Finland Helsinki
XV Summer International Olympic Games

The IOC made a decision to hold the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
Athletes of Netherlands Antilles, Bahamas, Vietnam, Ghana, (then Gold Cost), Guatemala, Hong Kong, Israel, Indonesia, Nigeria, Thailand and FRG made their first appearance at this Summer Olympics.
The athletes of the Soviet Union were also invited for the first time to take part in the Games. 295 Soviet athletes competed practically in all sports.
Totally, 4955 athletes (including 519 female ones) of 69 nations competed at the 1952 Olympics. They had played for 149 sets of medals in 21 sports.
At the Opening Ceremony, the Olympic Flame was lit by two outstanding Finnish runners Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen. The Athlete’s Oath was voiced by Finnish male gymnast Heikki Savolainen.
Officially, the Games of the XV Olympiad were opened by Juho Kusti Paasikivi, the President of the Republic of Finland.
On the closing day, the Games witnessed a kind of fortuitous event – the Olympics were to be closed by IOC President Sigfrid Edstrom. At the end of his speech he forgot to say: “The Games of the XV Olympiad are declared closed”. Therefore the Helsinki Olympics are considered formally in progress until the present. 

WINNER MEDALS 
In 1949, the Organizing Committee for the Helsinki Olympics suggested changes in the traditional design of the winner medal and forwarded its own version to the IOC, however, the 1951 IOC Session did not support that idea. So, again all winner medals were made according to the Cassioli’s design. Totally 320 sets of winner medals had been minted by the date of the Olympics.
The design of the Olympic medals was a replica of the medals stricken for the preceding Games. The only difference was in the name of the host city and date of the XV Olympiad.
OBVERSE: a figure of the Greek Goddess of Victory, holding a laurel wreath in her right hand, hand raised, and a palm leaf in her left hand. On the left of the goddess, there is a Panathenaean amphora standing on a shelf rock, with depicted competing athletes. A view of an amphitheatre looking like the Roman Coliseum appears on the right of the goddess. A horizontal four-line inscription in Finnish reading “XV – Olympiade – Helsinki – 1952” is engraved in the right upper segment.
REVERSE: a scene of an Olympic champion with a palm leaf in his left hand carried in triumph by other athletes; his right hand is raised to hail. The designer’s initials “G.C.” (Giuseppe Cassioli) are engraved at the right edge of the medal next to an athlete figure.
An open competition for the best design of the commemorative medal of the Games was announced by the Organizing Committee the year before the Olympics opening. The design, offered by young sculptor Kauko Räsänen, was accepted. Totally 14,000 copies of the commemorative medal had been made by the day of the Games.
OBVERSE: a composition of stylized right profiles of laurel-crowned athletes, with a view of the Olympic Stadium in the background. A two-line legend in Finnish and Swedish (two majority languages of Finland) around the top rim reads: “Helsinki – Helsingfors – 1952”. Under the left athlete profile is the designer’s signature in Finnish – “Kauko Räsänen”.
REVERSE: a scene of male and female athletes holding torches in their raised hands. The figures are turned to the right. The Olympic rings are to the left of them. A legend in Finnish around the top rim reads: “XV Olympiade”.

Olympic Medal of Merit

In 1952, the Government of Finland instituted a special Olympic medal of merit for distinguished services in organization of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The medal is 30 mm in diameter, minted in 22-Karat (916) silver, suspended from a blue ribbon with white stripes, and worn on the left breast.