LONDON 1948
- 26 July – 14 August 1948
- 150 official medal events.
- 4,074 competitors from 59 countries.
- Finnish team: 130 athletes (123 participated in official events). 9 more Finns took part in Olympic art competitions.
The Finnish Olympic Committee sent a large team to the first post-war summer Olympic Games in preparation for the 1952 Games that had been awarded to Helsinki. For the first time the Finnish Olympic team included athletes from the Workers’ Sports Federation (TUL). The overall medal haul of the team was good, but still the London Games of 1948 are mostly remembered in Finland as the Games that marked the end of the golden era of Finnish track and field athletics. Tapio Rautavaara’s victory in men’s javelin throw was the only Finnish gold medal at Wembley Stadium. Kaisa Parviainen won silver in the javelin throw to become the first ever Finnish female medallist in a summer sport. Led by Veikko Huhtanen and Paavo Aaltonen, gymnasts saved the London Games for Finland by winning a total of 10 medals in the last days of the Games. The horse vault event alone produced three gold medals for Finland, as Huhtanen, Aaltonen and the veteran Heikki Savolainen all tied for first place. Canoeing was a new medal sport for Finland, while the Olympic art competitions, part of the program for the last time, yielded no less than four medals.
Medal Standings
| G | S | B | Total | ||
| 1 | USA | 38 | 27 | 19 | 84 |
| 2 | Sweden | 17 | 11 | 18 | 46 |
| 3 | France | 11 | 6 | 15 | 32 |
| 4 | Finland | 10 | 8 | 6 | 24 |
| 5 | Hungary | 10 | 5 | 13 | 28 |
| 6 | Italy | 9 | 12 | 10 | 31 |
| 7 | Turkey | 6 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| 8 | Czechoslovakia | 6 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| 9 | Switzerland | 5 | 12 | 6 | 23 |
| 10 | Denmark | 5 | 8 | 9 | 22 |
| 11 | Netherlands | 5 | 2 | 9 | 16 |
| 12 | Great Britain | 4 | 16 | 7 | 27 |
| 13 | Argentina | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 14 | Australia | 2 | 6 | 5 | 13 |
| 15 | Austria | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 16 | Belgium | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 17 | South Africa | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 18 | Egypt | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 19 | Mexico | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 20 | Norway | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| 21 | Jamaica | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 22 | Poland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 23 | Peru | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 25 | Canada | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 26 | Yugoslavia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 27 | Uruguay | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Portugal | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 29 | Ceylon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Cuba | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Spain | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 33 | Panama | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| South Korea | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 35 | Puerto Rico | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Iran | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Brazil | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Art competitions included.
