10th Olympic Games

Los Angeles, 1932

by Leticia Munoz

76 years ago the Olympics were in Los Angeles. They were viewed as Los Angeles' opportunity to be viewed as a world class city.

Economic situations were so dire that countries could not afford to send their athletes to Los Angeles. Only half as many countries were represented as the 1928 Olympics. This did not diminish the quality of the games, 18 world records were broken or matched.

The LA Olympics was one of many firsts. It was the first Olympics to last 16 days, the first to have 100,000 people attend the opening ceremonies and the first to have all male athletes housed in an Olympic village. Women were housed in a luxury hotel. Los Angeles was the first Olympics to have a photo finish and the first to have the national anthem playing during the medal ceremony. The Los Angeles Coliseum was built to impress. It held 100,000 people and had state of the art facilities.

Frank Wycoff was a hometown hero of the Los Angeles Olympics. He went to Glendale City College and later transferred to USC He won his second gold medal in Track and Field. He would later win one more in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Helene Madison (left) won three gold medals in swimming at the 32 Olympics. She celebrated at the Coconut Grove Nightclub with Clark Gable. There could be no Michael Phelps at the Olympics, athletes were limited to three individual events.

The United States led the world in the medal count with 103 medals, including 41 gold medals. The next runner up was Italy with 12 gold medals.