1932 Summer Olympics

Highlights

An Olympic Village was built for the first time, in Baldwin Hills, occupied by the male athletes. Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard.
The first use of a victory podium.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was known in 1932 as Olympic Stadium.
Tenth Street, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, was renamed Olympic Boulevard in honor of the Games of the Tenth Olympiad.
Babe Didrikson won two gold medals in the javelin and the hurdles event. She also competed in a jump-off for a silver in the high jump. Her technique in the jump-off was ruled illegal, leaving Didrikson with second place.
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.
Poland's Stanisława Walasiewicz won the gold medal in the women's 100 m; she would also win 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.
The executive council of the IAAF suspended Paavo Nurmi from international amateur athletics four months before the Games, pending an investigation into his amateur status. Less than three days before the 10,000 m, the seven members of the council formed a special commission and rejected his entries.
Eddie Tolan won both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events.
Romeo Neri won three gold medals in gymnastic.
Helene Madison won three gold medals in swimming, while the Japanese upset the men's events and took all but one title.
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 would later die in 1945 as an officer stationed in the defense of the island of Iwo Jima, and as such is a main character in Clint Eastwood's film, Letters from Iwo Jima.
Kusuo Kitamura 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.
Due to an official's error, the 3,000 m steeplechase went for 3,460 m, or one extra lap.