Venezuela at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Venezuela was one of the fourteen nations that made their first official appearance at the Summer Olympics at the 1948 Games.^[1] Though the Venezuelan Olympic Committee (COV) had been recognized by the IOC in 1935, it was skeptical about their athletes' prospects when competing against European athletes, and so did not send anyone.^[1] The COV still did not want to send athletes in 1948, and, according to Julio César León, the only Venezuelan representative at the Games, said they would "make a fool of ourselves".^[1] Venezuela had been sent 50 registration forms in anticipation of the Games.^[2]:68

León, with the approval but not support of the COV, had to get support from the British Embassy in Caracas in order to travel to London.^[1] León's brother knew Raymond Smith, an attaché to the embassy. As such, his brother got León a meeting with the ambassador who quickly agreed to send León, his wife, and his coach to London on a Lancaster Bomber serving as a British Caribbean mail plane from Maiquetia Airport two days later.^[1] The journey across the Caribbean, stopping at all British territories, took four hours; the flight from Bermuda to London was delayed due to weather. León recalled that the total flight time, not including ground time during stops, was 36 hours.^[1] The group was accompanied by three journalists. There were no members of the COV traveling with them, which caused difficulty when León tried to register at the Games, as he had no paperwork; he had to liaise with officials from Trinidad and Tobago to get a call through to Julio Bustamante, the president of the COV, which led the committee to fly to London three days later to approve León in person.^[1][3]

Neither León nor the COV took a Venezuelan flag to London; unaware of Olympic customs and thus that there would be a flag parade, the Venezuelan delegation only realized they would need one when an Argentine competitor who knew León from the South American circuit mentioned it to him in passing. The Venezuelan Embassy in London would not loan the COV a flag until after the opening ceremony, so León's wife sewed a makeshift flag from fabric they bought – cutting stars from dining room tablecloth – and he used a broom handle to carry it.^[1][3]

There was one competitor for Venezuela at the 1948 Olympics, 23-year-old Julio César León,^[4] who competed in two events within the sport of cycling.^[4] With resistance from the VOC, León faced challenges to get to London and compete.^[1] 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 Venezuela had not organized anything and he could not buy any food due to national rationing in the UK.^[1] León was housed at Richmond Park with the Ibero-American and Scandinavian male competitors.^[2]:160 London 1948 was the only Olympic Games at which León competed.^[5]