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♦ -,— Finland Announces Program For Helsinki Olympic Games • t Play to Open 16-Day Meet July 79; Winter Sports to Start February 14 at Oslo By MATTI HAKKARAINEN United Press Sports Writer HELSINKI, Finland, May 1.— The Finnish • , organizing committee has announced [ i j the program for the fiftheenth Olympic I I Games, which are scheduled at Helsinki i from July 19 through August 3, 1952. All of the 18 main sports competitions i except the pentathlon and preliminary r soccer football matches will be held in Helsinki or its suburbs. The pentathlon will I be staged in Hameenlinna, 60 miles north i of this city. The program: Opening ceremony — July 19; track and I field— July 20-27; wrestling— July 20-27; ; gymnastics — July 20-24; football — first t series, July 19-21; second series, July 23-25; ; semi-finals, July 28-29; finals, August 1-2; ; hockey — July 20, 22 and 24; rowing — July t 20-23; yachting — July 20-23 and 26-28; ; pentathlon — July 21-25; swimming and 1 water polo — July 25 -August 2; shooting — - July 25-29; cycling— July 28-29, 31 and August 2; canoeing — July 27-28; weight t lifting — July 25-27; fencing — July 21-August 1; boxing — July 28-August 1; riding - — July 28-August 1; basketball — July j 25-August 2; demonstrations — July 30-31; ; art exhibitions, July 16 -August 3; closing l ceremony — August 3. Two of Helsinkis biggest problems will 1 be to assure adequate communications for r newspapers and lodging for Olympic spectators. - Last December, Swedish, Norwegian, , Danish and Finish telegraph experts decided Finlands communications service ; would bog down under Olympic pressure. . A new cable, which will double the present t number of connections between this country and Sweden, was begun this month. i Hotels Accommodate Only 4,000 t Helsinki hotels can accommodate only r 4,000, which means the guests of honor r t and visiting newspapermen will claim i ■ practically all the hotel space. Reserva- - - tions for 20,000 persons have already been booked in private homes. New leases are ; being signed daily and the Olympic lodging l office plans to book rooms for at least t 20,000 additional visitors. One hundred i " and fifty community lodgings for 50,000 ■ persons are registered and eight camping l ; sites, chiefly for young tourists, have been i " reserved to handle 40,000. 1 The usual interest in the Olympic spectacle is expected to be boosted if Russia i takes part. The Soviet Union, only major country which never has participated in i the Olympics, set up an Olympic committee . last week and applied for admittance j to the International Olympic Committee. • The IOC meets at Vienna, May 7-8, and 1 several of its officials have indicated that t Russia will be granted admittance. The Fininish organizing group also is » preparing for the arguments which have I spoiled several Olympic competitions. Maj.- : . Gen. Yrlo Valkama. the sports director for the games, has ordered 441 precision [ watches for the games. A photo-timer will 1 be used for the track and cycling races and J the film will be developed, printed and * 1 enlarged in 90 seconds. A semi-automatic 8 l timing system will be used for the swim- " l ming competition. The starters pistol will s simultaneously set eight watches in opera- * - tion. At the finish, the judge of each lane 5 will stop the respective swimmers watch 1 by pressing an electric button.
