1932: New York Games

ByEurosport

Published 17/01/2006 at 21:28 GMT

In 1932 the United States had seen better days, but Great Depression be damned, the first American Winter Olympics went ahead at Lake Placid. The Governor of New York, one Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signaled the official start of the Games, one that would

OLYMPIC GAMES 2006 Torino 2006 1932 Lake Placid Olympic history

Image credit: From Official Website

In 1932 the president who would lead the U.S. out of the Great Depression and into the second World War was still only the Governor of New York.

While he did not yet have the opportunity to dictate the landscape of American national and international policy, FDR did have the chance to do certain more ceremonial tasks, such as officially opening the Lake Placid Olympics (and appearing in photo ops which would serve him well in his first Presidential campaign later that year).

OLYMPIC GAMES 2006 Torino 2006 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake Placid 1932 Games

Image credit: From Official Website

Torino 2006

2002: Salt Lake success

10/02/2006 at 22:02

The Depression hung over the 32' Games like a dreary global fog, as raising money to host the third Olympic Games in a town of less than 4,000 people was a task in itself.

The president of the organizeng committee Dr. Godfrey Dewey ultimately had to donate land owned by his very family for construction of the bobsleigh run.

Still standing, sitting down

Fortunately for Olympic history, the money was raised and the games went forward, though there were eight less nations and 212 fewer athletes in New York than there were four years earlier in Switzerland.

The historical highlight of those Games was not the decline in attendance, however, but what happened on the Dewey-donated bobsleigh course.

Eddie Eagan, the light-heavyweight boxing champion from the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, won more Olympic gold as a member of United States' four-man bobsleigh team.

OLYMPIC GAMES 2006 Torino 2006 Lake Placid, February 1932, III Olympic Winter Games. The team USA I, winner of the 4-man bobsleigh event: William FISKE, Edward EAGAN, Clifford GRAY and Jay O'BRIEN.

Image credit: From Official Website

Joining Billy Fiske, who won his second gold medal in the event, Eagan became the only person ever to win a gold medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

What's more astonishing, his record stands to this day, with no challenges to be seen in the immediate future.

In the end the Americans would lead the Olympic medal count for the first time at the Winter Games.The U.S. ended Norway's complete dominance and garnered six golds, four silvers and two bronzes, as the Norwegians finished second with Sweden third.

VITAL STATS

Dates: February 4-15, 1932
Participating nations: 17
Participants: 252, including 21 women
Events: 14
Most medals: United States, 12

Torino 2006

1998: Sunrise, sunset

09/02/2006 at 13:05

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1994: Lillehammer shines

08/02/2006 at 21:50

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1992: End of an era

08/02/2006 at 14:19

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