Australia sent a delegation to compete at the 1952 Winter Olympics from the 14 to 25 February 1952 in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. This was the nation's second appearance at the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

with their last appearance being in 1936. Australia delegation consisted of nine competitors in four sports. This included the nation's debut in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

to go along with their appearance in the

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skatin ...

. Australia best result from the 1952 Games was a tenth-place finish in the men's singles figure skating. Nancy Hallam and Gweneth Molony became the Australia's first women athletes at the Winter Olympics as they competed in the ladies' singles figure skating, they finished 14th and 21st respectively.

Background

The

Australian Olympic Committee Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

was formed on 1 January 1895 with the nation making their debut at the first Olympics in Athens with Teddy Flack being the first representative of the nation. This was the nation's second appearance at an

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

and the first since 1936. It was also the 13th overall Olympics that Australia had sent a delegation in. The 1952 Winter Olympics was held at

in Norway and took place from the 14 to 25 February: a total of 694 athletes competed from 30 nations. The Australian delegation consist of nine athletes, three in the figure skating and alpine skiing, two in the Cross-country skiing and one in the speedskating.

Alpine skiing

Australia entered three skiers in the Alpine skiing events with Bob Arnott,

Barry Patten Barry Beauchamp Patten (11 July 1927 – 13 March 2003) was an Australian Olympic alpine skier and architect who designed Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Background and early career Patten was born in , Melbourne, Victoria. He was edu ...

competing in their only Olympics while Bill Day competing in his first of three Olympics.

Cross-country skiing

Australia entered two athletes in the cross-country skiing at the 1952 Olympics with Bruce Haslingden and Cedric Sloane being selected for the nation in what was their only appearance at an Olympics. After paying for their own expenses to the games, Haslingden and Sloane competed in two events during the 1952 games. The first event for the duo was the men's 18 kilometres which was held on 18 February. After being held under excellent snow conditions, Haslingden would finish one place higher than Sloane as they finished in 74th and 75th repressively with

Hallgeir Brenden Hallgeir Brenden (10 February 1929 – 21 September 2007) was a Norwegian cross-country skier and steeplechase runner. He competed in various skiing events at the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Winter Olympics and won two individual gold medals in 1952 and ...

from

taking the gold medal in the event. Two days later, the duo competed in the men's 50 kilometres where they wouldn't finish the event as they retired after falling 12 kilometres behind the leaders. Veikko Hakulinen from

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

claimed the gold medal with a time of 3 hours and 33 minutes.

Figure skating

Australia entered three figure skaters in the 1952 Games with

Adrian Swan Adrian David Swan (15 January 1930 – 29 September 1989) was an Australian figure skater. He represented Australia at the 1952 Winter Olympics, where he placed 10th. He was the first men's singles skater to represent Australia at the Olympi ...

, Nancy Burley and Gweneth Molony representing the nation. In the men's singles, Swan who competed in first and only Olympics was initially refused to be entered by the Victorian Skating Association but was later reversed by the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, N ...

justified his spot at the games. After completing the compulsory figures in twelfth place, Swan would go on to finish in tenth place with a score of 1,248.2 with

Dick Button Richard Totten Button (born July 18, 1929) is an American former figure skater and skating analyst. He is a two-time Olympic champion (1948, 1952) and five-time consecutive World champion (1948–1952). He is also the only non-European man to h ...

from the

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taking out the gold medal. In the ladies' singles, Burley and Molony who both would compete in their only Olympic games was selected on the 14 October 1951 as part of the announcement that happened with the skiing reveal. Heading into the Olympics, Molony was the two time defending national ladies' singles champion who had won at the Glaciarium. At the event which was held on the 16–17 February (compulsory figures) and 20 February (free skating), Burley would go on to finish the higher of the two Australian ladies finishing in 14th with 1220.7 points. Molony would finish seven spots behind to finish in 21st with 1119.1 points as the gold medal was won by Jeannette Altwegg from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

Speed skating

In the first of three Olympic appearances, Colin Hickey was the only speed-skater to compete for Australia at the 1952 Games. He competed in three speed skating events with those being the 500m, 1500m and the 5000m. His first event of the games was the men's 500 metres which took place on the 16 February. From a field of 42 competitors, Hickey finished 29th with a time of 46.2 seconds, three seconds behind the gold medallist in Ken Henry from the United States. The following day, he competed in the men's 1500 metres where he came in 30th position out of 39 with a time of 2:30.4, ten seconds behind the gold medallist in

Hjalmar Andersen Hjalmar "Hjallis" Johan Andersen (12 March 1923 – 27 March 2013) was a speed skater from Norway who won three gold medals at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games of Oslo, Norway. He was the only triple gold medalist at the 1952 Winter Olympics, and ...

from Norway. His final event of the Olympics was the men's 5000 metres where he finished 28th out of 35 skaters with a time of eight minutes and 57 seconds. He was forty seconds behind Anderson who claimed the gold.

References

External links

Australia NOCOlympic Winter Institute of Australia
*"Australians at the Olympics: A definitive history" by Gary Lester *"The Compendium: Official Australian Olympic Statistics 1896-2002"

{{Nations at the 1952 Winter Olympics Nations at the 1952 Winter Olympics

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

Olympics Winter sports in Australia