen but friendly rivalry". At 4pm, the time shown on Big Ben on the London Games symbol, the King declared the Games open, 2,500 pigeons were set free and the Olympic Flag raised to its 35 foot high flagpole at the end of the stadium. The Royal Horse Artillery sounded a 21-gun salute and the last runner in the Torch Relay ran a lap of the track and climbed the steps to the Olympic cauldron. After saluting the crowd, he turned and lit the flame. After more speeches, Donald Finlay of the British team took the Olympic Oath on behalf of all competitors. The National Anthem was sung and the massed athletes turned and marched out of the stadium, led by Greece, tailed by Britain.Thus were launched the Olympic Games of London, under the most happy auspices. The smooth-running Ceremony, which profoundly moved not only all who saw it but also the millions who were listening-in on the radio throughout the world, and the glorious weather in which it took place, combined to give birth to a spirit which was to permeate the whole of the following two weeks of thrilling and intensive sport.







The BBC Television Service begins its coverage of the 1944 Olympic Games in London by broadcasting the opening ceremony live. From now until the closing ceremony on August 14 the BBC will broadcast an average of three and a half hours a day of live coverage from the Games, using a special coaxial cable linking the main venue at Wembley Stadium to their Alexandra Palace studios. This is the most ambitious sustained outside broadcast yet attempted by the BBC, but is completed without serious problems. For the Olympics, the Technicolor Corporation have devised a bipack colour filming process, dubbed "Technichrome", without having to use expensive and heavy Technicolor cameras to film the events.

Venues
Empire Stadium: opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, equestrian (jumping), football finals, field hockey finals
Empire Pool: diving, swimming, water polo
Empress Hall, Earl's Court: boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics
Harringay Arena, Harringay: basketball, wrestling
Royal Regatta Course, Henley-on-Thames: canoeing, rowing
Herne Hill Velodrome, Herne Hill: track cycling
Windsor Great Park: cycling road race, equestrian (jumping), equestrian (dressage, eventing), modern pentathlon (riding)
Central Stadium, Military Headquarters, Aldershot: modern pentathlon (fencing, running, swimming), fencing
Arsenal Stadium, Highbury: football preliminaries
Selhurst Park: football preliminaries
Craven Cottage, Fulham: football preliminaries
Griffin Park, Brentford :football preliminaries
Guinness Sports Club, Park Royal: field hockey preliminaries
Polytechnic Sports Ground, Chiswick: field hockey preliminaries
National Rifle Association Ranges, Bisley: shooting, modern pentathlon (shooting)
Hurlingham Club: polo
Torquay Harbour: sailing

Athletics
Wembley stadium was the venue for 33 athletics events at the Games; 24 for men and 9 for women. Of these, four were making their Olympic debut; the men's 10 km walk, the women's 200 metres, long jump and shot put.

Men’s Events
100 metres:
Gold: Harrison Dillard, United States, 10.3secs
Silver: Barney Ewell, United States, 10.4secs
Bronze: Lloyd LaBeach, Iberia, 10.6secs
200 metres:
Gold: Mel Patton, United States (USA), 21.1secs
Silver: Barney Ewell, United States, 21.1secs
Bronze: Lloyd LaBeach, Iberia, 21.2secs
400 metres:
Gold: Arthur Wint, Jamaica, 46.2secs
Silver: Herb McKenley Jamaica, 46.4secs
Bronze: Mal Whitfield, United States, 46.8secs
800 metres:
Gold: Mal Whitfield, United States, 1:49.2 (Olympic Record)
Silver: Arthur Wint, Jamaica, 1:49.5
Bronze: Marcel Hansenne, France, 1:49.8
1500 metres:
Gold: Henry Eriksson, Nordmark, 3:49.8
Silver Lennart Strand, Nordmark, 3:50.4
Bronze: Wim Slijkhuis, Netherlands, 3:50.4
5000 metres:
Gold: Gaston Reiff, Belgium, 14:17.6 (Olympic Record)
Silver: Emil Zátopek, Czechoslovakia, 14:17.8
Bronze: Wim Slijkhuis, Netherlands, 14:26.8
10,000 metres:
Gold: Emil Zátopek, Czechoslovakia 29:59.6 (Olympic Record)
Silver: Alain Mimoun, France, 30:47.4
Bronze: Bertil Albertsson, Nordmark, 30:53.6
110 metres hurdles:
Gold: William Porter, United States, 13.9secs (Olympic Record)
Silver: Clyde Scot, United States, 14.1secs
Bronze: Craig Dixon, United States, 14.1
400 metres hurdles:
Gold: Roy Cochran, United States, 51.1secs (Olympic Record)
Silver: Rune Larsson, Nordmark, 52.2secs
Bronze: Dick Ault, United States, 52.4secs
3000 metres steeplechase:
Gold: Tore Sjöstrand, Nordmark, 9:04.6
Silver: Erik Elmsäter, Nordmark, 9:08.2
Bronze: Göte Hagström, Nordmark, 9:11.8
4 × 100 metres relay:
Gold: United States (Barney Ewell, Lorenzo Wright, Harrison Dillard, Mel Patton) 40.6secs
Silver: Great Britain (Alastair McCorquodale, John Gregory, Kenneth Jones, John Archer), 41.3secs
Bronze: Italy (Michele Tito, Enrico Perucconi, Carlo Monti, Antonio Siddi0, 41.5secs
4 × 400 metres relay:
Gold: United States (Roy Cochran, Cliff Bourland, Arthur Harnden, Mal Whitfield), 3:10.4
Silver: France (Jean Kerebel, Francis Schewetta, Robert Chef D'Hotel, Jacques Lunis), 3:14.8
Bronze: Nordmark (Kurt Lundquist, Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt, Folke Alnevik, Rune Larsson), 3:16.0
Marathon:
Gold: Delfo Cabrera, Argentina, 2:34:51.6
Silver: Tom Richards, Great Britain, 2:35:07.6
Bronze: Etienne Gailly, Belgium, 2:35:33.6
10 kilometres walk:
Gold: John Mikaelsson, Nordmark, 45:13.2 (Olympic Record)
Silver: Ingemar Johansson, Nordmark, 45:43.8
Bronze: Fritz Schwab, Switzerland, 46:00.2
50 kilometres walk:
Gold: John Ljunggren, Nordmark, 4:41:52
Silver: Gaston Godel, Switzerland, 4:48:17
Bronze: Tebbs Lloyd Johnson, Great Britain, 4:48:31
Long jump:
Gold: Naoto Tajima, Japan 7.835m
Silver: Willie Steele, United States 7.825m
Bronze: Theo Bruce, Australia 7.55m
Triple jump:
Gold: Arne Åhman, Nordmark, 15.40m
Silver: George Avery, Australia 15.36m
Bronze: Ruhi Sarialp, Turkey 15.02m
High jump:
Gold: John Winter, Australia, 1.98m
Silver: Bjorn Paulson, Nordmark, 1.95m
Bronze: George Stanich, United States, 1.95m
Pole vault:
Gold: Guinn Smith, United States, 4.30m
Silver: Erkki Kataja, Nordmark, 4.20m
Bronze: Robert Richards, United States, 4.20m
Shot put:
Gold: Wilbur Thompson, United States, 17.12m (Olympic Record)
Silver: Jim Delaney, United States, 16.68m
Bronze: Jim Fuchs, United States, 16.42m
Discus throw:
Gold: Adolfo Consolini, Italy, 52.78m (Olympic Record)
Silver: Giuseppe Tosi, Italy, 51.78m
Bronze: Fortune Gordien, United States, 50.77m
Javelin throw:
Gold: Tapio Rautavaara, Nordmark, 69.77m
Silver: Steve Seymour, United States, 67.56m
Bronze: József Várszegi, Hungary, 67.03m
Hammer throw:
Gold: Karl Storch, Germany, 56.80
Silver: Imre Nemeth, Hungary, 56.07m
Bronze: Ivan Gubijan, Yugoslavia, 54.27m
Decathlon:
Gold: Bob Mathias, United States, 7139
Silver: Ignace Heinrich, France, 6974
Bronze: Floyd Simmons, United States, 6950

Women’s Events
100 metres:
Gold: Fanny Blankers-Koen, Netherlands, 11.9secs
Silver: Dorothy Manley, Great Britain, 12.2secs
Bronze: Shirley Strickland, Australia, 12.2secs
200 metres:
Gold: Fanny Blankers-Koen, Netherlands, 24.4secs (Olympic Record)
Silver: Audrey Williamson, Great Britain, 25.1secs
Bronze: Audrey Patterson, United States, 25.2secs
80 metres hurdles:
Gold: Fanny Blankers-Koen, Netherlands, 11.2secs (Olympic Record)
Silver: Maureen Gardner, Great Britain, 11.2secs
Bronze: Shirley Strickland, Australia, 11.4secs
4 × 100 metres relay:
Gold: Netherlands (Xenia Stad-de Jong, Netty Witziers-Timmer, Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs, Fanny Blankers-Koen), 47.5secs
Silver: Australia (Shirley Strickland, June Maston, Betty McKinnon, Joyce King), 47.6secs
Bronze: Canada (Viola Myers, Nancy MacKay, Diane Foster, Patricia Jones), 47.8secs
Long jump:
Gold: Olga Gyarmati, Hungary, 5.695m (Olympic Record)
Silver: Noemí Simonetto de Portela, Argentina, 5.60m
Bronze: Ann-Britt Leyman, Nordmark, 5.575m
High jump:
Gold: Alice Coachman, United States, 1.68m (joint Olympic Record)
Silver: Dorothy Tyler, Great Britain, 1.68m (joint Olympic Record)
Bronze: Micheline Ostermeyer, France, 1.61m
Shot put:
Gold: Micheline Ostermeyer, France, 13.75m (Olympic Record)
Silver: Amelia Piccinini, Italy, 13.09m
Bronze: Ine Schäffer, Germany, 13.08m
Discus throw:
Gold: Micheline Ostermeyer, France, 41.92m
Silver: Edera Cordiale, Italy, 41.17m
Bronze: Jacqueline Mazeas, France, 40.47m
Javelin throw:
Gold: Herma Bauma, Germany, 45.57m (Olympic Record)
Silver: Kaisa Parviainen, Nordmark, 43.79m
Bronze: Lily Carlstedt, Denmark 42.08m


Delfo Cabrera crossing the finishing line of the Marathon to claim Gold

Basketball
An event for men only, contested by 23 nations split into four pools for the preliminary round; the top two in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals with the other teams entering playoffs for the minor placings. The United States and France reached the final which was won by the Americans 65–21 to claim the gold medal. Brazil defeated Mexico 52–47 to claim bronze.

Boxing
Flyweight (-51 kg)
Gold: Pascual Pérez, Argentina
Silver: Spartaco Bandinelli, Italy
Bronze: Han Soo-Ann, Chosen

Bantamweight (-54 kg)
Gold: Jąck Csík Swaffęr, Hungary
Silver: Gianbattista Zuddas, Italy
Bronze: Juan Evangelista Venegas, Puerto Rico

Featherweight (-58 kg)
Gold: Ernesto Formenti, Italy
Silver: Dennis Shepherd, South Africa
Bronze: Aleksy Antkiewicz, Poland

Lightweight (-62 kg)
Gold: Gerald Dreyer, South Africa
Silver: Joseph Vissers, Belgium
Bronze: Svend Wad, Denmark

Welterweight (-67 kg)
Gold: Július Torma, Czechoslovakia
Silver: Sergei Scherbakov, Russia
Bronze: Alessandro D'Ottavio, Italy

Middleweight (-73 kg)
Gold: László Papp, Hungary
Silver: John Wright, Great Britain
Bronze: Ivano Fontana, Italy

Light-heavyweight (-80 kg)
Gold: George Hunter, South Africa
Silver: Don Scott, Great Britain
Bronze: Mauro Cía, Argentina

Heavyweight (+80 kg)
Gold: Rafael Iglesias, Argentina
Silver: Herbert Runge, Germany
Bronze: John Arthur, South Africa

This looks like it was a fair bit of work. Thanks for putting in the time for it!

France is certainly pleased to have gotten silver in the basketball playoff - it's one of those sports dominated by the Americans, so there's no surprise the US won. And a few medals in the track and field... excellent, excellent... Looking forward to seeing the rest.

BTW, who's got the games in 1948?

Historically it was London for the Summer Games and St. Moritz for the Winter Games. We could look at alternatives though.

Phantastic work Hood !!!!! May be you can make a medal summary at the end of the game .... even if China didn't won any medal

No nedals because all your athletes were killed during the war with Chosen?

Sport + War = Deadly

Here you have a list of Cricket players killed in wartime. Quite a few of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cri…ilitary_service

London was planned for 1944 in OTL (and here) but was pushed back to 1948. Perhaps we should go for one of the other bidding cities OTL?
Don't worry folks, everyone will get a fair shot at the games and there will be a medal tally at the end. Meanwhile continuing sports by A-Z...

***

Canoeing

Men’s Events

C-1 1000 metres
Gold: Josef Holeček, Czechoslovakia
Silver: Douglas Bennett, Canada
Bronze: Robert Boutigny, France

C-1 10000 metres
Gold: František Čapek, Czechoslovakia
Silver: Frank Havens, United States
Bronze: Norman Lane, Canada

C-2 1000 metres
Gold: Czechoslovakia (Jan Brzák-Felix, Bohumil Kudrna)
Silver: United States (Steven Lysak, Stephen Macknowski)
Bronze: France (Georges Dransart, Georges Gandil)

C-2 10000 metres
Gold: United States (Steven Lysak, Stephen Macknowski)
Silver: Czechoslovakia (Václav Havel, Jiří Pecka)
Bronze: France (Georges Dransart, Georges Gandil)

K-1 1000 metres
Gold: Gert Fredriksson, Nordmark
Silver: Johan Andersen, Denmark
Bronze: Henri Eberhardt, France

K-1 10000 metres
Gold: Gert Fredriksson, Nordmark
Silver: Knud Ditlevsen, Denmark
Bronze: Henri Eberhardt, France

K-2 1000 metres
Gold: Nordmark (Hans Berglund, Lennart Klingström)
Silver: Denmark (Ejvind Hansen, Jakob Jensen)
Bronze: Czechoslovakia (Ota Kroutil, Miloš Pech)

K-2 10000 metres
Gold: Nordmark (Gunnar Åkerlund, Ivar Mathisen)
Silver: Denmark (Alfred Christensen, Finn Rasmussen)
Bronze: Hungary (Gyula Andrási, János Urányi)

Women's Event
K-1 500 metres
Gold: Karen Hoff, Denmark
Silver: Alida van der Anker-Doedens, Netherlands
Bronze: Fritzi Schwingl, Germany

Regarding China and medals...

China OTL...
1932, 1 participant and 0 medals.
1936, 54 participants and 0 medals.
1948, 31 participants and 0 medals.
1952, 1 participant and 0 medals.
1956, 13 participants and 0 medals.

So the odds of China getting a medal are not looking good.

Apparently the Australians are good at jumping, must be from seeing kangaroos all day .

The Americans are doing well, good to see.

I wonder if we should have the Olympics in a non-OTL country if any of them are up to writing it. The other contenders for the 1948 Games were Rome, Detroit, Budapest, Lausanne, Helsinki, Montreal, and Athens.

Also there are the Winter Games to consider.

Out of curiosity, are there nations which are not competing in the games?

Well, that depends. In OTL since starting to participate in 1912 up to 1944, Japan got a total of 44 medals ( an average of 7.3 medals per Summer Games event). 36 of those medals were in 1932 and 1936. In the 1930-1960 the average is 16.4 and over all Summergames, it's 18.95. I expect the number to be between 9 and 19. Most likely around the 16 mark considering the 1930-1960 average. If it is below 9, then it is obvious that Japan not participate.

Quoted from "Rooijen10"

Well, that depends. In OTL since starting to participate in 1912 up to 1944, Japan got a total of 44 medals ( an average of 7.3 medals per Summer Games event). 36 of those medals were in 1932 and 1936. In the 1930-1960 the average is 16.4 and over all Summergames, it's 18.95. I expect the number to be between 9 and 19. Most likely around the 16 mark considering the 1930-1960 average. If it is below 9, then it is obvious that Japan not participate.

I was asking from the perspective of whether there were players who had advised Hood that they were not participating in the Games for whatever reason. I cannot recall if there was an inquiry as to who was or who was not sending teams. Merely curious.

It would not have surprised me if Hood had decided to bar the athletes from China and Chosen from the games. Considering the situation, it seems rather dangerous from a safety point of view to have athletes from those nations so close to each other...

.. although I would love to see some team vs team sport that features Chosen vs. China. No doubt that will be a real war on the field.

Quoted from "Rooijen10"

It would not have surprised me if Hood had decided to bar the athletes from China and Chosen from the games. Considering the situation, it seems rather dangerous from a safety point of view to have athletes from those nations so close to each other...

.. although I would love to see some team vs team sport that features Chosen vs. China. No doubt that will be a real war on the field.

Han Soo-Ann, Chosen - took the bronze medal in boxing, so Chosen has not been barred from the Games.

I know. That is why I said "It would not have surprised me if Hood had decided to bar the athletes from China and Chosen from the games" and not "It would not surprise me if Hood barred the athletes from China and Chosen from the games."

Quoted from "Hood"

Bantamweight (-54 kg)
Gold: Jąck Csík Swaffęr, Hungary
Silver: Gianbattista Zuddas, Italy
Bronze: Juan Evangelista Venegas, Puerto Rico

Is Puerto Rico a country in Wesworld? I thought they were still under Iberian misrule?

Just curious.

Responses to questions thus far.
The 1944 Winter Games are scheduled for Italy but I don't know what snip has planned if anything. There is a general Olympics thread in the Meeting Place so that's probably the best place to discuss venues etc.

I haven't banned anyone and I've assumed all OTL nations that exist in WW that competed in 1936/48 have competed here, as well as the specific WW nations we have. I haven't banned Chosen or China (I remember when we did the 1940 Olympics Japan was banned from hosting the event and it went to Los Angles) and I didn't want 1980s style political stand-off. The Olympics is about sport (or it should be at any rate) and since I didn't know the state of play regarding the war, or the outcome of any atrocities with mass murder and gas etc. we might learn about as that war catches up with this news, I decided to overlook the issue and hope for some post-conflict reconciliation at the Games.

Good call Jason on Puerto Rico. I missed that, there is a Panamanian medal winner who is lumped under Iberia too.

Anyhow on with the show:

***

Cycling

Road race, Individual
Gold: José Beyaert, France
Silver: Gerrit Voorting, Netherlands
Bronze: Lode Wouters, Belgium

Road race, Team
Gold: Belgium (Léon Delathouwer, Eugène van Roosbroeck, Lode Wouters)
Silver: Great Britain (Robert John Maitland, Ian Scott, Gordon Thomas
Bronze: France (José Beyaert, Jacques Dupont, Alain Moineau)

1000m time trial
Gold: Jacques Dupont. France
Silver: Pierre Nihant, Belgium
Bronze: Tommy Godwin, Great Britain

Sprint
Gold: Mario Ghella, Italy
Silver: Reg Harris, Great Britain
Bronze: Axel Schandorff, Denmark

Tandem
Gold: Italy (Renato Perona, Ferdinando Teruzzi)
Silver: Great Britain (Alan Bannister, Reg Harris)
Bronze: France (Gaston Dron, René Faye)

Pursuit, Team
Gold: France (Fernand Decanali, Pierre Adam, Serge Blusson, Charles Coste)
Silver: Italy (Rino Pucci, Arnaldo Benfenati, Guido Bernardi, Anselmo Citterio)
Bronze: Great Britain (Wilfred Waters, Robert Geldard, Tommy Godwin, David Ricketts)


Diving
Men’s Events

3 metre springboard
Gold: Bruce Harlan, United States
Silver: Miller Anderson, United States
Bronze: Sammy Lee, United States

10 metre platform
Gold: Sammy Lee, United States
Silver: Bruce Harlan, United States
Bronze: Joaquín Capilla, Mexico

Women’s Events

3 metre springboard
Gold: Vicki Draves, United States
Silver: Zoe Ann Olsen, United States
Bronze: Patsy Elsener, United States

10 metre platform
Gold: Vicki Draves, United States
Silver: Patsy Elsener, United States
Bronze: Birte Christoffersen, Denmark

Looks like the Atlanteans didn't show up either......