Tuesday 31 January 2012

Los Angeles - 1932.



Yo yo yo. The year is 1932 and the city - Los Angeles.

The world was in the grip of the Great Depression so only LA bid to host the games and many competitors from 1928 couldn't even afford to attend. As it happened the 1932 games made a profit of nearly $1 million, which was real big money back then.

This is what went down.

They built the first Olympic village (then sold it).

They used the trademark 3 tiered Olympic podium for the first time.

Takeichi Nishi became the first (and to date only) Japanese winner of a gold medal in an equestrian sport.

The hockey tournament was the first appearance of an Indian team on American soil and spawned a couple of records that stand to this day. The biggest score ever achieved in an international hockey match is the 24-1 victory India scored over the USA. The record for the most number of goals in a single match belongs to Roop Singh who slammed home 10 in that same game.

As for the one American goal, the Indian backs had decided to let the Americans have a run but when they looked behind them their goalkeeper was already signing autographs behind the goal posts.

The last Olympic polo tournament was won by Argentina in front of a capacity crowd of 45,000.

Rowland 'Flip' Wolfe became the first and only Olympic gold medal winner in the sport of tumbling. His key move - the backflip with a double twist - is shown below.

No comments:

Post a Comment