Political Defection
London was the first Olympics to have a political defection. Marie Provaznikova the 57-year old Czechoslovakian President of the International Gymnastics Federation refused to return home, citing "lack of freedom" after the Czech coup in February led to the country's inclusion in the Soviet Bloc.
Read more about this topic: 1948 Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or defection:
“I would wish that the women of our country could embrace ... [the responsibilities] of citizenship as peculiarly their own. If they could apply their higher sense of service and responsibility, their freshness of enthusiasm, their capacity for organization to this problem, it would become, as it should become, an issue of profound patriotism. The whole plane of political life would be lifted.”
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