Tangerine Horse of the London Olympics

During the 1948 London Olympics, the aftermath of World War II in the city of London was startling. The skeletal remains of buildings destroyed by Hitler's Luftwaffe, V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets were stark reminders of the 30,000 Londoners who perished in the attacks. The star of the 1948 London Olympics was Holland's Francina Blankers-Koen, who not only became the first woman to win four gold medals in an Olympiad, but also equaled Jesse Owens's record number of gold medals in...
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During the 1948 London Olympics, the aftermath of World War II in the city of London was startling. The skeletal remains of buildings destroyed by Hitler's Luftwaffe, V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets were stark reminders of the 30,000 Londoners who perished in the attacks. The star of the 1948 London Olympics was Holland's Francina Blankers-Koen, who not only became the first woman to win four gold medals in an Olympiad, but also equaled Jesse Owens's record number of gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Francina-known as the "Flying Housewife" by the time the games ended-was 30 years old and the mother of two.Another aging athlete was a copper-chestnut horse named Red, who had escaped from a slaughterhouse in America and had survived years of pulling a junk wagon prior to his appearance in England. The efforts of Red and his equestrian partner in the three-day event, the most challenging of the three equestrian competitions at the 1948 summer games, are central to the historical fiction Tangerine Horse of the London Olympics.