1955

BARCELONA / SPAIN
DATE
1955
COUNTRY
SPAIN
ATHLETES
1135
COUNTRIES
10
EVENTS
17
DATE
1955
COUNTRY
SPAIN
ATHLETES
1135
COUNTRIES
10
EVENTS
17
Information
Medals
Poster
Results

  • The Games took place between 15 and 25 July and were largely the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch. Samaranch, who was a member of the Barcelona City Council, was also the vice-president of the Spanish Olympic Committee and these second Mediterranean Games. At the time, he was already saying in La Prensa: “If all goes well, this will allow us to ask for the organisation of the Olympic Games one day.” The future president of the IOC would have to wait another 40 years for this day. Ten countries, as four years earlier, participated in these Games, with a vastly bigger number of athletes, i.e. 1,135, however it was four countries (Spain, France, Italy and Egypt) that dominated this edition with 929 champions among them. The big star of these Games was the Spanish gymnast Joaquin Blume who alone won six gold medals and one bronze. He died four years later in a plane crash. The Frenchman Alain Mimoun repeated his double 5000m-10000m feat, that he had already achieved in Alexandria, and the Italian sprinter Luigi Gnocchi achieved the triple (100m, 200m, 4X100m).

  • JM1955
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