Olympic Winter Games 1948 / Nordic skiing

Nordic skiing at the 5th Olympic Winter Games
information
venue	St. Moritz
Competition venue	Olympiaschanze ski stadium
Nations	16
Athletes	148 (148 men)
date	January 31 - February 7, 1948
decisions	5
← Garmisch 1936 Oslo 1952 →

At the 5th Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz in 1948 , five competitions in Nordic skiing took place. This was also the 17th Nordic World Ski Championships . In addition to Olympic medals, world championship medals were also awarded. The only exception was the Nordic Combined, in which there were only Olympic medals. The venues were the ski stadium and the Olympic hill . The cross-country trails led through the area of ​​the Stazerwald . German participants were not yet admitted again after the Second World War .

More than ever before, the athletes from Scandinavia dominated the events at the Nordic ski competitions. All medals went to Swedes , Finns and Norwegians . The best placement in an individual discipline by a non-Scandinavian went to Swiss Niklaus Stump with fourth place in the Nordic combined. In addition to the Scandinavian athletes, apart from the cross-country relay, there was only one other Swiss and one Czechoslovakian in the top eight.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Sweden	3	2	2	7th
2	Finland	1	2	1	4th
3	Norway	1	1	2	4th

Medalist

Cross-country skiing

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
18 km	Martin Lundström	Nils Östensson	Gunnar Eriksson
50 km	Nils Karlsson	Harald Eriksson	Benjamin Vanninen
4 × 10 km relay	Gunnar Eriksson , Martin Lundström , Nils Östensson , Nils Täpp	August Kiuru , Teuvo Laukkanen , Sauli Rytky , Lauri Silvennoinen	Erling Evensen , Olav Hagen , Reidar Nyborg , Olav Økern

Ski jumping

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Special jumping	Petter Hugsted	Birger Ruud	Thorleif Schjelderup

Nordic combination

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
singles	Heikki Hasu	Martti Huhtala	Sven Israelsson

Cross-country skiing

18 km

space	country	athlete	Time (h)
1	SWE	Martin Lundström	1:13:50
2	SWE	Nils Östensson	1:14:22
3	SWE	Gunnar Eriksson	1:16:06
4th	FIN	Heikki Hasu	1:16:43
5	SWE	Nils Karlsson	1:16:54
6th	FIN	Sauli Rytky	1:18:10
7th	FIN	August Kiuru	1:18:25
8th	FIN	Teuvo Laukkanen	1:18:51
9	NOR	Olav Hagen	1:19:05
10	FIN	Martti Huhtala	1:19:28
20th	SUI	Edi shield	1:22:15
	SUI	Niklaus Stump
25th	SUI	Max Muller	1:22:40
26th	SUI	Robert Zurbriggen	1:22:51
28	AUT	Karl Rafreider	1:23:19
30th	SUI	Theo Allenbach	1:24:12
34	SUI	Alfons Supersaxo	1:24:29
36	AUT	Josef Gstrein	1:25:04
39	AUT	Engelbert hundred pounds	1:25:41
41	SUI	Karl Bricker	1:25:47
43	SUI	Gottlieb Perren	1:26:27
45	AUT	Hias Noichl	1:27:34
46	AUT	Josef Deutschmann	1:27:43
61	AUT	Paul Haslwanter	1:31:00
64	AUT	Karl Martitsch	1:31:19
68	AUT	Hubert Hammerschmidt	1:32:47

Date: January 31, 1948, 10:00 a.m.
84 participants from 15 countries, 83 of them in the evaluation. The start was at intervals of 30 seconds. The run also counted for the combination.

The first reports from the checkpoint at 6 km showed that the Scandinavians were already quite united in the lead. At the intermediate time at 12 km, the two Swedes Nils Östensson and Martin Lundström were in the lead, with over a minute ahead of their competitors. In the second half of the track, Gunnar Eriksson pushed himself in front of the Finn Heikki Hasu in the classification and made the Swedish triple victory perfect. Nils Karlsson , who started as the favorite, was troubled by the thin air and finished fifth. As the best Central European, the French Benoît Carrara fought for eleventh place, otherwise the Nordic supremacy reached up to 19th place.

50 km

space	country	athlete	Time (h)
1	SWE	Nils Karlsson	3:47:48
2	SWE	Harald Eriksson	3:52:20
3	FIN	Benjamin Vanninen	3:57:38
4th	FIN	Pekka vannins	3:57:58
5	SWE	Törnkvist is different	3: 58; 20
6th	SUI	Edi shield	4:05:37
7th	FIN	Pekka Kuvaja	4:10:02
8th	TCH	Jaroslav Cardal	4:14:34
9	NOR	Kristian Bjørn	4:15:21
10	NOR	Martin Jære	4:17:11
12	AUT	Josef Gstrein	4:21:13
17th	SUI	Max Muller	4:30:51
19th	SUI	Louis Bourban	4:33:50

Date: February 6, 1948, 10:00 a.m.
28 participants in 9 countries, 20 of them in the ranking.

Two laps over 25 km had to be covered. As the course at 8 o'clock had more ice than snow in places, the start was postponed by two hours in order not to expose the competitors to unnecessary falls and danger. The three Swedes Nils Karlsson , Harald Eriksson and Anders Törnkvist took the lead early on and had already left the other participants behind by more than a minute after 11 km. There were a few failures early on: the Italian Victor Borghi broke his ski near the Olympic hill and the Finn Martti Sipilä on the descent to Celerina. Most of the northerners refused snacks after 25 km. Eriksson was one minute ahead of favorite Karlsson, followed by Finnish brothers Benjamin Vanninen and Pekka Vanninen. Eriksson's lead, however, melted as a result; at 36 km Karlsson was in the lead and steadily increased his lead. At 41 km it was already three minutes. The Swedish double victory was secured early on, as Eriksson was five minutes ahead of Benjamin Vanninen at 45 km. This relegated his brother to fourth place in the final sprint and won bronze.

4 × 10 km relay

space	Country / athlete	time
1	Sweden Nils Östensson Nils Täpp Gunnar Eriksson Martin Lundström	2:32:08 h 36:16 min 37:14 min 38:27 min 40:11 min
2	Finland Lauri Silvennoinen Teuvo Laukkanen Sauli Rytky August Kiuru	2:41:06 h 38:11 min 38:16 min 40:30 min 44:09 min
3	Norway Erling Evensen Olav Økern Reidar Nyborg Olav Hagen	2:44:33 h 40:15 min 38:37 min 41:39 min 44:02 min
4th	Austria Josef Gstrein Josef Deutschmann Engelbert Hundertpfund Karl Rafreider	2:47:18 h 40:02 min 40:46 min 42:09 min 44:21 min
5	Switzerland Niklaus Stump Robert Zurbriggen Max Müller Edi Schild	2:48:07 h 41:08 min 40:22 min 42:05 min 44:32 min
6th	Italy Vincenzo Perruchon Silvio Confortola Rizzieri Rodeghiero Severino Compagnoni	2:51:00 h 41:50 min 41:18 min 41:51 min 46:01 min
7th	France René Jeandel Gérard Perrier Marius Mora Benoît Carrara	2:51:53 h 42:54 min 42:28 min 42:43 min 43:48 min
8th	Czechoslovakia Štefan Kovalčík František Balvín Jaroslav Zajíček Jaroslav Cardal	2:54:56 h 42:57 min 43:12 min 44:53 min 43:54 min
9	Yugoslavia Tone Razinger Anton Pogačnik Matevž Kordež Jože Knific	2:55:55 h 41:16 min 43:08 min 45:01 min 46:30 min
10	Poland Józef Daniel Krzeptowski Stanisław Bukowski Tadeusz Kwapień Stefan Dziedzic	2:59:19 h 43:03 min 44:22 min 43:29 min 48:25 min
11	Liechtenstein Christof Frommelt Arthur Meier Xaver Frick Egon Matt	3:35:39 h 47:25 min 52:51 min 58:21 min 57:02 min

Date: February 3, 1948, 8:00 a.m.
Difference in altitude: 250 m
11 relays at the start, all in the ranking.

In this mass start race, all four Swedish runners achieved the best part-time results. In the end, they were nine minutes ahead of the Finns. At the first change, Austria was just in third position, but was then ousted by Norway. There was a Swiss protest against Austria because Rafreider is said to have waxed his skis on the track with outside help, but this objection was rejected.

Special jumping

space	country	athlete	Widths (m)	Points
1	NOR	Petter Hugsted	65.0 / 70.0	228.1
2	NOR	Birger Ruud	64.0 / 67.0	226.6
3	NOR	Thorleif Schjelderup	64.0 / 67.0	225.1
4th	FIN	Matti Pietikäinen	69.5 / 69.0	224.6
5	United States	Gordon Wren	69.5 / 69.0	222.8
6th	FIN	Leo Laakso	66.0 / 69.5	221.7
7th	NOR	Asbjørn Ruud	58.0 / 67.5	220.2
8th	FIN	Aatto Pietikäinen	69.0 / 68.0	215.4
9	SUI	Fritz Tschannen	64.5 / 66.0	214.8
10	SUI	Hans Zurbriggen	61.0 / 67.0	214.0
13	SUI	Willy Klopfenstein	60.0 / 62.5	209.3
17th	SUI	Andreas Däscher	61.0 / 61.0	203.8
19th	AUT	Hubert Hammerschmidt	61.0 / 63.0	199.8
24	AUT	Gregor Höll	60.0 / 62.5	195.8
28	AUT	Anton Wieser	59.0 / 61.5	192.1
35	AUT	Helmut Hadwiger	51.0 / 56.5	181.4

Date: February 7, 1948, 2:30 p.m.
K-point : 68 m
49 participants from 14 countries, 46 of them in the evaluation.

This discipline is also known as jumping or ski jumping . The longest jump per round was rated with 60 points, plus a maximum of 60 points for the jump style. The lowest and highest scores of the five referees were deleted results . A maximum of 240 points could be achieved. Petter Hugsted achieved the best distance with 70 m in the second round. In terms of style notes, the Norwegians remained unmatched, which formed the basis of their triple success.

Persistent snowfall caused a layer of fresh snow at least 10 cm high at daybreak. After the snow had been cleared, the jury lowered the Norwegian Hohl as a forerunner; he had a serious fall and had to be taken into medical care. After that, the start was postponed to 2:30 p.m. The sky cleared, the temperature was −6 ° C. Schjelderup was the first competitor with an excellent performance, his 64 m earned him 18.5 points from all judges. Matti Pietikäinen managed the longest jump of the first round with 69 m, but it was not marked excessively well. Birger Ruud stayed 5 m behind the Finn, but clearly surpassed him stylistically with the best-rated performance. The subsequent winner Hugstedt (65 m) received appealing grades. In the second round, Schjelderup jumped 67 m and received excellent grades. Pietikäinen jumped 69 m, but did not come close to the Norwegians stylistically. Ruud jumped 67 m and was rewarded with excellent style marks. Hugstedt achieved the best distance of the day with 70 m and won the competition. The Yugoslav Polda flew a meter further, but could not stand the jump and fell.

Nordic combination

space	country	athlete	Points running	Points jumping	points total
1	FIN	Heikki Hasu	240.0	208.8	448.8
2	FIN	Martti Huhtala	224.2	220.5	433.7
3	SWE	Sven Israelsson	211.5	221.9	433.4
4th	SUI	Niklaus Stump	208.5	213.0	421.5
5	FIN	Olavi Sihvonen	207.0	209.2	416.2
6th	NOR	Eilert Dahl	205.5	208.8	414.3
7th	FIN	Pauli salons	207.0	206.3	413.3
8th	NOR	Olav Dufseth	211.5	201.1	412.6
9	SWE	Erik Elmsäter	209.0	202.0	411.0
10	SWE	Clas Haraldsson	197.4	213.4	410.8
13	SUI	Alfons Supersaxo	196.5	203.9	400.4
16	AUT	Josef Gstrein	193.5	188.2	381.7
17th	SUI	Theodor Allenbach	199.5	176.6	376.1
18th	SUI	Gottlieb Perren	186.0	187.8	373.8
21st	AUT	Karl Martitsch	162.0	198.2	360.2
23	AUT	Hubert Hammerschmidt	154.5	202.4	356.9

Date: January 31, 10:00 a.m. (cross-country skiing, as part of the 18 km race) / February 1, 1948, 2:30 p.m. (ski jumping)
39 participants from 13 countries, 38 of them in the ranking.

The winner of the cross-country skiing received 240 points, for all following there were corresponding point deductions. The ski jumping consisted of three attempts for the first time, of which the best two jumps were included in the rating. As a big surprise, Norway, which had always been the winner so far, could not win a medal for the first time. Before the combined competition, it had snowed heavily from 11 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and a light north wind swept away the emerging fog. From 1 p.m. there was a training jump. Already in the first round, the great difference in the grades was noticed. In the second round, Salonen spoiled its good starting position with a fall in the transition to the plain. Hasu looked safe in his third jump at 64 m. The Swiss Stump started very well, but in the second round there was too much air under the slats and was just able to stand; the grades were low, so he didn't want to risk everything in the third round. The Finns had a good day jumping and, being good cross-country skiers, they had already achieved quite high combined marks. The Norwegians didn’t convince as a runner or as a jumper. Apart from the Swiss, the other Central Europeans had only a few good Nordic combiners. The US-American Gordon Wren achieved the best distance with 68.5 m in the second round, which brought him second place in the jumping. The winner of the jumping was the Swede Sven Israelsson, who achieved the bronze medal in the overall classification. The two Finns, Hasu and Huhtala, who are leading after cross-country skiing, were also able to defend their places in jumping.

literature

• Cross-country skiing at the Olympic Winter Games: List of Olympic champions in cross-country skiing. Edited by the Bucher Group, General Books Verlag, 2010, 188 pages.

Web links

• Cross-country skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Ski jumping at the 1948 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Nordic combined at the 1948 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1948 Winter Olympics (PDF; 3.7 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Protest against Austria's relay . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 4, 1948, p. 4 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ^ The Swiss protest rejected . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 5, 1948, p. 4 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ^ «As expected, Norway's ski jumpers win three medals». In: Sport Zürich, February 9, 1948, pp. 2/3.
4. ^ "Unrivaled Nordic jumpers" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 8, 1948, p. 5 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ «Finnish double victory in Nordic combined!». In: Sport Zürich, February 2, 1948, pp. 1–3.