The ground forms part of the Duchy of Cornwall, which had been under the stewardship of King Charles III until his accession to the throne last week.

It was the first international sporting event in 70 years at which the words "God Save the King" were sung as part of the British national anthem. This seems an appropriate time to reflect how sport has changed.

 became Queen on the death of her father King George VI, a few days before the Oslo 1952 Winter Olympics were about to begin.

The official report relates how "a solemn commemoration of King George VI especially addressed to the four teams from the British Commonwealth to be followed by a flag salute and one minute of silence."

The music at the Opening Ceremony was changed "to a more solemn tone," the report added.

The King of Norway had travelled to London for the funeral, so the Games were opened by Princess Ragnhild. They were Games when Japan and West Germany, both excluded in 1948 as aggressor nations, were welcomed back to the Olympic fold.

Most people throughout the world followed the Helsinki 1952 Olympics on radio, read about it in newspapers or waited for newsreel footage of events to appear in the cinemas. Contrast that with today's coverage, instantaneous, in colour and from every conceivable angle.

Even so the Games did have a genuine superstar in Czech runner Emil Zátopek.

His feat of winning gold medals in the 5,000 metres, 10,000m and the marathon has never been equalled.

Television was black and white, but in 1958 FIFA World Cup matches from Sweden were beamed across the continent by the Eurovision link. 

Thus viewers had their first glimpse of 17-year-old Brazilian, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé. The pictures were very grainy but his wonderful skills shone through.

More than 127,000 watched Spanish giants Real Madrid beat West Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt to win the European Cup for the fifth successive time in Glasgow in 1960. Millions more were enthralled watching on television as Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás inspired their team to glory.

In years to come, many more would admire Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and many others.

Few would have imagined at that time that sport might one day require an integrity unit, but betting scandals in the early 1960s in England and later in Germany and Italy blighted reputations of some star players.

Other sports such as cricket were similarly tainted.

The Olympics  of 1960 were to prove the last before intercontinental satellite television transformed the Games.

They were held in Rome and film of the events was flown across the Atlantic to the United States.

When a Danish cyclist collapsed from heat exhaustion and died during those Games, there were rumours that amphetamines had been discovered in his system. The claims were often repeated although it now seems they were incorrect.

Yet doping did indeed become a major problem in sport in the years that followed, to the extent in the new millennium, a worldwide anti-doping network was established with agencies in each country responsible for testing.

Even this has not solved the problem, witness the astonishing revelations from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. 

That such an anti-doping network should be necessary would have astonished sports fans in 1952. Many sports were strictly amateur in 1952 including tennis, where American Maureen Connolly carried all before her.

Not until 1968 were professional players allowed to play in the Grand Slams.

Were fans ever from that era transported to the present day they might also have been surprised to see women competing in sports such as in cycling, rowing, weightlifting and football.

Women did take part in athletics, aquatics, fencing and gymnastics in 1952 but the longest distance women were allowed to run in athletics run was only 200m.

There was no women’s boxing at the Olympics until 2012, but the Olympic competition in 1952 offered other illustrious names.

Light-heavyweight gold medallist Floyd Patterson went on to lift the professional world heavyweight championship.

That same gold was won eight years later by a fighter destined to transcend mere sport.

The official record books for 1960 Games record his name as Cassius Clay, but he shook up the world as Muhammad Ali and beat Sonny Liston to win the world heavyweight title in 1964. Three years later Ali's decision not to fight in the Vietnam War saw him stripped of his world titles.

"My conscience won’t let me shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America," Ali had said.

His stand did nothing to diminish his popularity and arguably enhanced it. An age of political activism by sportsmen had begun.

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, 200m champion Tommie Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos stood heads bowed at their medal ceremony to protest the inequities in American society.

Silver medallist Peter Norman of Australia was subsequently lauded for wearing a badge on his tracksuit in support of the pair.

The Americans were expelled from the Olympic village by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).

"The untypical exhibitionism of these athletes violates the basic standards of good manners and sportsmanship, which are so highly valued in the United States," a USOC statement said. 

Their actions flashed around the world, a measure of the importance and profile that sporting events had now attained. 

That very prominence prompted terrorists from the Black September organisation to target the Munich 1972 Olympics.

As a result of their attack, 11 Israeli Olympic team members and a Munich policeman died. 

It held a bitter legacy for all subsequent major sporting events and ever since they have been surrounded by intense security.

The 1970s were times when athletes from the most populous country in the world were excluded from international sport.

There had been a bitter civil war and by 1949 mainland China was under communist control.

The IOC still recognised the National Olympic Committee based in Taiwan and there were acrimonious exchanges at international sports meetings between the two parties.

Mainland China walked away from the Olympics and a resolution did not come until the late 1970s. Agreement was finally reached under which athletes from the mainland competed as People's Republic of China. Those from Taiwan were to use the name Chinese Taipei and a special flag was even devised.

Both Chinas competed together for the first time at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo and have done so ever since.

There had been another shadow of non-participation at that time.

South Africa had been formally expelled from the Olympic Movement in 1970 because the Pretoria Government refused to allow integrated sport and discriminated on skin colour n a system known as apartheid.

In fact they hadn't taken part in the Olympics since 1960.

Gifted sportsmen such as weightlifter Precious McKenzie were barred from competing for South Africa because of their skin colour. He emigrated to England where he won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and subsequently moved to New Zealand.

McKenzie was said to be a favourite of The Queen.

Cricketer Basil D'Oliveira made the same journey as McKenzie and went on to forge a Test cricket career with England.

In 1968, D’Oliveira was chosen for the England team to tour South Africa. South African Prime Minister Johannes Vorster soon made it clear that D’Oliveira would not be welcome and the tour was cancelled.

Two years later, South Africa were scheduled to visit England.

A campaign called "Stop the '70 tour" was begun and eventually, only a few weeks before it was due to start, the tour was cancelled.

It was replaced by a series between England and the Rest of the World.

The 1971-1972 tour of Australia followed the same course of events and the South Africans were subsequently isolated from international cricket.

Most sports refused contact with South Africa, but rugby union continued to maintain contact. 

A tour by New Zealand’s All Blacks in 1976 had repercussions for the Montreal Olympics that year. Many African nations boycotted the Montreal Games.

The following year, an agreement was signed by Commonwealth Heads of Government during their meeting in the Scottish town of Gleneagles.

"Apartheid in sport, as in other fields, is an abomination", the agreement said.

It urged Governments to take "every practical step to discourage contact or competition by their nationals with sporting organisations, teams or sportsmen from South Africa or from any other country where sports are organised on the basis of race, colour or ethnic origin."

The shadow of apartheid still shrouded the sporting world until the system began to unravel in 1990, when Nelson Mandela walked free from imprisonment.

Only five years later, Mandela was President of South Africa and presented Springbok rugby captain Francois Pienaar with the Rugby World Cup.

It was something that would have at one stage been completely unthinkable.

The other significant change to the sporting landscape came with the break-up of the Soviet Union, another event which only a few years earlier would have been impossible to imagine, particularly in 1952 when the Soviet Union first took part in the Olympics.

They stayed in quarters with other Eastern Bloc athletes apart from the other teams. They displayed a large portrait of Josef Stalin, the man of steel who was the hardline leader of the country.

There are many who may feel that little has changed in 70 years.