On this day, 73 years ago, February 5, 1952 (January 10, 1952 in the lunar calendar), this was the first time that New China participated in the Olympic Games. On February 5, 1952, China decided to participate in the 15th Olympic Games. The 15th Olympic Games were held in Helsinki, Finland from July 19 to August 3, 1952. A total of 5867 athletes participated in this Olympic Games, including 518 female athletes. The number of participating countries and regions increased by 10, bringing a total of 69. Among them, the Soviet Union and New China participated for the first time, which was eye-catching. After being allowed to participate in the founding of New China, the former All-China Sports Association was reorganized into the All-China Sports Federation and exercised the rights of the China Olympic Committee. However, before this Olympic Games, the new China Olympic Committee was not recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Thanks to the efforts of the Finnish government and other friendly countries that have established diplomatic relations with New China, New China finally qualified to participate in this Olympic Games at the 48th Annual Meeting of the International Olympic Committee before the opening of this Olympic Games. However, the next day, July 19, 1952, the Olympic Games were about to open, and Helsinki was thousands of miles away. Will China go or not? It was Premier Zhou Enlai who made the decisive decision and ordered "I want to go!" On July 23, 1952, the China delegation to the 15th Olympic Games was established. Leader Rong Gaotang, deputy leaders Huang Zhong and Wu Xueqian, and general director Dong Shouyi. Members include the men's basketball team, football team and men's swimmer Wu Chuanyu, as well as 40 people including interpreters, doctors, and reporters. At the flag-raising ceremony at 11 a.m. on July 29, the China delegation arrived in Helsinki. At noon that day, a flag-raising ceremony was held in the Olympic Village. The China sports delegation stood neatly in front of the flagpole. General Matola, Vice Chairman of the Olympic Preparatory Committee, presided over the ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. Sports delegations and journalists from many countries also stood by warmly and friendly to participate in the flag-raising ceremony of this historic People's Republic of China. Zhang Banglun, an outstanding China football player who participated in the 14th Olympic Games, is honored to be the flag raiser. The five-star red flag, accompanied by the solemn "March of the Volunteers", slowly rose under the blue sky of a foreign country. At the same time, in the main venue and important venues of the Olympic Games, on both sides of the delegation residence and Helsinki streets, China's five-star red flag flew high together with the flags of other countries. On the day the China sports delegation arrived in Helsinki, the 15th Olympic Games had been going on for 10 days. The preliminaries for football, basketball and other events have ended, but China has not been able to participate in the official competition. Only swimmer Wu Chuanyu caught up in the 100-meter backstroke, making him the first athlete from the People's Republic of China to officially participate in the Olympic Games. However, due to fatigue from the journey, he was eliminated in the preliminaries. Significance Although the China team failed to perform outstanding on the Olympic field, the China team had made significant gains outside the Olympic field. First of all, at the grand reception held by the China delegation on the evening of August 1, among friends from all over the world, there were not only friends from socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, but also more than a hundred delegation leaders and athletes from 16 countries including the United States, Britain, Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Ceylon, Romania and Finland. They highly praised the China delegation for its loyalty to the Olympic Movement's ideal of focusing on participation, and still came to participate in the competition even after the opening of the Olympic Games. On August 2, 1952, the China delegation participated in the Olympic Peace Camp. At a conference where more than 15,000 Finnish young people met with outstanding athletes from all over the world, my country's basketball player Chen Wenbin delivered a passionate speech. China also attended the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, with bright five-star red flags appearing among the flags of 72 countries. In general, although the People's Republic of China went through hardships and did not achieve high sports results during its first participation in the Olympic Games, the five-star red flag flying over the Olympic venue demonstrated to the world the existence of a new red regime and her legal right to participate in the Olympic Games cannot be lost.