1932 Winter Olympics Explained

Host City:	Lake Placid, United States
Nations:	17
Athletes:	252 (231 men, 21 women)
Events:	14 in 4 sports (7 disciplines)
Opening:	February 4, 1932
Closing:	February 13, 1932
Opened By:	Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
Stadium:	Olympic Stadium Lake Placid
Winter Prev:	St. Moritz 1928
Winter Next:	Garmisch 1936
Summer Prev:	Amsterdam 1928
Summer Next:	Los Angeles 1932

The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lake Placid 1932, were a winter multi-sport event in the United States, held in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 13. It was the first time the Winter Games were held outside of Europe and the first of four Winter Olympics held in the United States; Lake Placid hosted again in 1980.^[1]

The games were awarded to Lake Placid in part by the efforts of Godfrey Dewey, head of the Lake Placid Club and son of Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System.^[2] California also had a bid for the 1932 Winter Games. William May Garland, president of the California X Olympiad Association, wanted the games to take place in Wrightwood and Big Pines, California. The world's largest ski jump at the time was constructed in Big Pines for the event,^[3] but the games were ultimately awarded to Lake Placid.

The practice of awarding Olympic medals at podium ceremonies was established at the 1932 Winter Olympics, based on pedestals used at the 1930 British Empire Games, as proposed by Melville Marks Robinson.^[4]

Highlights

• American company Coca-Cola became the official provider of that games' soft drinks and would remain so for all subsequent winter Olympics (as of 2021).
• The Games were opened by Franklin D. Roosevelt, then the Governor of New York. He would be elected President of the United States nine months later.
• The victory podium was used for the first time at the winter games.^{[5] [6]} Speed skater Jack Shea became the first Olympic champion to receive a gold medal on the podium.^[7]
• Billy Fiske (who would win his second gold medal at Lake Placid, having won his first at 16 in the 1928 Winter Olympics), carried the flag for the United States in the opening ceremonies. A planner of a winter resort in Aspen, Colorado, he was killed in 1940 flying in the Battle of Britain.
• Sonja Henie won the second of three consecutive Olympic gold medals in figure skating. She also won gold in 1928 and 1936.^[8]
• Irving Jaffee won the 5000m (16,000feet) and the 10000m (30,000feet) speed skating gold medals, beating previous champion and world record holder Ivar Ballangrud in the 10,000 m by 4.5m (14.8feet).
• Eddie Eagan became the only Olympian to win gold medals at both the summer and winter games in different sports. He won gold in boxing in the 1920 Antwerp summer games and gold in bobsleigh at Lake Placid. The bobsleigh race was held two days after the games' closing ceremonies due to unseasonably warm weather in the region the week prior.^[9]
• Georg Gyssling, a member of the Nazi Party, joined a newly created four man bobsledding team after half the German team was injured in several violent crashes on Mount Van Hoevenberg. René Fonjallaz, a future Nazi propagandist on the Swiss team, was also injured and left unconscious for five minutes after a crash during a practice run.^[10]
• The United States topped the medal count with a total of 12 medals (6 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze). This was the only time the U.S. led the overall medal standings at the Winter Olympics until the 2010 Games in Vancouver, and the only time the United States won the most gold medals.
• Seventeen countries participated.

Events

Medals were awarded in 14 events contested in 4 sports (7 disciplines).

• • • Skating

Demonstration sports

The Games also included events in three demonstration sports.

• Curling
• Sled dog race
• Speed skating (women)

Venues

See main article: Venues of the 1932 Winter Olympics.

width=40%	Venue	Sports	width=10%	Capacity	Ref.
		9,200	^[11]
	Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined (cross-country skiing)	Not listed.	^[12]
		12,500	^[13]
	Figure skating, Ice hockey (final)	3,360	^[14]
		7,475	^[15]

Participating nations

Athletes from 17 nations competed in these Games, down from 25 nations at the previous Games in 1928. Argentina, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Yugoslavia did not send athletes to Lake Placid.

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

IOC Letter Code	Country	Athletes
USA		64
CAN		42
GER		20
NOR		19
JPN		16
POL		15
ITA		12
SWE		12
FRA		8
AUT		7
FIN		7
SUI		7
TCH		6
GBR		4
HUN		4
ROM		4
BEL		5
Total	252

Medal count

See main article: 1932 Winter Olympics medal table.

Podium sweeps

!Date!Sport!Event!NOC!Gold!Silver!Bronze

11 February		Individual		Johan Grøttumsbråten	Ole Stenen	Hans Vinjarengen
12 February		Normal hill		Birger Ruud	Hans Beck	Kaare Wahlberg

External links

• • III Olympic Winter Games Lake Placid 1932, 1932 The official report.
• Lake Placid Olympic Authority
• The program of the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics

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Notes and References

1. Book: Hines, James R. . Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating . 2011 . Scarecrow Press . 978-0-8108-6859-5 . Lanham, Maryland . xxiii.
2. Web site: How the Olympics Came to a Sleepy Adirondack Village . Lund, Morten. International Skiing History Association . January 21, 2014 . March 19, 2017 .
3. Web site: Mountain High makeover . Strege, Dave. . August 21, 2013 . August 17, 2016 .
4. News: Prof says Olympic podiums have Canadian connection. Ogilvie. Claire. October 18, 2006. The Province. Vancouver, British Columbia. 25.
5. Martin, D. E., Martin, D. A., & Gynn, R. W. (2000). The olympic marathon. Human Kinetics. p. 146.
6. In a letter dated May 1931, the IOC president, Count Henri de Baillet-Latour, advised the organizing committees of both summer and winter games that athletes should "stand on three pedestals, with the centre one higher than the two others." See Martin (2000) and Olympic.org article "1932: THE PODIUM MAKES ITS OLYMPIC DEBUT".
7. Web site: 1932: THE PODIUM MAKES ITS OLYMPIC DEBUT . https://web.archive.org/web/20200804141633/https://www.olympic.org/news/1932-the-podium-makes-its-olympic-debut . dead . August 4, 2020 . IOC. October 20, 2017 . July 19, 2020.
8. Greenspan, Bud, 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History, General Publishing Group, Inc., 1995, pp. 88
9. Johnson, William Oscar, The Olympics: A History of the Games, Oxmoor House, Inc., 1993, pp. 60-61.
10. King, D. (2015). Speed Kings: The 1932 Winter Olympics and the Fastest Men in the World.
11. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1932/1932w.pdf 1932 Winter Olympics official report.
12. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1932/1932w.pdf 1932 Winter Olympics official report.
13. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1932/1932w.pdf 1932 Winter Olympic Games official report.
14. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1932/1932w.pdf 1932 Winter Olympics official report.
15. http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1932/1932w.pdf 1932 Winter Olympics official report.