until after the opening ceremony, so León's wife sewed a makeshift flag from fabric they bought, and he used a broom handle to carry it. Competitors There was one competitor for Venezuela at the 1948 Olympics, 23-year-old Julio César León, who competed in two events within the sport of cycling. With resistance from the VOC, León faced challenges to get to London and compete. León's friendship with his Argentine rivals gave him some support, including allowing him to be an honorary member of the Argentine delegation so he could eat with them, as he could not buy any food due to national rationing in the UK. León was housed at Richmond Park with the Ibero-American and Scandinavian male competitors.:160 London 1948 was the only Olympic Games León competed at. Cycling In cycling, 188 athletes of 33 countries competed in 6 events between August 7 and 11 at the Herne Hill Velodrome for track events.:26, 317–335 Track In the sprint event cyclists were drawn in heats of two; the winners would qualify, while the losing competitors contested repechage races before definitive elimination. The UCI decided to reduce the length of the race from the usual 1,000 metres to 920 metres in order to perform the competition in 2 laps. In the 1,000 metre time trial event cyclists raced individually to achieve the best time.:322 Sprint In the Men's sprint, León was in heat six of the first round, and lost. He continued to round 2 by beating Trinidad and Tobago's Compton Gonsalves in his repechage race.:322 In the second round, he lost again and thus was eliminated; however, his time and loss to the eventual gold medal winner resulted in León placing sixth. He was ranked joint ninth, behind four athletes tied for fifth place, out of the 23 athletes competing. Time trial Of his two events, León claims his "more likely" win was the 1,000 metre time trial, which he regularly rode in 1'12" to 1'13". He said the climate of London negatively affected him and caused him to underperform, placing 14th of the 21 competitors with a time of 1'18.1"; the gold medalist Jacques Dupont won with a time of 1'13.5", which León later lamented he should have beaten. References External links Official Olympic Reports International Olympic Committee results database Nations at the 1948 Summer Olympics 1948 Summer Olympics 1948 in Venezuelan sport