1932 Summer Olympics

Budget

Los Angeles was awarded the games on April 9, 1923. William May Garland led the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG), officially titled the "Xth Olympiad Committee" with a staff of 70 employees. The Games were originally heavily backed by local corporate interests and L.A. business elites. They were primarily underwritten by a US $1 million (equivalent to US $18.67 million in 2024)^[5] state bond act, the “California Olympic Bond Act of 1927″. Later approved as "Proposition 2" by CA voters with 73% of the vote in 1928. The OCOG raised funds from various sources. 1,247,580 million event tickets sold, 42.4% of venues capacity bringing in US $1.48 million (equivalent to US $27.69 million in 2024)^[5]. A total of 331,518 programs were sold at ten cents each, bringing in over US $33,152 (equivalent to US $619,034.67 in 2024)^[5]. The OCOG received a share of venue concessions run by a local firm at each venue bringing in sales revenue. The OCOG charged US $2 (equivalent to US $37.35 in 2024)^[5] a day for male athletes and coaches to stay at the Olympic Village.^[6] Lastly, corporate sponsors like, Omega, Helms Bakery and Coca-Cola provided a revenue source.

Most venues were rented out or leased at no cost to the OCOG. The OCOG paid for the dredging of Alamitos Bay in Long Beach for rowing events. They paid for the Olympic Village, a pool for swimming events and paid for temporary stands at city parks and golf courses used.^[7] Including concessions, post-games equipment sales and the bond, estimates of earnings have been placed as high as US $2.7 million (equivalent to US $50.42 million in 2024)^[5]. The OCOG did not report the financial details of the Games, although contemporary newspapers stated that the Games had made a profit of US $1 million (equivalent to US $18.67 million in 2024)^[5] at closing ceremony.^[b][8]

Security

Los Angeles Police (LAPD) Chief Roy E. Steckel and the four other committee members deployed 650 police officers dedicated to traffic control every day of the Games. The Chief ordered police officers to work 12-hour days and to postpone vacations. 150 university students assisted the police as traffic officers. The L.A.P.D. employed 800 duly sworn police officers. According to the L.A.P.D.'s official site, crime was very low during the Olympics.^[9]

Transportation

Automobiles were the primary method of transportation. The DeSoto Six Sedan, a part of General Motors was named the official car of the Olympic Village. A five-member traffic committee was organized by the OCOG with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and traffic management experts. Athletes were transported in sixty eight bus carriages to competition venues and the Olympic Village in Baldwin Hills.^[10] Police escorts were provided by LAPD. The OCOG urged attendees to use the red car trolleys to avoid congestion at venues, the Pacific Electric trolleys were the largest rail network in the world at the turn of the century.^[11][12]

Venues

Fifteen sports venues were used for the 1932 Summer Olympics. In order to control costs in the wake of the Great Depression, existing venues were used. They included two golf courses, two city parks, three public highways, and a city road. The Swimming Stadium was the only new venue constructed for these games.

The Rose Bowl, constructed in 1921, was made into a temporary velodrome for track cycling events under the auspices of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).^[13][14]

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, constructed in 1923, was used as the Olympic Stadium.^[15][16]

The Olympic Auditorium was constructed in 1924 in preparation for Los Angeles being awarded the Games; it was modified to meet the specifications of the boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling federations.^[17]

Long Beach Marine Stadium was created in 1925 when Alamitos Bay was dredged, then further dredged seven years later in time for the 1932 Games.^[18]

Elysian Park, the oldest city park in Los Angeles, was founded in 1886, and has been part of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) training academy since 1925.^[19][20]

The Riviera Country Club opened in 1926 as the Los Angeles Athletic Club Golf Course and was renamed Riviera by the time of the 1932 Games.^[21]

Equestrian events were held in various locations. The equestrian cross country route was designed by U.S. Cavalry officers John Burke Barry and Sloan Doak, members of the IFE and former Olympians. It was known for being brutally difficult and bisecting multiple rural highways, starting from the Riviera Country Club, thru Santa Monica, West Los Angeles, the Olympic Village and ending at Sunset Fields Gold Club. Named the "Westchester course", although the course did not enter the modern-day neighborhood boundaries of Westchester.^[22] Dressage was held at the Riviera Country Club and show jumping at the Coliseum.

The Swimming Stadium, constructed adjacent to the Coliseum in 1932, was intended to be a temporary structure.^[23][24]

Riverside Drive, Los Angeles Avenue, Vineyard Avenue, and the Pacific Coast Highway were common driving routes in California at the time of the 1932 Games^[25]

LA introduced the first Olympic Village, providing housing for male athletes. The accommodations provided in Los Angeles Baldwin Hills neighborhood is considered to be the first official modern Olympic Village, with a capacity of 2,000 people and located to the west of the city.^[26][27] Consisting of a group of buildings with rooms to lodge athletes (men only), as well as providing a place to eat and train, it serves as the model for today's Olympic Villages. It also provided certain community services for the first time, including a hospital, a fire station, and a post office. Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard^[28]

Olympic Arts Festival

The Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics awarded medals for works inspired by sport-related themes in five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.

Olympic Music

American pianist Walter Bradley-Keeler composed "Hymne Olympique", an anthem written specifically for the Xth Olympiad. The IOC would make it the official anthem before the current Olympic anthem was created in 1958.^[34][35]

Tickets

Opening ceremony tickets were sold for US $3 (equivalent to US $56.02 in 2024)^[5] each. Events tickets ranged between US $1 (equivalent to US $18.67 in 2024)^[5] to US $3 (equivalent to US $56.02 in 2024)^[5] per individual event. A US $22 (equivalent to US $410.8 in 2024)^[5] pass was available to enter the Coliseum for all events. Children's tickets were available for US $0.5 (equivalent to US $9.34 in 2024)^[5] cents for all events.^{[36] [34]}

Emblem and Branding

The emblem was created by Harry Muir Kurtzworth and the OCOG's in-house art department. It featured the coat of arms of the United States holding the Olympic rings, along with the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) and a laurel branch.^[37]

The main colors used were red, white and blue, representing the flag of the United States.

For the first time, colors were assigned to each sport discipline. Colors were used for programs, badges, athlete identifications and event venue branding. Although not a sport discipline, the Art Festival was assigned "Mocha Brown" as the designated color.^[38]

Mascot

An Olympic mascot, Scottish Terrier Smoky, was featured for the first time in history, albeit unofficially.^[39]

Corporate sponsorship

The games introduced consumer culture to the Olympics, relying on local corporate sponsorships and partnerships with the Hollywood film industry of the time. Iconic brands like Coca-Cola expanded their early Olympic presence in 1932 serving as the "official soft drink" of the Games.^[40] Local baked goods maker Helms Bakery provided baked food items, including Helms Olympic Bread, the "official baker"."^[41][42] Omega SA also debuted as the "official timekeeper" of the games; they provided one watchmaker and thirty chronographs for officials.^[43][44] The Jeffries Printing Co. was the official printing supplier for the games.^[45]

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

More information Country, Athletes ...

Country	Athletes
United States	474
Germany	144
Japan	131
Italy	112
Great Britain	108
France	103
Canada	102
Sweden	81
Mexico	73
Brazil	67
Hungary	58
Poland	51
Netherlands	45
Denmark	43
Finland	40
Belgium	36
Argentina	33
New Zealand	21
Austria	19
India	19
Australia	13
South Africa	12
Greece	10
Ireland	8
Philippines	8
Czechoslovakia	7
Norway	7
Spain	7
Portugal	6
Switzerland	6
Colombia	2
Estonia	2
Haiti	2
Latvia	2
Uruguay	2
Republic of China	1
Yugoslavia	1
Total	1,332

Close

Ceremonies

Sports

117 events in 20 disciplines, comprising 14 sports, were part of the Olympic program in 1932. Football was introduced in Paris 1900 Games. Following Jules Rimet's proposal in 1929 to initiate a professional World Championship tournament of football, the sport was then dropped from the 1932 Games by FIFA in an attempt to promote the new World Cup tournament of 1930. Football returned for the 1936 Games in Berlin.^[50] In one of two Equestrian jumping events (team competitions) no medals were awarded. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

Demonstration sports

•  American football (1)
•  Lacrosse (1)

Athletic Achievements

• In athletics, Babe Didrikson of the United States won two gold medals in the javelin and the hurdles event. She also competed in a jump-off for a gold in the high jump. Her technique in the jump-off was ruled illegal, leaving Didrikson with second place.

• Finland's Paavo Nurmi was suspended from competition by the IAAF for alleged violation of amateur rules. Finns charged that the Swedish officials had used devious tricks in their campaign against Nurmi's amateur status,^[51] and ceased all athletic relations with Sweden.^[52] A year earlier, controversies on the track and in the press had led Finland to withdraw from the Finland-Sweden athletics international.^[53] After Nurmi's suspension, Finland did not agree to return to the event until 1939.^[51]

• American Eddie Tolan won both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events, and became the first Black athlete to be receive the title of the "world's fastest human" as a result of this unique double. Poland's Stanisława Walasiewicz won the gold medal in the women's 100 m; she also won 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 under modern rules.

• Due to an official's error, the 3,000 m steeplechase went for 3,460 m, or one extra lap.^[54]

• Several women's events debuted at these games, among them the 80 meters hurdles and javelin throw.^[55][56] American Babe Didrikson won both events and also competed in the high jump where she was controversially denied gold, leaving her with silver.^[57] Unlike men, women were only allowed to enter a maximum of three events by the IOC, and Didrikson could not compete in the discus throw, long jump, and relay where she would have likely medaled based on her prior results. Had the 200 meters and pentathlon been contested at these games (they debuted in 1964), Didrikson would have won them easily based on her performances prior to the Olympics.^[58]

• 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.

• Romeo Neri of Italy won three gold medals in gymnastics. Although women's team gymnastics debuted in the previous Olympics, the event was not held at these games; however, there were women gymnasts who traveled to Los Angeles and participated in exhibition events at the 1932 games.^[59]

• Helene Madison of the United States won three gold medals in women's swimming, while the Japanese swimmers swept the men's events and took all but one title. Kusuo Kitamura of Japan won the gold medal in the men's 1500 meter freestyle swimming race. He was and continues to be the youngest ever male swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

• 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 died in 1945 as an officer stationed in the defense of the island of Iwo Jima, and as such is an important character in Clint Eastwood's film, Letters from Iwo Jima.

• Dunc Gray won Australia's first cycling gold medal; he set a world record of 1m 13s in the 1000 time trial. The Dunc Gray Velodrome, built for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, was named after him.

Medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1932 Games.^[60][61]

More information Rank, Nation ...

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States*	44	36	30	110
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	5	5	16
7	Finland	5	8	12	25
8	Great Britain	5	7	5	17
9	Germany	3	12	5	20
10	Australia	3	1	1	5
Totals (10 entries)		104	98	87	289

Close

Before the 1932 Games, all the medals were awarded at the closing ceremony, with the athletes wearing evening dress for the occasion. The presenting dignitary was stationary while the athletes filed past to receive their medals. The presentation of the medals and awards varied significantly until the 1932 Summer Olympics. Los Angeles introduced protocol that has now become standard. In Los Angeles, athletes were honored by introducing the first true victory podium, the raising of the medalists' national flags, and the playing of the winner's national anthem. These ceremonies were held immediately following events at the Memorial Coliseum.^[62][63]