United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Kinue Hitomi
Kinue Hitomi was a Japanese athlete. She was the world record holder in several events in the 1920s – 1930s and was the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal. Hitomi was born in. In November 1923 during the 2nd Okayama Prefectural Women’s Games, she set an unofficial national record of 4m67 in the long jump event. In April 1924, Hitomi entered, she returned to Okayama in October 1924 to participate in the 3rd Okayama Prefectural Women’s Games, where she set an unofficial world record of 10m33 in the triple jump event. She bested this record the following month at the 1924 Meiji Shrine Games in Tokyo, with a distance of 11m35 and set an unofficial world record for the Javelin throw of 26m37. In October 1925, Hitomi participated in the 4th Osaka Games, winning first place in the 50 metres event, again besting her unofficial world record for the triple jump with a distance of 11m62. In the 1925 Meiji Shrine Games in Tokyo, she won both the triple jump. In April 1926, Hitomi went to work for the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
In May, she set new unofficial national records for the long jump, shot put, 100m hurdles at the 3rd Women’s Olympics held by the newspaper at Miyoshino. In June, in a completion sponsored by the Tokyo Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, she set new unofficial national records for the long jump and the 4 × 100 metres relay. In August 1926, Hitomi was selected to attend the "2èmes Jeux mondiaux féminins FSFI" games at Gothenburg, Sweden as the only Japanese woman athlete, she travelled by the Trans-Siberian Railway alone to Moscow, where a reporter from the Mainichi Shimbun met her and escorted her to Sweden. Competing in a total of six events, she received a gold medal for the long jump, with a distance of 5m50, setting a new official world record, as well as a gold medal for the standing long jump, silver medal for the discus throw and bronze medal for the 100-yard dash, she received an honorary prize from Alice Milliat, president of Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale for the most individual points at 15.
In May 1927, at the 3rd Women’s Athletic Meet at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Hitomi set two new unofficial world records for the 200-meter run and the standing jump. She tied the world record for the 100-meter run at a meet in Osaka in June. At a meet in Tokyo in October of the same year, she unofficially tied the world record for the 50-meter sprint as well as the 100-meter sprint. Hitomi continued to set unofficial new world records in early 1928, with the 400-meter run and 100-meter sprint in Tokyo. At the Olympic qualifying event in Osaka, she set new official world records for the long jump and the 100-meter spring, was one of the first women to be included into a Japanese Olympic Team. During the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Hitomi was the only Japanese woman athlete, she entered the 100m, high jump individual events but had been concentrating most on the 100m. However, she lost this event in semifinals, she decided to join 800m in haste, as last-minute entries were still permitted, she was allowed to compete.
Hitomi passed by 2:26.2 in the preliminary and received silver medal in the final with a time of 2:17.6 in a dead heat with Lina Radke. She became the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal. In April 1929 Hitomi achieved 217 points in the triathlon setting an unofficial world record at the 6th Japan Women’s Olympics at Miyoshino. In May, she set an official world record for the 200-meter run with a time 24.7 seconds in Tokyo. This was followed in October by new unofficial world records of 12.0 seconds for the 100m and 7.5 for the 60m sprint in Shenyang. In early 1930, Hitomi was asked to lecture to women’s schools around the country. In July, she set new official national records for the long javelin throw. In September, she participated in the "3èmes Jeux mondiaux féminins FSFI" games at Prague with five younger Japanese athletes. During this event, she won the gold medal for the long jump, silver medal for the triathlon and bronze medal for the javelin throw, despite suffering from a fever.
She was awarded a silver medal for her 12 individual points. After the event, the Japanese team went on tour to Warsaw, Brussels and London for competitions within the next half-month; this tough schedule took a toll on her health. After her return to Japan, she was asked to lecture, visited sponsors and contributors in many Japanese cities without much rest, she was surprised by the unexpected hostile reception to her athletic successes by the Japanese public. On March 25, 1931, she entered a hospital in Osaka under a false name to avoid publicity. Hitomi died from pneumonia on August 2, just three years after her Amsterdam Olympic 800m final. Schiot, Molly. Game changers: the unsung heroines of sports history. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781501137099. Christensen, Karen. International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. ISBN 0028649524 International Association of Athletics Federations Official Website of the Olympic Movement sporting-heroes.net Mainichi Shimbun
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event, celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but was obliged to give way to war-torn Antwerp in Belgium for the 1920 Games and Pierre de Coubertin's Paris for the 1924 Games; the only other candidate city for the 1928 Olympics was Los Angeles, which would be selected to host the Olympics four years later. In preparation for the 1932 Summer Olympics, the United States Olympic Committee reviewed the costs and revenue of the 1928 Games; the committee reported a total cost of US$1.183 million with receipts of US$1.165 million, giving a negligible loss of US$18,000, a considerable improvement over the 1924 Games. Dutch nobleman, Frederik van Tuyll van Serooskerken, first proposed Amsterdam as host city for the Summer Olympic Games in 1912 before the Netherlands Olympic Committee was established; the Olympic Games were cancelled in 1916 due to World War I.
In 1919, the Netherlands Olympic Committee abandoned the proposal of Amsterdam in favor of their support for the nomination of Antwerp as host city for the 1920 Summer Olympics. In 1921, Paris was selected for the 1924 Summer Olympics on the condition that the 1928 Summer Olympics would be organized in Amsterdam; this decision, supported by the Netherlands Olympic Committee, was announced by the International Olympic Committee on 2 June 1921. The IOC's decision was disputed by the Americans, but their request to allocate the 1928 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles was without success in 1922 and again in 1923. Los Angeles was selected as host city for the 1932 Summer Olympics; these were the first Olympics to be organized under the IOC presidency of Henri de Baillet-Latour. The Olympic Flame was lit for the first time for the duration of the Olympics, a tradition that continues to this day; the torch relay, would not take place until the 1936 Summer Olympics. For the first time, the parade of nations started with Greece, which holds the origins of the Olympics, ended with the host country, a tradition which has continued since.
The Games were opened by Prince Hendrik, consort of Queen Wilhelmina, who had authorized her husband to deputise for her. The Queen was unable to attend the opening ceremony as she was on holiday in Norway and did not want to disrupt her trip; this was the second time a head of state had not officiated at an Olympic opening ceremony. The Queen had refused to make an appearance at either the opening or closing ceremony. However, she returned from Norway before the conclusion of the Games, to be present at the closing ceremony, she presented the first prizes at the prize distribution, held beforehand. Athletics events were held on a 400-meter track becoming the standard for athletics tracks; these Games were the first to feature a fixed schedule of sixteen days, still followed. In previous Olympics, competition had been stretched out over several months. Johnny Weissmuller, who appeared in several Tarzan movies, won two gold medals in swimming: an individual gold in the men's 100 m freestyle, a team gold in the men's 4 x 200 m freestyle relay.
Paavo Nurmi of Finland won his ninth, final, gold medal in the 10,000 m race. Canadian athlete Percy Williams exceeded expectations by winning both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events. South American football made a definite breakthrough, as Uruguay retained its title by defeating Argentina. India took its first gold medal in field hockey, beginning a streak of six consecutive gold medals in the sport. Mikio Oda of Japan won the triple jump event with a result of 15.21 meters, becoming the first gold medalist from an Asian country. Algerian-born marathon runner Boughera El Ouafi won a gold medal for France in the men's marathon. Among the participants was Crown Prince Olav, who would become King of Norway. Pat O'Callaghan won the first medal for a newly independent Ireland, taking gold in the hammer throw; the sponsor Coca-Cola made its first appearance at the Olympic Games. These Games were the first to bear the name "Summer Olympic Games", to distinguish them from the Winter Olympic Games. Germany returned to the Olympic Games for the first time since 1912, after being banned from the 1920 and 1924 Games.
The German team finished second in the 1928 medal count. Many cars were expected for the Games, but Amsterdam had no more than 2,000 single car parking spaces. A number of new parking sites were provided and a special parking symbol was launched to show foreign visitors where they could park; the white P on a blue background was to become the international traffic sign for parking, still used today. During the 1928 Summer Olympics, there were 14 sports, 20 disciplines and 109 events in the tournament. In parentheses is the number of events per discipline. Women's athletics and team gymnastics debuted in spite of criticism. Halina Konopacka of Poland became the first female Olympic field champion. Reports that the 800 meter run ended with several of the competitors being exhausted were circulated; as a result, the IOC decided that women were too frail for long distance running, women's Olympic running events were limited to 200 meters
Betty Cuthbert
Elizabeth Alyse Cuthbert, was an Australian athlete and a fourfold Olympic champion. She was nicknamed Australia's "Golden Girl". During her career, she set world records for 60 metres, 100 yards, 200 metres, 220 yards and 440 yards. Cuthbert contributed to Australian relay teams completing a win in the 4 × 100 metres, 4 × 110 yards, 4 × 200 metres and 4 × 220 yards. Cuthbert had a distinctive running style, with a high knee mouth wide open, she was named in 1998 an Australian National Treasure and was inducted as a Legend in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2000. Cuthbert was born to Leslie and Marion alongside her fraternal twin sister, Marie'Midge', she had another sister, a brother, John. Cuthbert was born 20 minutes before Marie. According to Midge, the twins were not alike, but special to each other; the daughter of nursery owners, Cuthbert was born in Merrylands, New South Wales and grew up in the Sydney suburb of Ermington, where she attended Ermington Public School.
Of her upbringing, Cuthbert stated "My parents always encouraged I had a good home life. We were always taught to respect things and other people."Marion attended church and sent her four children to Sunday school. As a teenager, Cuthbert attended Parramatta Home Science School, she left school at the age of 16 to work in the family nursery. Cuthbert was a member of the Western Suburbs Athletic Club. At the age of 18, with the 1956 Summer Olympics to be held in Melbourne, Cuthbert set a World Record in the 200 metres, making her one of the favorites for a gold in that event. Cuthbert first reached the finals of the 100 metres, setting an Olympic record of 11.4 seconds in her heat, while the Australian world record holder Shirley Strickland was eliminated. Cuthbert won the final and was the big favourite for the 200 metres title, she lived up to the expectations, became the Australian "Golden Girl". A third gold medal for Cuthbert came when she ran the final leg on in the 4 × 100 metres final, which the Australian team won in a new World Record.
During 1958 Cuthbert set world records for 100 and 220 yards but was beaten in both events by arch-rival and double-Olympic bronze medalist Marlene Mathews at the Australian Championships. In the year, at the Empire Games at Cardiff, Cuthbert could only place fourth in the 100y and second in the 220y, again behind Mathews, she set a world record at 440 yards, broken in September 1959 by Maria Itkina of the Soviet Union. In the lead-up to the 1960 Summer Olympics, in Rome, Cuthbert set a world 220 yards and 200 metres record of 23.2 seconds in winning the Australian championships. At the Rome Games, she suffered from injury and was eliminated from the quarterfinals of the 100 metres. Subsequently, she retired from the sport of field, her retirement did not last long, for she returned at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia, helping Australia to a gold medal in the sprint relay. Afterwards, she concentrated on the 400 metres, she competed in that event in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, when it was on the Olympic program for women for the first time.
Though not impressive in the heats, Cuthbert won the title for her fourth Olympic gold medal, beating out Ann Packer of Great Britain in an Olympic record of 52.01. She is the only Olympian, male or female, to have won a gold medal in all sprint events: 100, 200 and 400 metres, she subsequently verified her retirement for good after Tokyo. In 1964 she received the Helms Award for her sporting contributions, she was coached by June Ferguson, her physical education teacher in high school. Cuthbert had suffered from multiple sclerosis from 1969 on and in 2002 had a severe brain hemorrhage, she stated that, despite her MS, she never once asked God'Why me?', instead "knew that God wanted her to use it to help other people." In 1985 Cuthbert became a born again Christian at the age of 47. Always believing she was a Christian, the speaker at a public rally said there were private practising Christians present, she felt compelled to publicly declare her faith in Jesus. From on, Cuthbert tried to share the good news of Jesus with as many people as possible.
She did, however want to be healed of her MS, someone encouraged her to go to church where she could be healed. She claimed. In her own words: "I found out about the healer, I couldn't care less about the healing. That's the best thing. I get so much joy out of it and I want to tell other people about it. I think that's why I was meant to come back to the Olympics in 1964 because now I'm well known and it helps me to tell people about Jesus."Following her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, Cuthbert became a dedicated advocate for the disease and was an important player in the creation of MS Research Australia, attending the organisation's 2004 inauguration alongside then-PM John Howard. She was a tireless campaigner for national awareness of the disease, following her death in 2017, was credited by CEO of MS Research Australia, Dr. Matthew Miles, as having had an incredible impact on Australia's recognition and understanding of MS. In 1991, Cuthbert left her home state, New South Wales, for Western Australia, where she settled in Mandurah.
Cuthbert was one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Sitting in a wheelchair and accompanied by Raelene Boyle, she carried the Olympic Torch at the stadium, as one of the runners for the final segment, before the lighting of the Olympic Flame by Cathy Freeman. Cuthbert died in 2017, aged 79, in Mandurah. Cuthbert never married or had c
Fanny Blankers-Koen
Francina "Fanny" Elsje Blankers-Koen was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earning her the nickname "the flying housewife", was the most successful athlete at the event. Having started competing in athletics in 1935, she took part in the 1936 Summer Olympics a year later. Although international competition was stopped by World War II, Blankers-Koen set several world records during that period, in events as diverse as the long jump, the high jump, sprint and hurdling events. Apart from her four Olympic titles, she won five European titles and 58 Dutch championships, set or tied 12 world records – the last, pentathlon, in 1951 aged 33, she retired from athletics in 1955, after which she became captain of the Dutch female track and field team. In 1999, she was voted "Female Athlete of the Century" by the International Association of Athletics Federations, her Olympic victories are credited with helping to eliminate the belief that age and motherhood were barriers to success in women's sport.
Blankers-Koen was born on 26 April 1918 in Lage Vuursche to Helena Koen. Her father was a government official who discus, she had five brothers. As a teenager, she enjoyed tennis, gymnastics, ice skating and running. Standing 1.75 m, she was a natural athlete. It soon became clear she had a talent for sports. A swimming coach advised her to concentrate on running because there were several top swimmers in the Netherlands at that time, she would have a better chance to qualify for the Olympics in a track event, her first appearance in the sport was in 1935, aged 17. Her first competition was a disappointment, but in her third race, she set a national record in the 800 m. Fanny Koen soon made the Dutch team. At that time, 800 m was considered too physically demanding for female contestants, had been removed from the Olympic programme after 1928; the following year, her coach and future husband, Jan Blankers, a former Olympic triple-jumper who had participated in the 1928 Olympics, encouraged her to enter the trials for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Only eighteen years old, she was selected to compete in the 4 × 100 m relay. At the Berlin Olympics, the high jump and the 4 × 100 m relay competitions were held on the same day. In the high jump, she took fifth place, she gained the autograph of American athlete Jesse Owens. Koen rose to the top. In 1938, she ran her first world record, she won her first international medals. At the European Championships in Vienna, she won the bronze in both the 100 and 200 m, which were both won by Stanisława Walasiewicz. Many observers, Koen herself, expected her to do well at the upcoming Olympics, which were due to be held in Helsinki in July 1940. However, the outbreak of World War II put a stop to the preparations; the Olympics were formally cancelled on 2 May 1940. Just prior to the invasion, Koen had become engaged, on 29 August 1940, she married Jan Blankers, thereupon changing her name to Blankers-Koen. Blankers was a sports journalist and the coach of the Dutch women's athletics team though he thought women should not compete in sports – not an unusual opinion at the time.
However, his attitude toward female athletes changed. When Blankers-Koen gave birth to her first child, Jan Junior, in 1942, Dutch media automatically assumed her career would be over. Top female athletes who were married were rare at the time, it was considered inconceivable that a mother would be an athlete. Blankers-Koen and her husband had other plans, she resumed training only weeks after their son's birth. During the war, domestic competition in sports continued in German-occupied Holland, Blankers-Koen set six new world records between 1942 and 1944; the first came in 1942. The following year, she did better. First, she improved the high jump record by an unequalled 5 cm from 1.66 m to 1.71 m in a specially arranged competition in Amsterdam on 30 May. She tied the 100 m world record, but this was never recognised as she competed against men when setting the record, she closed out the season with a new world record in the long jump, 6.25 m on 19 September 1943. The latter record would stand until 1954.
Circumstances were not easy, it became harder to get enough food for an athlete in training. Despite this, Blankers-Koen managed to break the 100 yd world record in May 1944. At the same meet, she ran with the relay team; the German press was excited. Months she helped break the 4 × 200 m record, held by Germany. In an act of defiance, the women wore outfits with national symbols while setting the record; the winter of 1944–45, known as the Hongerwinter, was severe, there was a great lack of food in the big cities. She gave birth to a daughter, Fanneke, in 1945 and in contrast to her previous post-birth activities she took seven months off from sport and only undertook limited training; the first major international event after the war w
Helen Stephens
Helen Herring Stephens was an American athlete and a double Olympic champion in 1936. Stephens, nicknamed the "Fulton Flash" after her birthplace, Missouri, was a strong athlete in sprint events—she never lost a race in her entire career—and in weight events such as the shot put and discus throw, she won national titles in both categories. When she was 18, Stephens participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics. There she won the 100 m final, beating reigning champion and world record holder, Stanisława Walasiewicz of Poland. Stephen's time of 11.5 s was below the world record, but was not recognized because a strong tailwind was blowing at the time of the race. Next, Stephens anchored the American 4 × 100 m relay team that won the Olympic title after the leading German team dropped its baton. Stephens is quoted by Olympic historian, David Wallechinsky, about her post-race experience with Adolf Hitler. "He gives me the Nazi salute. I gave him a old-fashioned Missouri handshake," she said. "Once more Hitler goes for the jugular vein.
He gets hold of my fanny and begins to squeeze and pinch, hug me up. And he said:'You're a true Aryan type. You should be running for Germany.' So after he gave me the once over and a full massage, he asked me if I'd like to spend the weekend in Berchtesgaden." Stephens refused. Stephens retired from athletics shortly after the games and played professional baseball and softball, she attended William Woods University, Fulton High School, Middle River School in Fulton. From 1938 -- 1952, she was the manager of her own semi-professional basketball team, she was employed for many years in the Research Division of the U. S. Aeronautical Chart and Information Service in St. Louis, Missouri, her longtime partner was a dietician at Francis Shimer College. In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, she died in Saint Louis at age 75. At the 1936 Olympics, it was suggested that both Stephens and Stanisława Walasiewicz were, in fact, male; the Olympic Committee concluded that she was a woman.
The Life of Helen Stephens – The Fulton Flash, by Sharon Kinney Hanson, 2004
1932 Summer Olympics
The 1932 Summer Olympics known as the Games of the X Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event, held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, United States. The Games were held during the worldwide Great Depression and some nations were unable to pay for the trip to Los Angeles. U. S. President Herbert Hoover failed to put in an appearance at the Games; the organizing committee did not record the finances of the Games in their report, although contemporary newspapers claimed that the Games had made a profit of US$1,000,000. The selection of the host city for the 1932 Summer Olympics was made at the 23rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy, in 1923. Remarkably, the selection process consisted of a single bid, from Los Angeles, as there were no bids from any other city, Los Angeles was selected by default to host the 1932 Games. An Olympic Village was built in Baldwin Hills, occupied by the male athletes. Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard; the victory podium was used for the first time.
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 hurdles event, she competed in a jump-off for a silver in the high jump. Her technique in the jump-off was ruled leaving Didrikson with second place. Paavo Nurmi was suspended from competition by the IAAF for alleged violation of amateur rules. Finns charged that the Swedish officials had used devious tricks in their campaign against Nurmi's amateur status, ceased all athletic relations with Sweden. A year earlier, controversies on the track and in the press had led Finland to withdraw from the Finland-Sweden athletics international. After Nurmi's suspension, Finland did not agree to return to the event until 1939. In field hockey, only three nations took part; the host nation still won a bronze medal. Poland's Stanisława Walasiewicz won the gold medal in the women's 100 m.
After her death in 1980, it was discovered that she was intersex and would have been ineligible to participate. Eddie Tolan won both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events. Romeo Neri won three gold medals in gymnastics. Helene Madison won three gold medals in swimming, while the Japanese upset the men's events and took all but one title. Takeichi 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 die in 1945 as an officer stationed in the defense of the island of Iwo Jima, as such is an important 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 male swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. Dunc Gray won Australia's first cycling gold medal; the Dunc Gray Velodrome, built for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, was named after him.
Due to an official's error, the 3,000 m steeplechase went for one extra lap. 117 events in 20 disciplines, comprising 14 sports, were part of the Olympic program in 1932. In one of two Equestrian jumping events no medals were awarded; the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses. American football Lacrosse The Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics awarded medals for works inspired by sport-related themes in five categories: architecture, music and sculpture. Fifteen sports venues were used for there 1932 Summer Olympics. In order to control cost in the wake of the Great Depression, existing venues were used, they included two golf courses, two city parks, three public highways, a city road. The Swimming Stadium was the only new venue constructed for these games; the Rose Bowl, constructed in 1921, was made into a temporary velodrome for track cycling events under the auspices of the Union Cycliste Internationale. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, constructed in 1923, was used as the Olympic Stadium.
The Olympic Auditorium was constructed in 1924 in preparation for Los Angeles being awarded the Games. Long Beach Marine Stadium was created in 1925 when Alamitos Bay was dredged further dredged seven years in time for the 1932 Games. Elysian Park, the oldest city park in Los Angeles, was founded in 1886, has been part of the Los Angeles Police Department training academy since 1925; the Riviera Country Club opened in 1926 as the Los Angeles Athletic Club Golf Course and was renamed Riviera by the time of the 1932 Games. The swimming stadium, constructed adjacent to the Coliseum in 1932, was intended to be a temporary structure. Riverside Drive, Los Angeles Avenue, Vineyard Avenue, the Pacific Coast Highway were common driving routes in California at the time of the 1932 Games; the Coliseum was the first home for the Dodgers Major League Baseball team when it moved from Brooklyn, New York in the 1958 season. The following year, it hosted the World Series. Once Dodger Stadium was completed in 1962, the Dodgers moved there.
The Los Angeles Rams National Football League team used the Coliseum as its host stadium from 1946 to 1980 when it moved to Anaheim, located southeast of Los Angeles. It hosted wha
