Pierre de Coubertin had wanted to stage the 1908 Olympics in Rome but due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Southern Italy in 1906 the games had been relocated to London. 52 years later the games finally arrived in Rome.
These were the first games to be covered extensively by television with over 100 television channels showing both live broadcasts & recorded footage of the games across Europe, the United States, Japan & Canada, and the viewers were treated to a magnificent blend of the traditional with the new with many sports being held in the streets and buildings that had been built many centuries before.
The gymnastics were held in the Caracalla baths built in 212 - 217 A.D during the reign of Emperor Caracalla, the wrestlers competed in the Basilica of Maxentius, the largest building in the Roman Forum which was used as a courthouse, council chamber & meeting hall with numerous statues of The Gods on display in the niches of the walls and according to Christian legend fell down on the night of Christ’s birth, and the marathon started on the Capitoline Hill, the largest of the seven hills of Rome, went along the Appian Way, built in 312 B.C. by Appius Claudius Caecus and which was the most important ancient Roman road connecting Rome with Brindisi in South East Italy and was the main route to Greece, and finished at the Arch of Constantine, erected to commemorate Constantine 1’s victory over Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28th 312 and is situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill which, according to legend, was the location of the cave where Romulus & Remus were found by the she – wolf that suckled them,the official Olympic poster featured this legend of the twins suckled by the wolf.
The new indoor arena, the Palazzetto dello Sport, was designed by Pier Luigi Nervi and blended perfectly with its historical surroundings and was considered an excellent example of modern architecture.
Indeed, the Italians set a magnificent new standard for Olympic sites by building super highways & tunnels to ease the traffic congestion and an entire new water supply system was constructed.
The Villagio Olympico which was built specially for the event was a true village with parks, play areas and shops to provide for the athletes and after the games was used to provide low cost housing for government workers.
The day before the opening ceremony, Pope John XX111 blessed the games in St Peter’s square and all but the Soviet athletes received the blessing from his holiness. The opening ceremony itself, took place in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 spectators in the Olympic stadium and despite yet again the cold war rivalry between the U.S.A & USSR threatening to overshadow them, a memorable games were just around the corner, although these would be the last games South Africa would be allowed to take part in for 32 years, due to the apartheid policy of that nation, a policy made all the more blinkered by the fact that the number of nations participating had been boosted by representatives of many African countries that had gained independence in the years following the Melbourne games in Australia.
As always in the Olympics there were many superlative and heart rending performances and Rome was to be no different with Clement ‘Ike’ Quartey of one of those new African nations, Ghana, creating Olympic history by becoming the 1st black African Olympic medallist by winning a silver medal in the light - welterweight boxing tournament. Five days later however, this achievement would be overshadowed by Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila, who ran the marathon bare footed and won the gold medal, he also set a new world record time for the event.
20 year old Wilma Rudolph of USA, known as the "Black Gazelle" due to her elegant running style, the 20th of 22 children living in a Tennesse ghetto, born premature and who had suffered from polio, double pneumonia and scarlet fever as a child became the 1st American woman triple gold medallist, winning the 100m, 200m & 4x100m relay despite spraining an ankle the day before the 100m final. The men’s 100m was won by the German Armin Hary breaking a U.S. monopoly of the event since the Los Angeles games held in 1932.
One of, if not the greatest decathlon competition ever took place in Rome. Two UCLA students, Rafer Johnson, representing USA & Yang Chuan Kwang, representing Chinese Taipei who had trained together for the event met in a titanic struggle for the gold medal in a contest that would have tested the ancient Roman Gods. After an exhausting 1st day Johnson returned to the stadium for day 2 only 55 points clear of Yang, but in some part due to incompetent arrangements by the organisers who put the 2 leading contenders in different heats instead of the same one as they should have, Yang led Johnson by 128 points after the 6th event, the 110m hurdles. Next, came the discus, with Johnson recovering the lead after he threw 48.49m on his 3rd attempt beating Yang’s 39.83m to give Johnson a lead of 6281 points to 6137. The 8th event was the pole vault in which Yang was superior, but Johnson managed to limit the damage to his lead by clearing 4.10m to Yang’s 4.30 and going into the 9th event, the javelin, Johnson’s lead was only 24 points. Johnson just edged this round and going into the final event, the 1500m, Johnson’s lead was 67 points, which equated to a 6.5 second lead for the last race. Yang tried to run away from Johnson who stuck with him all the way, at the final bend Yang tried yet again to kick away from Johnson and gained a 5m advantage but it wasn’t enough and the American won the gold medal by a margin of 58 points. On the finish line these 2 great athletes & friends fell exhausted into each others arms for support in what was to be one of the most memorable sporting moments of the games.
Another notable American success came in the boxing ring where a young 18 year old from Louisiana by the name of Cassius Clay, won a gold medal in the light-heavyweight division defeating 3 times European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland in the final. Clay turned professional and won the World Heavyweight title in 1964 by defeating Sonny Liston. He later converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammed Ali and is arguably the most famous and, as he was never afraid to tell anyone & everyone the "greatest" sportsman the world has ever known. Ali was chosen to light the Olympic cauldron at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
To the delight of the Italians they received 13 gold medals in these games finishing 3rd in the medals table behind the giants of USSR & USA. The golden Italians were Livio Berruti who was a surprise winner in the men’s 200m in a world record time of 20.5 seconds, boxers Francesco Musso, Giovanni Benvenuti & Franco De Piccoli in the featherweight, welterweight & heavyweight divisions respectively, in the cycling events Italy won gold in the 100km road team time trial, 400m team pursuit, Sante Gaiardoni won the 1000m time trial & 1000m sprint and the team of Guiseppe Beghetto & Sergio Bianchetto looked sweet upon the seat of a bicycle made for two in the 2000m tandem event. Raimondo D’Inzeo on Posillipo in the equestrian jumping event was another gold winner for Italy (with Britain’s David Broome on Sunslave winning a bronze) as was Giuseppe Delfino in the fencing individual epee, the team gold was won for the same class (epee) and last but not least Italy also won gold for the water polo event.
Britain’s only gold medallists in these games were swimmer Anita Lonsbrough in the 200m breaststroke and Don Thompson in the 50km walk.
However, tragedy was to strike at these games, when Danish cyclist Knud Jensen collapsed, fracturing his skull and later died. It later transpired that Jensen was under the influence of amphetamines at the time. His death led to the IOC to form a medical commission in 1967 and institute drug testing at the 1968 Olympics at both the summer & winter games in Mexico City, Mexico & Grenoble, France.
On a brighter note,the games most successful competitors were the soviet gymnasts Boris Shaklin who gained 4 gold, 2 silver & a bronze medal, whilst Larissa Latynina was the most successful female competitor with a tally of 3 gold, 2 silvers & a bronze to add to her 6 medals gained in Melbourne 4 years earlier.
Apart from the medals won these games saw the Hungarian master of the sabre, Aladar Gerevich, rounding off his magnificent career at the age of 50 by winning his 7th gold medal which spanned 6 games from 1932 - 1960 with another veteran fencer, the Italian Edoardo Mangiarotti retiring with a record collection (for fencing) of 13 medals, 6 gold, 5 silver & 2 bronze including a gold in the team event at these games over a span of 5 Olympic games from 1936 - 1960.
