A brief description of the 1932 Summer Olympic games, with detailed information on Australian Athletes

1. 1932

2. 1932 Olympics - History
• Opening: 30July 1932
• Closing: 14 August 1932
• Host Country: USA
• Known as the Games that gave birth to the modern format.
• This was only the second time the Games had been held outside of
Europe, following on from the St Louis 1904 Olympics. Los
Angeles, home of Hollywood and the emerging film industry, would
put on a much better show.
• In 1932 the Olympic Games in Los Angeles overcame the
problematic times of depression, and what was to become known
as the "Hollywood Extravaganza" set the tone for the world. The
tone was that Los Angeles was now on the map as a city of power
and prestige, and that the Olympics was a vehicle that publicized
and promoted its site as no other sporting event could.

3. 1932 Olympics – Political Climate
• After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the largest stock
market crash in American history, most of the decade was
consumed by an economic downfall called The Great
Depression that had an upsetting effect worldwide.
• In response, strict regimes emerged in several countries in
Europe, in particular the Third Reich in Germany.
• Weaker states such as Ethiopia, China, and Poland were
invaded, ultimately leading to World War II by the decade's
end. The decade also saw an increase in new
technologies, including intercontinental
aviation, radio, and film.

4. 1932 Olympics - Economy
• The 1932 Olympic Games were held in the middle
of the Great Depression and, given the transport
links of the time, in the relatively remote region
of California, participation in the Games was the
lowest since 1904, with only half as many
athletes taking part as had in 1928. This was due
mostly to the Great Depression, with the cost of
travel and the logistics of distance proving
difficult for many teams. Despite this, the
standard of competition was excellent.

5. 1932 Olympics – Global Events
• The Depression and the geographical isolation
of California. Participation in the Games was
the lowest since 1904, in spite of the excellent
competition standard.

6. 1932 Olympics – Significant Moments
• Between 1900 and 1928, no Summer Games had been
shorter than 79 days, but in Los Angeles this was cut to
just 16. It has remained between 15 and 18 days ever
since.
• Medal winners standing on a podium with the flag of
the winner being raised was first introduced.
• Entry Restrictions - The number of participants put
forward by the National Olympic Committees in
individual events was limited to three.
• Professionnals were not admitted - Finn Paavo Nurmi
and Frenchman Jules Ladoumègue, registered as
professionals, could not take part.

7. 1932 Olympics - Highlights
• The spirit of the Olympic Games was
exemplified by British fencer Judy Guinness.
Contesting the final, she gallantly gave up her
hopes for a gold medal when she pointed out
to officials that they had not noticed two
touches scored against her by her final
opponent, Ellen Preis of Austria.

8. 1932 Olympics - Controversies
• Football was completely removed from the
games.
• Men and women were separated - the
Olympic Village was reserved for men, and
women stayed in the Chapman Park hotel.

9. 1932 Olympics – Buildings/construction
• The Coliseum Olympic stadium stupefied the
whole world by its proportions and the quality
of its equipment.

10. 1932 Olympics – Opening Ceremony
• A record crowd at the Opening Ceremony
• The Coliseum Olympic stadium astonished the whole world.
Its scale and quality were beyond anything that had come
before, creating the first Games we would recognise today.
The crowds were also without precedent, starting with the
100,000 people who attended the Opening Ceremony.
• Los Angeles 30 July 1932.
• Official opening of the Games by: Vice-President Charles
Curtis
• Lighting the Olympic Flame by: A symbolic fire at an
Olympic Summer Games was first lit in 1928 in Amsterdam.
• Olympic Oath by: George Calnan (fencing)

11. 1932 Olympics – Participating Nations
• Argentina (32)
• Australia (12)
• Austria (19)
• Belgium (36)
• Brazil (82)
• Canada (102)
• China (1)
• Colombia (1)
• Czechoslovakia (7)
• Denmark (43)
• Estonia (2)
• Finland (40)
• France (103)
• Germany (134)
• Great Britain (108)
• Greece (10)
• Haiti (2)
• Hungary (58)
• India (19)
• Ireland (8)
• Italy (112)
• Japan (117)
• Latvia (2)
• Mexico (73)
• Netherlands (45
• )New Zealand (21)
• Norway (5)
• Philippines (8)
• Poland (51)
• Portugal (6)
• South Africa (12)
• Spain (6)
• Sweden (81)
• Switzerland (6)
• United States (474)
• Uruguay (1)
• Yugoslavia (1)

12. 1932 Olympics – Events Held
• Artistic Gymnastics
• Athletics
• Boxing
• Cycling Road
• Cycling Track
• Diving
• Equestrian / Dressage
• Equestrian / Eventing
• Equestrian / Jumping
• Fencing
• Hockey
• Modern Pentathlon
• Rowing
• Sailing
• Shooting
• Swimming
• Water polo
• Weightlifting
• Wrestling Freestyle
• Wrestling Greco-Roman

13. 1932 Olympics –Notable Events
• Football was completely removed from the games -
Following Henri Delaunay's proposal in 1929 to initiate
a professional World Championship of Football, the
sport was dropped from the 1932 Los Angeles
Games in an attempt to promote the growing sport
of American football in the United States.
• Football returned at the 1936 Berlin Games. The
German organisers were intent on the return of the
game to the Olympic movement since it guaranteed
vital income into the organisation's coffers.
• Sixteen world and Olympic records fell in men's track
and field alone.

14. 1932 Olympics – Australia
• As at the 1928 Games, Australia competed in five
sports in Los Angeles: aquatics
(swimming), athletics, cycling, rowing and
wrestling.
• The Australian flag at the Opening Ceremony was
carried by swimming legend Andrew ‘Boy’
Charlton. However, unlike the previous two
Games of 1924 and 1928, Charlton did not win a
medal in Los Angeles, his performance affected
by illness

15. 1932 Olympics - Athletes
• The Los Angeles Games of 1932 featured less
nations and almost half as many athletes as
the previous Games in Amsterdam.
• Still, more than 1400 athletes from 37 nations
competed at the Games.

16. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
• The 12-strong Australian team returned from the Los
Angeles Games with five medals: three gold, one silver and
a bronze.
• The three gold, won by cyclist Edgar ‘Dunc’ Gray, rower
Henry ‘Bobby’ Pearce and teenage swimmer Clare
Dennis, matched the record total from Paris in 1924.
• The silver medal was won by swimmer Philomena ‘Bonnie’
Mealing in the women’s 100m backstroke, while Eddie
Scarf’s bronze in freestyle wrestling was the first Australian
medal in the sport.
• The other Australians competing were athletes Bill
Barwick, George Golding, Alex Hillhouse and Eileen
Wearne, and swimmers Noel Ryan and Frances Bult.

17. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Clare Dennis
• Dennis was the youngest woman to win a gold medal in Los Angeles. Aged 16, she won the 200m
breaststroke to become an instant celebrity because of her age and ability. She would later be one
of the first women to compete for Australia at the Empire Games, now known as the
Commonwealth Games.
• Clare Dennis was 16 years old when she won the 200 metres breaststroke at the 1932 Los Angeles
Olympic Games, becoming Australia’s first female Olympic champion since Fanny Durack (in 1912).
She was the youngest female swimmer at the Games. Her swimming career began at the age of
seven, when she tricked her father into allowing her to join the Sydney Ladies’ Swimming Club.
After some pestering, he agreed that she could join the club if she could swim the 33 metres across
her home beach of Clovelly Bay, Sydney. In fact she touched bottom, but faked a swimming action.
• In 1931, at 14, she won the state 220 yards breaststroke title, and in January 1932 set a world
record for the distance at the Domain Baths. At the Olympics she faced the Japanese champion
Hideko Maehata and Else Jacobsen of Denmark, who had held the world record. All three won their
heats, but Dennis’ time was the fastest, an Olympic record. Before the final the American champion
(and later film Tarzan) Buster Crabbe advised her to swim three strokes underwater after her
starting dive, and attempt to touch at each turn ahead of the others. She followed his instructions -
and won the final, lowering her Olympic record.
• Clare Dennis broke the world record for 100 metres backstroke in 1933, and went on - in London in
1934 - to become the first Australian woman to win gold at the British Empire Games. In 1942 she
married George Golding, a track athlete in the 1932 team. She died in 1971.

18. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
PHILOMENA JOHNSTON (MEALING)
• Whilst still a teenager, Bonnie Mealing competed without success in
the freestyle and backstroke events at Amsterdam 1928. In
February 1930, she set a world record of 1 min 20.6 sec for the 100
metres backstroke. Somewhat surprisingly, she was not selected for
the inaugural Empire Games at Hamilton, Canada that year.
Indeed, no Australian women were sent to Hamilton, where
swimming was the only sport that afforded events for females. At
Los Angeles 1932, Mealing won a silver medal in the 100 metres
backstroke, behind the glamorous and talented Eleanor Holm of the
United States. Britain’s Joyce Cooper, who in Mealing’s absence had
won the backstroke at Hamilton, finished sixth. Mealing did not
compete internationally again after Los Angeles. She lived a long
life, dying in her 90th year in 2002.

19. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Henry ‘Bobby’ Pearce
• Gold medallists Pearce won medals at the
previous Games in Amsterdam in 1928.
Pearce, again the only rower on the Australian
team, successfully defended his single scull
title

20. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Edgar ‘Dunc’ Gray
• Gold medallists Gray won medals at the
previous Games in Amsterdam in 1928.
• Gray improved on his 1928 bronze to win the
1000m time trial, Australia’s first cycling gold.
The Sydney 2000 Olympic velodrome was
named in his honour.

21. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton,
• Australia’s golden boy of the pool at the 1924
Olympics, returned to the Games and won
two silver medals, in the 400m freestyle and
1500m freestyle. The bronze medal was won
by cyclist Edgar ‘Dunc’ Gray in the 1000m time
trial, an event he would be crowned the
Olympic champion in at Los Angeles in four
years time.

22. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
• Eddie Scarf
Light heavyweight
Round 1 Defeated H. Madison (CAN)
Round 2 Defeated by T. Sjostedt (SWE)
Round 3 Defeated by P. Mehrimger (USA)
Final (3rd)
Final Placing 3

23. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Alex Hillhouse
10000m - Men
Final DNC
1500m - Men
Qualfying DNC
5000m - Men
Round 1 15:14.0 6th
Final 15:15.0 10th
Final Placing 10 / 18

24. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Ernest Barwick
10000m - Men
Final DNC
1500m - Men
Round 1 4:03.5 (7th)
5000m - Men
Final DNC

25. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
George Golding
110m Hurdles - Men
Qualfying DNC
400m - Men
Round 1 49.0 (2nd)
Quarter Final 48.6 (3rd)
Semi Final 48.0 (3rd)
Final 48.8 (6th)
Final Placing 6 / 27
400m Hurdles - Men
Qualfying 55.2 (3rd)
Semi Final 53.1 (4th)
Final Placing 7 / 18

26. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Eilenn Wearne
100m - Women
Round 1 12.5 (4th)

27. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Noel Ryan
400m Freestyle - Men
Trials 5:01.9 1st
Semi Final 4:59.7 5th
Final Placing 7 / 19
100m Freestyle - Men
Trials 1:02.9 4th
Final Placing 14 / 22
1500m Freestyle - Men
Trials 20:12.6 2nd
Semi Final 19:52.5 3rd
Final 19:45.1 4th
Final Placing 4 / 15

28. 1932 Olympics – Australian Athletes
Frances Vorrath (Bult)
100m Freestyle - Women
Trials 1:11.4 3rd
Semi Final 1:10.2 2nd
Final 1:09.9 5th
Final Placing 5 / 20
400m Freestyle - Women
Trials 6:03.0 4th
Final Placing 9 / 14

29. 1932 Olympics – Medals
• The United States were the dominant team, their
41 gold medals more than treble that of the
second nation on the medal tally, Italy, which won
12 gold medals.
• The host nation was led by sprinter Eddie Tolan,
who won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m
relay.
• American Buster Crabbe won the 400m freestyle
gold and would later become the Olympics’
second Tarzan, playing the jungle hero in movies.
• In the pool, Japan was the leading nation

30. 1932 Olympics – Medal Tally
Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States 41 32 30 103
Italy 12 12 12 36
France 10 5 4 19
Sweden 9 5 9 23
Japan 7 7 4 18
Hungary 6 4 5 15
Finland 5 8 12 25
Britain 4 7 5 16
Germany 3 12 5 20
Australia 3 1 1 5

31. 1932 Olympics – Australia’s Medal Tally
Medal Name Sport Event
Gold Edgar Gray Cycling 1000m time trial
Gold Henry Pearce Rowing Single Scull
Gold Claire Dennis Swimming 200m Breaststroke
Silver Philomena Mealing Swimming 100m Backstroke
Bronze Eddie Scarf Wrestling Light Heavy Weight

32. 1932 Olympics - Closing Ceremony