In the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, USA, 1,048 athletes, including 127 women, from 37 countries of the world participated. Competitions were held in 14 sports. The opening ceremony of the Games took place at a stadium called the Colosseum, reminiscent of ancient Roman arenas.
The capacity of the stadium is 105 thousand people, which was a record value at that time. First, the Olympic choir performed, which consisted of 150 singers, 300 musicians and several fanfarists. After the Olympic oath was read out by fencer George Calnan, bronze medalist of the IX Olympic Games and part-time lieutenant of the US Ministry of Finance.
The cost of a trip to Los Angeles became the main obstacle for many European athletes to participate in the Games, so a total of 1,048 people gathered to compete for medals. For the first time IA OI representatives from China and Colombia took the floor.
For the first time in the history of the Games, athletes were accommodated in the Olympic village 20 km from the city. On the golf course, about 700 houses were placed in an oval around restaurants, libraries and game rooms. Performing national anthems of countries in honor of the winners of the competition and raising country flags have also been introduced in Los Angeles.
The competition venues were quite scattered along the coast. For example, the rowing pool was an hour's express ride from town (Long Beach), and cyclists competed in Pasadena at Roseball Stadium. By the way, it was destroyed after the Games.
The competition program in Los Angeles was similar to that of the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. But instead of football, shooting competitions were held. The football championship was not held for purely material reasons, since the delegations of European countries were, at their core, few in number.
And yet the results shown by the athletes at the Olympics were high. 90 Olympic records were set, including 18 world records.
In the 100-meter race, won the athlete from the USA Eddie Toulan, on the chest? ahead of the main rival Ralph Metcalf, also an American. Towlen also won the 200m. However, Metcalfe this time fell victim to a gross error in measurements - his track was 202 m long.
It is worth noting that the mistakes of the referees at these Games were very frequent. Therefore, one of the journalists called them the "Olympiad of judicial mistakes and miscalculations." For example, a unique case took place in Los Angeles. In the final of the 3000m hurdle race, the person counting the laps left his seat. As a result, the athletes ran 3450 m.
Of course, the US team earned the most awards - 41 gold, 32 silver and 30 bronze medals. Italy had 12 awards of each rank, while France had 10 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals.
