1932 Winter Olympic Games

1932 Olympic Winter Games

Transcript

1932 Winter Olympics

 

If you are like millions of other people you have tuned into the Winter Olympics. In 2022 they are being held in Beijing, China. But, twice they were held right here in the Adirondacks; in Lake Placid. The first time was in 1932. That was only the third Winter Olympic competition held in the modern era. 

Olympic events are filled with exciting stories of athletic excellence and devastating defeat. The Winter Olympics of 1932 were no different. In this episode I will tell you one such story. 

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Intro - Ready to earn some extra credit? You are listening to ADKX-tra Credit, a podcast for students about the history of the Adirondack Mountains and the people that have lived, worked, and played here. The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, is located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State. 

CONTENT

Let me set the stage for you by reminding you a little bit about what life was like in 1932. It’s February in the Adirondacks; the III Winter Olympics were held February 4th through February 15. Lake Placid was a very small town in a rather remote area. Automobiles were becoming popular in other areas, but in the Adirondack region paved roads were still scarce. 

Many people didn’t think such a small community could afford to build the roads, competition facilities, or the hotels to accomodate an event that would draw thousands of people.In 1932 the world was still in the midst of the Great Depression. Many people were out of work. Financial considerations led some to wonder if even having the Olympics was a good idea. Others said it would boost national morale and create jobs.

1932 was a time of political unrest. Adolf Hitler was rising to power and naziism was taking hold in Eastern Europe. Even though World War II was still a few years away, relationships between nations were very unstable. 

Franklin D Roosevelt was the governor of New York. He wouldn’t become the president for another nine months. Television had not been invented. If you were not a spectator at the Olympics you had to read about it in the papers the next day. Or maybe, if you were lucky enough you could listen to sports announcers describe the competitions on the radio. 

TRANSITION 

The world was very different and the competitions themselves were different. For example, the length of courses and the height of ski jumps have changed in the last ninety years. There were no tow ropes and certainly no chairlift. If you skied down you had to ski back up for another run. Trail grooming was done by hand, that means men went out with shovels and shoveled snow that was on the side onto the competition tracks. My particular favorite; NOT, women could only compete in figure skating. 

There were seventeen nations, though twenty had been expected. There were competitions in the following sports:

Hockey

Skiing: that included jumps, downhill, and cross-country

Figure Skating; mens and womens

Speed Skating; that was one of the most highly anticipated competitions

And

Bob racing: two-man bobsled and four-man bobsled

Though there is excitement and drama in all those competitions, it's the bobsledding that has caught my attention.

TRANSITION -

Bobsledding was a fairly new sport in 1932. In fact, there were people that didn’t even consider it to be a sport! They thought since it involved a vehicle that the competitors didn't really DO anything. But, I think once you learn more about bobsledding you will agree that it deserves its place in the Olympics.

Bobsleds are toboggans built for speed. Today they look a bit like a giant bullet. Early bobsleds; or bobsleighs as some called them, were basically sleds with a hood on the front. They have a steering mechanism to change the direction of the runners. One of the innovations just before the 1932 Olympics was having a steering wheel as this mechanism. Before steering wheels they used a kind of rope pulley. One of the competitors still used one of those on their sled. Believe me, steering is crucial in this sport!

Bobsleds are run on a track designed just for that purpose. The one built in Lake Placid for the 1932 Winter Olympics was the first one of its kind in North America. It was a mile and half long on a mountain slope. At the start of a run, the sledders push the bobsled with all their might to get it going as fast as possible. Then they jump on and they're off.  The run winds back and forth with hairpin turns and steep drops. The racers are jarred side to side. It’s not uncommon for them to have bruised or even cracked ribs at the end of a tough run. The sleds reach speeds of 65 to 75 miles per hour on the slick surface of the run. When the sleds race at those speeds around the turns they slide high up onto the curve. It’s only the skill of the drive and luck that will keep them from flying up and off the track. 

Racers were required to sign a waiver before racing stating that no one but themselves were responsible for any injury or death! Some of the treacherous corners had names;  Shady Corner, Whiteface, and Zig-Zag. And those curves made themselves well-known to the racers before the Olympics even began. It’s been said that “risk, speed, and danger make the sport what it is”.

TRANSITION -

Before the competition begins the racers test the track with some test runs. Unfortunately that was disastrous for some. Before the Olympic games began there were eight crashes. There were also three near-crashes. The team from Belgium jumped off their sled when they saw they were headed for disaster and it probably saved their lives! Twelve people went to the hospital in total before the games began, some so hurt that they were not able to compete in the races. 

Once the Olympic Games began the trips to the hospital ceased. Sadly, this was mainly because the weather turned and the bob races had to be delayed. The weather was warm and there was little snow and even some rain. They tried shoveling snow onto the runs, but it just made them bumpy and either slow or even more dangerous. Some spots on the run were so bare that the wood they were built on showed through. 

The Games were supposed to end on February 13th. However, there is a little known rule that says the competition can be extended a day if something; like weather, creates delays. This was a good thing for the bobsledders. Snow began to fall and they were able to race. 

You would think that the crashes and the delays would make the bob races unpopular. No way! More than 5 times the people that attended the opening ceremonies showed up to watch the delayed races. And the most popular spots for the spectators were those dangerous curves that had brought about devastating crashes in the trials. Those gruesome attendees were doomed to disappointment, there were no crashes. In fact on February 14th the efforts to improve the course had made it slow. Slow for bobsledding that is, the best time for the mile and half that day was 1 minute 59 seconds!  Thirteen teams had originally signed up and only seven were left to race. Because of this they delayed a second day to try and improve the course again. On February 15th it was finally cold enough to make the run hard and slippery for bobsledding. Though they should have been done by the rules of the Olympics the racers wanted to finish their Olympic competition. In the end, two teams from the United States won gold in the bobsled. The four-man team won by a mere 2.02 seconds!

TRANSITION - 

When you visit the Adirondack Experience, remember to visit the Woods & Waters exhibit.  We have an entire room with objects from both the 1932 Olympics and the 1980 Olympics. We even have the winning bobsled from the two-man bob race! 

There is a lot more to the Olympic story that I haven’t gone into here. 

• There was a legal battle over where the bobsled course would be, the first choices were on land designated as Forever Wild. 
• Speed skating had a local, Lake Placid  gold medal winner; named Jack Shea. 
• The competitions for downhill skiing, speed skating, and hockey were fierce. 

I hope you will investigate some of them and learn more about Adirondack history.

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast conclusion - Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future. If you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org