100 Olympic Tidbits: here come the Russians
After skipping the 1948 Olympics, the Soviet Union finally made its Olympic debut in Helsinki in 1952, and did so in style, winning 22 gold medals to finish second behind Cold War rival United States. The Soviet women’s gymnastics team easily won the gold medal, just as they would in all subsequent Games except 1984, which they boycotted, up to 1992 when they competed as the Unified Team following the dissolution of the USSR – a remarkable run of nine gold medals.
With women finally allowed to compete in equestrian, Lis Hartel of Denmark won a silver in equestrian dressage despite being paralyzed below the knees.
The Philippines sent a delegation of 26 athletes, including the 12-man basketball team led by a young forward from San Beda named Carlos Loyzaga, the five-man boxing team, high jumper Andres Franco, swimmer Sambiano Basanung, shooters Martin Gison, Cesar Jayme, and Felix Cortes, weightlifters Rodrigo Del Rosario and Pedro Landero, and wrestlers Gonzalo Monte-Manibog, Jr. and Florentino Real. (Source: Olympic.org and Olympic.ph)
Editor's Note: To celebrate the 100-day countdown to the London Games, we will be publishing 100 tidbits about the Olympics. Come back to Yahoo! PH Sports, as we publish a new tidbit every day.
