The opening ceremonies of the 1948 Winter Olympics at St Moritz, Switzerland. (Getty)
2004 Getty Images
Swiss athletes arrive at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in St Moritz. (Keystone)
Keystone
Bobbing along! Swiss bobsledders Felix Endrich and Friedrich Waller won gold in the two-man bobsled race. (Keystone)
Keystone
Spectators enjoying the atmosphere at the ice hockey final round match between Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. (Keystone)
Keystone
Swiss alpine skier Karl Molitor from Wengen took bronze in the downhill competition. (Keystone)
Keystone
Swiss ski racer Hedy Schlunegger is congratulated by her team colleague. She won the gold medal in the discipline women's downhill skiing. (Keystone)
Keystone
Ab Renaud, Ted Hibberd, and Reg Schroeter were the first forward line of the Canadian Olympic ice hockey team which went on to win gold at the Fifth Winter Olympics. (Getty)
Getty
American figure skater, Gretchen Merrill - also known as 'Queenie' - came 8th at the Winter Games. (Getty)
Getty
It was during the Winter Olympics in 1948 that cream rationing was lifted. The demand for dessert was palpable at the well known Hanselmann Café in St Moritz. (IOC)
ICO/R‹BELT, Lothar
Number 1: Gretchen Fraser, the American ski racer, won the gold medal in slalom. (Keystone)
Keystone
Sweden's Åke Seyffarth chances for a medal in the 5,000m speed skating were scuppered when he brushed against a photographer who jumped onto the ice to take a picture and he lost precious seconds and ended up in seventh place. Two days later, he made up for his disappointment by winning the 10,000m by 9.7 seconds. (Keystone)
CIO/Lothar Rübelt
All hard work and no play: the athletes take a break from the sporting events and gather around the piano for a sing-along! (IOC)
ICO
A pentathlon athlete competing in the cross-country skiing event. (Keystone)
Keystone/Walter Scheiwiller
Swiss ski jumper Fritz Tschannen, who also played the accordian, here in action at St Moritz. (Keystone)
Keystone
Swiss Federal Councillor Karl Kobelt congratulates the Swiss Olympic champions in the military patrol competition. (Keystone)
Keystone
Three of the 77 women athletes competing at the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, 1948. Known as "Canada's Sweetheart", Barbara Ann Scott was 20 years old when she won gold in figure skating, beating Eva Pawlik of Austria, who received silver, and Jeannette Eleanor Altwegg from Great Britain. (IOC)
ICO
Checking the weather: Female ski racers standing in front of the meteorological station in St Moritz. (Keystone)
Keystone
Reporter Adolf 'Doelf' Meier announces the latest alpine skiing results over the microphone. (Keystone)
Keystone
The American Dick Button was the most dangerous rival of the Swiss ice figure skater Hans Gerschwiler. (Keystone)
Keystone
American Gretchen Fraser and Swiss Edy Reinalter congratulate each other with a kiss on their win in the slalom skiing discipline. (Keystone)
Keystone
Seventy years ago, Switzerland hosted the first Olympics since World War II in the alpine village of St Moritz. Japan and Germany were excluded due to their role in the conflict and the Soviet Union did not send any athletes to compete. But almost 700 athletes from 28 nations did take part in 22 events and in four different sports.
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Born in England, I've lived in Switzerland since 1994. I trained as a graphic designer in Zurich between 1997 – 2002. More recently I have moved on to work as photo editor and joined the team at swissinfo.ch in March 2017.
The impact of the war was still felt throughout Europe. Athletes had been prevented from leaving their home countries or taking part in any competition for some time, and there had been no investment in sport. In order to boost morale, the post-war winter event, which took place at the end of January 1948, was named “The Games of Renewal”.
The International Olympic Committee chose St. Moritz as the venue for the 1948 Winter Games because of its well-maintained infrastructure, which had been built for the previous Winter Olympics in 1928. The problem of limited supplies of sports equipment was met with a sense of camaraderie, notably towards the Norwegian skiers. They had to borrow skis from the American team in order to compete.
All of this, and the fact that Switzerland had remained neutral throughout the war, provided a positive boost for the organisers and competitors.
Foul play?
Bobsleigh events were a major highlight, partly due to allegations of sabotage: the steering on the sleds of the US team was reportedly tampered with. Later, a truck driver admitted to having caused the damage by accidentally backing into the shed where the bobsleighs were kept. The Swiss team came up trumps with gold and silver for that particular event, leaving the bronze to the US.
In the series #swisshistorypics we look back to the past and show pictures from the first winter Olympics after the Second World War.
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