The year is 1932, and despite
being in the midst of the Great Depression, a dusty, distant little boom town
named Los Angeles is about to host what will turn out to be the most successful
sporting event in human history; The Games of the Xth Summer Olympiad. These
games will feature the most attended event in the world, in the largest venue
in the world, all while being watched by
the eyes of the world! Only after overcoming nearly impossible odds to
produce them, WILLIAM MAY GARLAND, President of the Summer Olympic Games, will
at long last achieve his dream of establishing the model for the Olympic games
we know today! Still “unconfirmed” only weeks before opening
ceremonies, the ’32 Games will make history! One dignitary will exclaim “L.A. has built the finest
sporting facilities we have ever seen!”, including a stadium capable of holding
over 100,000 fans. It is the first time an Olympic Village will be constructed.
A massive and meticulous task, nothing like it has ever been attempted before.
250 acres of prime hilltop ranchland is donated by Hollywood’s elite. Over sixty buildings will
house the male athletes, even providing a chef to each country to cook “home
style” meals so competitors can continue their usual diets. While
there will be fewer athletes representing nations than at previous games, the
venues will be packed with record attendance, these games will prove to be the
only Olympics to turn a financial profit until the 1984 games, also held in Los
Angeles. The Xth Olympiad is the first to utilize photo finish timing, a
multilevel victory podium, and even the popular tradition of “pin trading”
begins here, no doubt as a result of “commercial” sponsorship. And if that
weren’t enough, for the first time, “American” football will be played, as a demonstration
sportThe games will feature future American movies stars
like Tarzan’s Buster Crabbe compete, as well as track stars like Babe
Didrikson, considered the best female athlete of the 20th century.
Rivalries and scandal will tarnish one men’s track event, and despite having
the world’s largest population, the team from China, sends but one lone athlete,
as a protest to Japan’s Imperialistic aggression. There is great international
tension in this time between the two World Wars.