1932 Summer Olympics
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| Games of the X Olympiad | |
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| Host city | Los Angeles, California, USA |
|---|---|
| Nations participating | 37 |
| Athletes participating | 1,332 (1,206 men, 126 women) |
| Events | 116 in 14 sports |
| Opening ceremony | July 30 |
| Closing ceremony | August 14 |
| Officially opened by | Charles Curtis |
| Athlete's Oath | George Calnan |
| Stadium | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum |
The 1932 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the X Olympiad, were celebrated in 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. No other cities made a bid to host these Olympics. Held during the worldwide Great Depression, many nations and athletes were unable to pay for the trip to Los Angeles. Fewer than half the number of participants from the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam competed in 1932. US President Herbert Hoover did not attend the Games, becoming the first sitting head of government to not appear at an Olympics hosted in that country.[1]
The organizing committee put no record of the finances of the Games in their report, though contemporary newspapers reported the Games had made a profit of US$1,000,000.[1]
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[edit] Highlights
- An Olympic Village was built for the first time, in the Baldwin Hills, occupied by the male athletes.[2] Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard.
- The first use of a victory podium.[3]
- The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was known in 1932 as Olympic Stadium.
- Tenth Street, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, was renamed Olympic Boulevard in honor of the Games.
- Babe Didrikson won two gold medals in the javelin and the hurdles event, and competed in a jump-off for a third in the high jump. Her technique in the jump-off was ruled illegal, leaving Didrikson with second place.
- In field hockey, only three nations took part. The host nation lost both matches, 1-24 to India and 2-9 to Japan, but still won a bronze medal.
- Poland's Stanisława Walasiewicz won the gold medal in the women's 100 meters; she would also win the silver medal in the event four years later. After her death in 1980, it was discovered that she was intersex and would have been ineligible to participate.
- Finnish star Paavo Nurmi was barred from competing in the Olympics for being a professional.
- Eddie Tolan won both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events.
- Helene Madison won three gold medals in swimming, while the Japanese upset the men's events and took all but one title.
- Takeichi Nishi (Baron Nishi) was the gold medalist with his horse Uranus in the equestrian show jumping individual event. Nishi's gold medal is Japan's only gold medal in the equestrian event to this day. Nishi would later die in 1945 as an officer stationed in the defense of the island of Iwo Jima, and as such is a main character in Clint Eastwood's film, Letters from Iwo Jima.
- Jim Thorpe took part in the games as a press reporter.
[edit] Trivia
- Only 24 members of Brazil's Olympic team of 69 competed. Brazil was so poor from the Great Depression that the only way they could get the team to Los Angeles was to put them on a barge with 25 tons of coffee to sell to ports on the way. They only managed to sell $24 worth of coffee and the United States required a $1 head tax per person entering the country. Their last hope of getting the whole team ashore rested on the Brazilian consulate in San Francisco, who sent out a courier with a check written out for the equivalent of US$45, but by the time the courier arrived in L.A., the Brazilian reis devalued so much that the check was only worth $17; the check bounced.
- The Grand Olympic Auditorium (which hosted boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling) was the largest indoor arena in the United States at the time, seating 15,300. The arena, built in the mid-1920s, was not used for the 1984 Summer Olympics; instead the Sports Arena was used for boxing and other venues were used for weightlifting and wrestling.
[edit] Medals awarded
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
[edit] Demonstration sports
[edit] Participating nations
A total of 37 nations were represented at the 1932 Games. Colombia and the Republic of China (with a single athlete) made their first appearance at the Olympic Games.
[edit] Medal count
These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States (host nation) |
41 | 32 | 30 | 103 |
| 2 |  Italy |
12 | 12 | 12 | 36 |
| 3 |  France |
10 | 5 | 4 | 19 |
| 4 |  Sweden |
9 | 5 | 9 | 23 |
| 5 |  Japan |
7 | 7 | 4 | 18 |
| 6 |  Hungary |
6 | 4 | 5 | 15 |
| 7 |  Finland |
5 | 8 | 12 | 25 |
| 8 |  Great Britain |
4 | 7 | 5 | 16 |
| 9 |  Germany |
3 | 12 | 5 | 20 |
| 10 |  Australia |
3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
[edit] References
- ^ a b Zarnowski, C. Frank (Summer 1992). "A Look at Olympic Costs". Citius, Altius, Fortius 1 (1): 16-32. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
- ^ 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Athlete's Village in the Baldwin Hills, Accessed November 12, 2007.
- ^ Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, National Landmarks Program, National Park Service, Accessed November 12, 2007.
[edit] External links
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