Billing for The Greatest Show on Earth may have been shared by the Olympic Games and the hit movie of the same name by Cecil B DeMille. Another hit movie was a classic western, High Noon.. It was beginning to look like High Noon on the athletic field as well. The Soviet Union had just "arrived in town" (1952 was the first Olympics the Soviets competed in) to start a four decade rivalry with the United States for sporting supremacy. Appropriatley enough the hero of the Games was a long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek. The world was becoming a kinder place for joggers with such innovations as transistor radios and sugar-free soft drinks. Reflective of a worldwide movement for national independence, participation at the 1952 Olympics reached a high of 69 nations.