Officially, the Games from 1924 to 1965 were called the International Silent Games in English or Jeux Internationaux Silencieux in French....
The Games took place for the first time in Milan, Italy, in 1957.
635 athletes from 25 countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Germany, Soviet Union, Iran, New Zealand and the USA) took part in these Games with sports such as athletics, basketball, diving, gymnastics, swimming, water polo, football, cycling, shooting, table tennis and tennis.
This was a record number of participants since its inception in 1924 ..
Notable facts were:
- for the 1st time, the Soviet Union participated with 26 athletes. Ukraine and Belarus were independent states, but within the Olympic world (IOC) these 2 states had to operate under the Soviet Union flag, so this was also the case within the ICSD...;
- Gymnastics was first introduced at these Silent Games;
- Marie Bayzova (CZE) was the very first woman to win gold in shooting (predominantly dominated by the men...);
- In the medal standings, we saw : Germany finished in 1st place with 35 medals (14 gold, 9 silver and 12 bronze), while Italy won the same number of medals (2nd place with 11 gold, 8 silver and 16 bronze) and Soviet Union took 3rd place with 25 medals ( (13 gold, 8 silver en 4 bronze).
Belgium participated with 33 athletes & 3 officials and got 3 medals:
- Athletics
- Amaat De Ro (°1935) : 100 m (7th place), long jump (15th place) & high jump (12th place).
- Basketball with 1 silver medaillon
Belgium vs Bulgaria = 71-22
Belgium vs Italië = 53-50
Belgium vs France = 39-37
Final : USA vs Belgium = 81-25 (silver medal for Belgium)- Franciscus De Varé (°1940), Isaac Dorn (°1934), Jean-Pierre George (°1931), Pierre Hirsch (°1938), Roland Van den Bogaert (°1936), Charles Van Laer (°1934), Victor Van Laer (°1927), Germain Werbrouck (°1934) and Urbain Werbrouck (°1931).
- Schieten
- André Van de Binderie (°1931) : 444 points (27th of 38 athletes).
- Edmond Logelin (°1915) : 435 points (29th of 38 athletes).
- Table Tennis
- Germain Verhelst (°1934): singles.
- Tennis with 1 bronze medal
- Michel Francois (°1935): 1 bronze medal (singles) and 5th place (doubles with Henri Rossignon )
- Henri Rossignon (°1932) : singles & 5th place (dubbel with Michel Francois )
- Jean Vermeiren (°1931) : 5th place (singles) and 5th place with Etienne Goffé )
- Etienne Goffé (°1931) : 5th place (doubles with Jean Vermeiren)
- Voetbal with 1 bronze medal
Hongarije vs België = 2-1
1/2 finale : BEL vs Yugoslavia = 2-4.
Final : België vs France = 3-1
- Players: Gabriel De Cocker (°1938), Amaat De Ro (°1935), Rene De Roeck (°1937), Ivan De Roose (°1937), Werner Deschamps (°1934), Marcel Francois (°1935), Leon Francois (°1929), Joseph Goossens (°1935), Georges Huys (°1926), Jean Lombaert (°1922), Petrus Meert (°1929), Emile Peers (°1925), Willy Seeuws (°1924), Karel Smets (°1930) and Louis Williame (°1932).
- Cycling
- Maurits Milloen (°1925) : road race (6e).
- Swimming
- Paul Van den Bosch (°1930) : 400 m freestyle, 200 m breaststroke (6th place with a new Belgian record with 3'15") & 1.500 m freestyle (5th place with 27'53"40).
