AMSTERDAM 1928

The olympic family moved after Paris 1924 to the neighboring Netherlands and the its capital Amsterdam.  The 1928 olympics were granted originally to Berlin but the First World War caused Berlin to loose the games.  The horrors of the war were anyhow slowly forgotten and Germany was granted right to participate to the games.  Also banned Austo-Hungarian Empire was  given right to participate but in Amsterdam Austria and Hungary participated as new independent countries with their individual teams

The original idea of Amsterdam hosting the games had already been given in 1912 when the founder of Dutch Olympic Committee Frederik van Serooskerken suggested the games to be given to the Netherlands even that the Dutch Olympic Committee didn't even exist yet.  The games were eventually granted to Amsterdam in IOC's confefrence in 1921 so the hosts had good time to build the venues 

Statue of van Serooskerken outside the main stadium

For the venues there was a competition for architecture which was won by Mr Jan Wils with his suggestion for an Olympic City which was located in the southwestern part of Amsterdam.  The main venues were located inside two kilometers from the main stadium.  The equestrian competitions were held in the city of Hilversum and part of the sailing competitions were held in Zuidersee outside Amsterdam.

Personally this made my adventure in Amsterdam very easy as the furthermost stadium, venue for rowing, was located only 1,5 miles away from the main stadium.  Again the local weather played a part in my visit to the Olympic venues when on the first day there was heavy rain whole day and on the second day a thick fog covered the sailing venue of  Buiten Y

OLYMPISCH STADIUM

General view of the Olympic City 1928

Grand Stand 2015

General View of the stadium 2015

The old score board is still there

Olympi Stadium and Marathon Tower from outside

Olympic Flame Caldron and the PA Speakers

Olympic Rings still celebrating the 1928 Olympic Games

Originally the main stadium was supposed to be the Old Stadium located in the middle of the Olympic City. Anyhow the public interest in Netherlands and abroad was so great that the capacity of 20.000 spectators at the Old Stadium was not going to be enough.  Because of this the organizers decided to build a new Olympi Stadium next to the old one.  Jan Wils changed the blueprints of the Olympic City and the building of the new stadium started immediately.

Organizers started a collection for the funding of the building of the venues for the games.  The Dutch public donated over three million Guildens for the building work.  First time ever a running track of 400 meters was built on the stadium and this became the regular length of the running tracks at the stadiums over the world. Additionally a 500 meter cycling track was built around the athletics field

The original scoreboard of the stadium is still located on the northern stands of the stadium. Unfortunately the board is no longer used but it is still there for people to see the technology of the 1928

First time in the Olympic history an Olympic flame was also lit to celebrate the beginning of the Olympic games.  For this a Marathon Tower was built outside the stadium.  During the daytime a black smoke was raising from the cauldron and during the night time a flame was seen in Amsterdam.  A traditional quiz question is always, who was the first ever person lighting the olympic flame. An unknown employee of the Amsterdam gas company lit the flame first time.  Marathon tower could be  seen from every corner of the marathon route and this is where the tower got its name.  Also a new part in the olympic history, there was  also a public announcement system on the Marathon tower where the Olympic news and results were announced to the public outside.  The old PA system is still attached to the tower, but no longer in use.

Amsterdam Olympic stadium is still active with lots of public events held in there.  For example 2016 European Championships in athletics are held at the stadium.  Football team Ajax Amsterdam played their home games at the Olympic stadium before moving to their new home stadium.  Finnish football player Jari Litmanen is still very well known person within the Ajax supporters.

In 1928 the Olympic Stadium hosted the games of athletics, track cycling, equestrian and gymnastics.  Some of the football preliminaries and the finals of the hockey and football were held in the Stadium also

THE OLD STADIUM

The old stadium of Amsterdam was built 1914 and it was planned to be the main stadium of the 1928 olympic games.  However the capacity of 29.000 spectators proved to be too small for the organizers and a new stadium was built urgently.

The old stadium was not abandoned in the plans of the Olympic committee and it was decided that some of the preliminary round matches for the hockey were played at the old stadium

Unfortunately the old stadium was demolished immediately after the games in 1929 and city of Amsterdam built new blocks of flats on the site.  These buildings are still located at this site.
 

SCHERMZAAL

Inside Schermzaal 1928

Schermzaal 2015

Schermzaal 1928

Next to the Olympic Stadium was built a special hall for the fencing competitions of the 1928 Olympic games. The hall was named as Schermzaal and it hosted together with the fencing competitions also the fencing discipline of the modern pentathlon.

 

The old venue  is still located at it's old position and is now used as a smaller conference centre in Amsterdam.

 

During my visit to Amsterdam the venue was closed so I was unable to visit the hall inside, but outside I was able to take picture of the old traditional Olympic venue 

 ROWING STADIUM

The old rowing stadium is located about 1,5 miles away from the main olympic stadium and it was a part of the olympic park.

The arena had 2 kilometers long rowing area and it is still operating an active training venue for Dutch rowing teams.

Again unfortunately there are not so many photographs about the 1928 rowing competition, but I found a couple of pictures from the IOC's archives

ZWEMSTADION

The organisers built a special swimming stadium to the north side of the olympic park.  In the stadium there was a full size 50m swimming pool and a separate pool for diving competitions together with a diving tower.

Unfortunately the old stadium was demolished almost immediately after the games and blocks of flats were built on the site.  However, the site was easy to find with old maps.

The aquatics stadium hosted the competitioins of swimming, diving and water polo and the swimming of the modern pentathlon competition

BUITEN Y

Buiten is a small water area behind the present Amsterdam's Central Railway Station.  The venue was perfectly located in the center of Amsterdam and the single handed monotype sailing competitions were held in the Buiten. 

The main venue of the sailings was the Zuidersee, outside Amsterdam.

While visiting Amsterdam researching these games, Amsterdam was covered with a very thick fog and I was unable to see anything of the Buiten.  This is why the picture I took is very grey



The solemn closing ceremonies of the IX Olympic games were held at the Olympic Stadium where the Queen of the Netherlands provided the medals to the athletes that had won them during the games.  The Olympic Flag which was used first time in the olympic history was given to the International Olympic Commitee to be given to the next hosts in the opening ceremonies of the 1932 games

The medal table was won by the USA with 22 gold medals.  Germany got 10 and my home country Finland was third with  eight gold medals   The most successfull individual athlete was Swiss gymnast Georges Diez who won 3 gold medals and one silver

Amsterdam proved to be a great success to the games organisers and the Olympic Games started to gain the respect and  success that belonged to the event.  Thanks to this the IOC started looking for organisers of the Olympics outside the Europe and so the 1932 Olympic Games were given second time to the USA to the city of Los Angeles

So this means that my Olympic adventure moves to across the Atlantic to the City of Angels to California

 

DID YOU KNOW

*  Olympic flag was used first time in the Olympic history

*  The Olympic flame was lit first time in the Olympic history

*  The first person to lit Olympic flame is not known.  He was told to be a

    gasworks employee of Amsterdam

*  First time at the parade of the nations, Greece let the athletes to the sta-

    dium first and the hosts - Netherlands - last

*   The spectators were sold first time olympic souvenirs with olympic rings 

     in them 

*   Coca Cola was sold to the spectators first time in the Olympic Games 

*   The crown prince of Norway, future king Olav V, won a gold medal in 

     sailing

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