{"id":803067,"date":"2026-07-15T07:55:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/803067\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:55:34","slug":"olympic-rewind-canada-at-the-los-angeles-1932-summer-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/803067\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Rewind: Canada at the Los Angeles 1932 Summer Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Olympic Rewind, a series where we revisit past editions of the Olympic Games<\/a>, highlighting the top Canadian athletes and stories.<\/p>\n

With exactly two years to go until the opening ceremony of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, let\u2019s take a trip back to the first time LA hosted the Olympics in 1932. The city also hosted in 1984, Canada\u2019s most successful Olympics as a result of major boycotts from other nations. Stay tuned for a potential Olympic Rewind on that as well.<\/p>\n

The 1932 Olympics were the first Summer Games to use a podium to celebrate the medallists, the first to have an official Olympic Village and the first to be 16 days long, all things that have stuck ever since. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Canada fared in LA 94 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Duncan McNaughton. (Photo: Unknown, accessed via Canadian Olympic Committee)<\/p>\n

Canadian athletes sent: 127 (108 men, 19 women)<\/p>\n

Opening ceremony flag bearer: George Maughan (Boxing)<\/p>\n

Medal tally: 15 (two gold, five silver, eight bronze)<\/p>\n

Place on medal table: 13th<\/p>\n

Of Canada\u2019s 15 medals in 1932, nine of them came in athletics, including their first gold of the Games \u2014 Duncan McNaughton in men\u2019s high jump. <\/p>\n

McNaughton was in a four-way tie for first place on 1.97 metres with the Phillipines\u2019 Simeon Toribio and American duo Corny Johnson and Bob Van Osdel. In the tiebreaking round, nobody could clear 1.99 or 2 metres, but McNaughton was awarded the gold for being able to replicate his attempt of 1.97. There is more on his remarkable gold medal win at the bottom of this article.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s other gold medal was won in boxing, by Horace \u201cLefty\u201d Gwynne in the bantamweight division. Gwynne beat Italy\u2019s Vito Melis in the quarterfinals, the Phillipines\u2019 Jos\u00e9 Villanueva in the semis and Germany\u2019s Hans Ziglarski in the gold medal fight.<\/p>\n

Gwynne was the last Canadian to win an Olympic gold in boxing until Lennox Lewis did it in the super-heavyweight division in 1988, something that hasn\u2019t been matched since. <\/p>\n

After retiring Gwynne went pro, fighting to a career record of 40-2-8.<\/p>\n

\"OlympicOlympic Rewind: LA Memorial Coliseum’s Olympic history as it prepares for LA28<\/a><\/p>\n

Hilda Strike won two silver medals, finishing second in the women\u2019s 100m sprint after both her and Poland\u2019s Stanis\u0142awa Walasiewicz ran a world record time of 11.9 seconds. Strike, along with Mildred Fizzell, Lillian Palmer and Mary Frizzel, won a silver medal in the women\u2019s 4x100m relay as well.<\/p>\n

Alex Wilson won two medals at the 1932 Olympics, including a second-place finish in the men\u2019s 800m, losing to Great Britain\u2019s Tommy Hampson, who set a new world record of 1.49.7. More on the other shortly.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s welterweight wrestling event, Daniel MacDonald lost to Jack van Bebber from the host Americans in the gold medal match, claiming the silver.<\/p>\n

Ernest Cribb, Harry Jones, Peter Gordon, Hubert Wallace, Ronald Maitland, and George Gyles finished second in the 8-metre class sailing event, losing to the U.S. in a competition that only featured the two teams, losing all four races. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hilda Strike. (Photo: Canada\u2019s Sports Hall Of Fame)<\/p>\n

Also in sailing, Philip Rogers, Gerald Wilson, Gardner Boultbee, and Kenneth Glass finished third in the 6-metre class.<\/p>\n

Staying on the water, Earl Eastwood, Joseph Harris, Stanley Stanyar, Harry Fry, Cedric Liddell, William Thoburn, Don Boal, Albert Taylor, and Les MacDonald teamed up for the bronze medal in the men\u2019s eights rowing event. Charles E. Pratt and Noel De Mille also picked up a rowing bronze in the men\u2019s double sculls.<\/p>\n

Heading back to the track, Alex Wilson also won a bronze medal in the men\u2019s 400m, and teamed up with Raymond Lewis, James Ball and Phil Edwards for third place in the 4x400m relay.<\/p>\n

Edwards, nicknamed the Man Of Bronze, also crossed the line third in the 800m, behind Wilson, and in the 1500m. He also picked up bronze medals in 1928 and 1936, ending his career with five Olympic medals, all of them for finishing third. <\/p>\n

In 1936 he was the first-ever winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy, now known as the Northern Star Award.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Phil Edwards. (Photo: Canada\u2019s Sports Hall Of Fame)<\/p>\n

Eva Dawes finished third in the women\u2019s high jump, in what turned out to be her only Olympic appearance. Dawes qualified for the 1928 Olympics as a 15-year-old but was too young to compete, and she chose to boycott the 1936 Olympics because they were held in Nazi Germany. <\/p>\n

Canadians have won more athletics medals than any other Olympic sport, and to this day the nine athletics medals won in 1932 remain the most by Canadians at a single Olympics.<\/p>\n

Duncan McNaughton won Canada\u2019s first gold medal of the 1932 Olympics in men\u2019s high jump, but he probably shouldn\u2019t have been competing in the first place.<\/p>\n

McNaughton didn\u2019t take part in the Canadian Olympic trials but was studying in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California at the time of the Olympics. With the Great Depression limiting how many athletes could travel to LA, McNaughton saw an opportunity and showed up at the Games, pleading Team Canada officials to let him compete until they agreed. <\/p>\n

With the event in a four-way tie that lasted over three hours, American jumper Bob Van Osdel \u2014 a close friend and college teammate of McNaughton\u2019s at USC \u2014 gave him technique advice that ended up winning his opponent the gold medal. McNaughton became the first non-American to win high jump gold, and the last Canadian until Derek Drouin in 2016. <\/p>\n

Van Osdel missed his last jump, taking silver. That alone is a great story, but it doesn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n

In 1933, McNaughton\u2019s gold medal was stolen from his car, and Van Osdel provided another assist. Now a dentist, Van Osdel made a mold using his silver medal and poured gold into it, casting a new Olympic title for the Canadian. They remained friends until Van Osdel died in 1987.<\/p>\n

McNaughton retired in 1933 after winning an NCAA championship at USC, and was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Sports Hall of Fame in 1949 and Canada\u2019s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955. The Cornwall, Ontario-born, Vancouver-raised athlete was also honoured by the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame and Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame before he passed away in 1998 at the age of 87. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Duncan McNaughton. (Photo: Canadian Olympic Committee)<\/p>\n

McNaughton\u2019s remarkable life also saw him serve in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two, flying 57 missions and receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar for his efforts.<\/p>\n

He also worked in the petroleum industry, exploring South America and Australia in search of oil, and to this day the Duncan A. McNaughton Memorial Grant is awarded each year to a graduate student by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.<\/p>\n

McNaughton lived an eventful life, with his experience at the 1932 Olympics just one piece of the puzzle. <\/p>\n

Thank you for reading this post on True North. To be the first person to read future posts, and listen to new podcast episodes, subscribe for free using the button below, or share the article with someone you know.<\/p>\n

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Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to Olympic Rewind, a series where we revisit past editions of the Olympic Games, highlighting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-803067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}