Sport: The Games Begin

Into Helsinki’s Olympic stadium this week trooped some 6,000 athletes and officials of 67 nations,* parading around the rain-soaked, brick-red track past the presidential box and the stands packed with 70,000 applauding spectators. In its traditional position, the Greek team led the parade. Behind it, in order of the Finnish alphabet, marched the others: India’s athletes, in light green and white flannels and gay turbans; the Russians, men in cream-colored flannels, women in bright blue blazers; the 368-member U.S. team: and the Finns, bringing up the rear as Olympic hosts. Then out of a stadium tunnel loped a balding, slightly thick-waisted runner in blue shirt and white trunks.

Carrying aloft the blazing Olympic torch, he circled the 400-meter track, with an easy, familiar stride. From the spectators came a delighted roar of applause for one of the most unforgettable of all Olympians: Finland’s Paavo Nurmi, now 55, and in his Olympic days (1920-28) the greatest distance runner in the world. Stopping at the base of the giant urn, Nurmi stretched high to set it ablaze with fire relayed across Europe from Olympia. The 1952 Olympics had begun.

Smiling Russians. As the athletes began warming up for the first events, the big news was still the big Russian team (some 400 strong). Determinedly friendly from the first, they had made a point of visiting the U.S. camp, chatting in sign language and translated wisecracks. The U.S.’s world champion shotputter, brawny, injury-prone Jim (“The Magnificent Wreck”) Fuchs, swapped shot talk (through a translator) with Russia’s Shotput Ace Otto Grigalka, who stepped into the ring, dressed in his tight-fitting double-breasted suit, to demonstrate his technique.

The Russians’ own explanation for their strange behavior was the earnest assurance: “We are here on a peace mission.” But some cynical observers, after hearing about Russian preparations for the games, thought they had hit on a better explanation. Last year alone, the U.S.S.R. spent billions of rubles on its athletic program, skimmed off the top cream of some 25 million totally organized athletes for Helsinki. Apparently the Russians felt sure enough of their prospects to be able to afford a few smiles of anticipation.

Broken Records. After the first day’s events, the Russian smiles were broader than ever. In the first track & field final, Nina Romaschkova, a blonde Russian Amazon, stepped up and heaved the discus 168 ft. 8½ in., an Olympic record. Minutes later, Czechoslovakia’s loose-jointed Emil Zatopek, who runs as if fighting off a seizure of St. Vitus’ dance, dashed through the tape to win the 10,000-meter run final in 29 min. 17 sec., smashing his own 1948 Olympic record by 42.6 sec.

But the U.S. soon bounced back with five early gold-medal winners:

¶Texas A. & M.’s towering Walter Davis, who high-jumped 6 ft. 8⅓ in., to break another old Olympic mark.

¶ Manhattan College’s Lindy Remigino, who won the 100-meter dash in a photo-finish with Jamaica’s Herb McKenley and Britain’s Emanuel McDonald-Bailey. Time for all three sprinters: 10.4 sec.

Cornell’s Charley Moore, who beat out Russia’s surprising Jurii Lituev to take the 400-meter low hurdles in 50.8 sec., equaling the Olympic record he set while qualifying in an earlier heat.

¶ The U.S. Army’s Jerome Biffle, who took the gold medal in the broad jump with a leap of 24 ft. 10.03 in. Second: Cornell’s Meredith Gourdine.

¶Californian Parry O’Brien, who led the U.S.’s Darrow Hooper and Jim Fuchs to a 1-2-3 sweep in the shotput. O’Brien’s winning toss: 57 ft. 1.43 in.

*Missing from the parade: Red China, admitted at the last minute, and Nationalist China, which withdrew in protest. One late scratch: Syria.