Word: helsinki
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Finland braced itself this week for an invasion. Planes and ships, loaded to capacity, were already disembarking the advance guard of an expected 40,000 foreign visitors to the Olympic Games at Finland's capital. Helsinki's main boulevard, the Mannerheimintie, was lined with store windows displaying the five-colored Olympic rings. In the 10 local newspapers, news of the imminent games almost crowded out the G.O.P. convention in Chicago and the war in Korea. Some householders were demanding, and getting, sky-high prices for bed & board. Helsinki's restaurants hurriedly recruited an extra 2,500 helpers...
...strong, which was constantly convoyed by 300 stony-faced "officials." Making their first Olympic appearance since the Czarist days of 1912 (when they didn't win a single gold medal), the Russians had apparently abandoned their idea of shuttling the Red athletes by airlift in & out of Helsinki each day. Instead, they were immured in a separate "Little Iron Curtain" village, six miles from the Olympic Stadium. But they were plainly on their best behavior. Located next to the U.S. boathouse, Russian oarsmen jovially insisted on lending the Americans a scull...
...Baron Erik von Frenckell, Helsinki's mayor, proclaimed this week the traditional "Olympic truce" (a throwback to the B.C. days when the Greeks called off their local wars to celebrate the games), there were a few inevitable rhubarbs. Both Nationalist and Red China, along with East Germany, suddenly and belatedly demanded admission for their teams. Bulgaria, which drew Russia in a first-round soccer match, complained bitterly when a soccer "unknown," The Netherlands West Indies, drew a first-round...
This week at Helsinki, Bob seemed to have no worries about either 1952 or 1956. Easy and relaxed, he pronounced himself "in better condition than I was two weeks ago, though I had a little trouble sleeping the first night because the sun never seems to set in this country." In his dark blue U.S. Olympic sweatshirt, he was working out at the pole-vault pit, with Rev. Bob Richards, voluble and intense, giving him a few tips on how to improve his vaulting form...
Back home in Tulare, the folks were following his every move. Said one admiring Tularean: "You know, we'd be just as proud sending Bob over to Helsinki even if he couldn't score a point. He's just a good American kid, and I think more Europeans should see a good American kid. We're mighty proud and loud about him." But no one in Tulare really thought that anything short of a broken arm could keep Bob Mathias from making them prouder still...