The stadium clock tower still looks as it did 1912.
By Philip Barker
Quarantine and secure “bubbles” seem certain to remain part of the Olympic world until at least after the 2022 Winter Olympics. The arrangements for Beijing may well be even stricter than those in Tokyo.
Yet quarantine of a different kind has had a major impact on the Olympics before.
The 1956 Games went ahead in Melbourne, but equestrian events were held, not just in a different country, but a different continent. The reason was Australia’s strict equine controls which did not allow the importation of horses.
The implications had not become truly apparent until at least three years after Melbourne had been awarded the Games.
Before the vote in 1949, they had presented a bid book with a lambswool cover to International Olympic Committee members as part of their campaign.
In the final vote at the IOC session in Rome, they edged out rivals from Buenos Aires.
Australia did not even have an equestrian federation, but within two years they were staging their first international horse show.
In 1956, they envisaged dressage at the Melbourne Showgrounds near Flemington.
The three-day event was to be “across open country, roads etc in accordance with the regulations of the International Equestrian Federation.”
Then came the 1953 IOC session held in Mexico City. President Avery Brundage spoke of “numerous contradictory reports from Australia.”
He was far from happy with the progress being made by the organising committee in any case when the bombshell came.
Australian IOC member Hugh Weir made his report to the session.
“Only one worry preoccupies us, it is the quarantine of six months imposed by an Australian law on all the foreign horses coming.” Weir said.
Organisers lobbied the health ministry “asking that this interdiction should be suspended for the duration of the Games.”
Tom Luxton, Vice President of the Australian Equestrian Federation remained optimistic, a view echoed by E.J “Billy” Holt, a senior British official who had worked on the 1948 London Games and was now Melbourne’s technical director.
Then, in August 1953, Australian Minister for Health Sir Earle Page wrote to Games organising committee secretary Edgar Tanner.
“Equine disease in overseas countries was such that considerable risk to the animal population, and in some cases to the human population, would be incurred. No exceptions should be made to enable horses to enter Australia for the purpose of taking part in the Olympic Games.”
The only compromise was that horses which had spent the previous six months in Great Britain, Ireland or New Zealand would be permitted to enter Australia.
In January 1954, the 29 delegates of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) met in Brussels. They ruled Australian quarantine regulations unfair and called on the IOC to find an alternative host.
Lord Killanin offered Dublin. The Royal Dublin Society offered their grounds at Ballsbridge.
West Berlin proposed using facilities from 1936.
When the IOC met in Athens, Greek member Angelo Bolanaki insisted, “If we attribute them to another town, we shall commit the infringement of two articles of our fundamental principles and violate 13 articles of our statutes and regulations.”
IOC Vice President Lord Burghley of Great Britain, told his fellow members, “It is our duty to look to the future, begging our Australian friends to forgo the project of organising the equestrian events”.
Dublin’s interest had cooled, but the Swedes were enthusiastic. “Stockholm had the honour to arrange the first equestrian competitions in 1912. We think that is one of many good reasons for giving Stockholm also the sole Olympic equestrian competitions of 1956.”
They received 25 votes to beat Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and Los Angeles.
The switch had an immediate financial impact for the Australians who now had to find almost £25,000 in order to send a team.
The Swedes were determined the Games should be “self-sufficient.” A lottery and philatelic programme were launched, but the biggest source of finance proved to be ticket sales. Even so a contingency fund was set aside.
Competitors were to be “accommodated in two military colleges in the vicinity of Stockholm with the status of Olympic Villages. In no cases will there be more than two beds in each room.”
The charges for “lodging and board” were set at $5 per day.
King Gustav VI Adolf was patron of the Games and wanted to receive visitors with due ceremony.
“Our King plans to receive Royal guests in his castle. Would you try to find out if members of the Royal Household are planning to come here and in such cases who?” requested an official invitation circulated to the Royal Houses of Europe.
The main guests were to be The Queen and Prince Philip who arrived on the Royal Yacht Britannia.
It was also decided that the Olympic Flame should burn in Stockholm.
Organising Secretary Robert Selfelt suggested that the Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Flame be kept alight “until it may be fetched by our couriers. Considering the exceptional nature of these Games, we hope the Executive Board will judge it possible to grant us this deviation from the Olympic Rules.”
Brundage, usually a very strict guardian of regulations, did not dismiss the idea.
“It would be a deviation from our protocol to keep the flame burning at Cortina until the equestrian Games are opened in Stockholm. However, I can see certain advantages.”
One disadvantage was that Cortina’s Flame was not strictly “Olympic.” It had been kindled in Rome, albeit using a brazier from Olympia.
The question soon became academic because Hellenic Olympic Committee President Constantinos Georgacopoulos wrote from Athens to announce that the HOC had “decided quite exceptionally to proceed to the ceremony of lighting the Flame in Olympia and send same to Stockholm. The HOC has come to this decision taking into consideration the exceptional situation of Force Majeure.”
The Flame duly arrived by air, carried in a miner’s safety lamp.
It landed in Copenhagen, where it was carried by Lis Hartel, 1952 dressage silver medallist.
In Sweden, the Relay also gave great prominence to female Torchbearers. Women’s auxiliary groups and riding clubs provided bearers as the Flame was carried throughout the night.
At the stadium it fell to dressage competitor Hans Wikne to light the cauldron.
The ceremony protocol then described how “the Olympic Fire will be carried from the brazier by two runners up to the top of the two stadium towers where beacons will be lit.”
The bearers were Henry Eriksson 1,500m gold medallist at London 1948 and 1952 gymnastics champion Karin Lindberg. Both wore white vests bearing the Olympic rings. Lindberg was the first woman to carry an Olympic Flame in the stadium, often forgotten in Olympic history.
Most of the film of these Games was shot in black and white but there was a limited amount of colour footage.
Likewise the documentation left by the organising committee and deposited in Stockholm archives includes photographs of each competitor but these were in black and white.
Recently, a remarkable cache of colour pictures by an unknown photographer has come to light and some are shown here.
Organisers had promised that “weather conditions are very favourable at the time the Games take place.”
It rained on the day of the opening ceremony, but relented in time for the Royal carriage procession through the city to the stadium.
The parade of nations was on horseback and some of the horses, unused to big crowds, gave their riders a few difficulties.
Competition began with dressage.
Five-time Olympian Henri St. Cyr of Sweden retained his individual title and helped Sweden win team gold.
There was further home joy in the three-day event. Petrus Kastenman won individual gold but the cross-country section proved particularly testing in heavy rain prompting complaints from animal rights groups.
There had also been a worrying episode when fire broke out near one of the stables and horses were swiftly evacuated.
“The heavy smoke of the fire is quite disturbing,” said the organisers but the horses appeared to suffer no ill effects.
Great Britain eventually won the eventing team gold. The Queen was delighted and invited the team aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. She was also the owner of “Countryman V,” ridden by Bertie Hill.
Women were not yet permitted to take part in eventing, but they were allowed in the show jumping with two competing.
Belgium’s Brigitte Schockaert tied for 34th place, but Pat Smythe of Great Britain, on her famous mount, Flanagan, won bronze in the team event.
The gold medal was won by Germany, for whom Hans Gunter Winkler took the individual jumping title on Halla.
Theirs became one of the most famous partnerships in equestrian history.
IOC President Brundage made the closing declaration.
“I offer to His Majesty King Gustaf VI Adolf and to the people of Sweden, to the authorities of the City of Stockholm and to the Organizing Committee of these Games, our deepest gratitude.”
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