1948 Summer Olympics - Organisation

Organisation

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 were: 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; A.E. Porritt, a member of the IOC for New Zealand who resided in London; S.F. Rous, Secretary of the Football Association; and Jack Beresford.

Olympic pictograms were introduced for the first time. There were twenty of them—one for each Olympic sport and three separate pictograms for the arts competition, the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony. They were called "Olympic symbols" and intended for the use on tickets. The background of each pictogram resembled escutcheon. Olympic pictograms would appear again 16 years later and be featured at each Summer Olympics thereafter.

At the time of the Games food, petrol and building rationing was still in place in Britain; because of this the 1948 Olympics came to be known as the "Austerity Games". Athletes were given increased rations, the same as those received by dockers and miners, which meant 5,467 calories a day, instead of the normal 2,600. Building an Olympic Village was deemed too expensive; athletes were therefore housed in existing accommodation. Male competitors stayed at RAF camps in Uxbridge and West Drayton, and an Army camp in Richmond; female competitors in London colleges.

These were the first games to be held following the death of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee, in 1937. They were also the last to feature an arts competition, which took place at the Victoria and Albert Museum.