ABSTRACT
In October 1945, immediately following World War II, Britain was asked if it could host the first Olympic Games to be held for twelve years.
Despite their makeshift character and the exclusion of teams from Germany and Japan, the 1948 London games attracted 6,000 competitors from fifty-nine countries whose exploits were watched by capacity crowds of 80,000 at Wembley stadium and for the first time by over half a million television viewers.
