1932 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 5000 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	5000 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	18 athletes from 11 countries
Competition location	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Competition phase	August 2, 1932 (preliminary) August 5, 1932 (final)
Medalist Lauri Lehtinen ( FIN )   Ralph Hill ( USA )   Lasse Virtanen ( FIN )

The men's 5,000-meter run at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was held on August 2 and 5, 1932 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . 18 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was Lauri Lehtinen from Finland, ahead of Ralph Hill from the USA and Lasse Virtanen from Finland .

Existing records

• World record : 14: 17.0 min - Lauri Lehtinen ( Finland ), Helsinki , June 19, 1932
• Olympic record : 14: 31.2 min - Paavo Nurmi ( Finland ), Paris final , July 10, 1924

Conducting the competition

The runners competed in two preliminary runs on August 2nd. The seven best participants will qualify for the final on August 5th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Date: August 2, 1932

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ralph Hill	United States	14: 59.6 min
2	Lauri Lehtinen	Finland	15: 05.5 min
3	Jean-Gunnar Lindgren	Sweden	15: 06.0 min
4th	Leave Virtanen	Finland	15: 06.4 min
5	John Savidan	New Zealand	15: 08.2 min
6th	Alex Hillhouse	Australia	15: 14.0 min
7th	Daniel Dean	United States	15: 19.6 min
8th	George Bailey	Great Britain	k. A.
9	Kitamoto Masamichi	Japan
DNF	Juan Morales	Mexico

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Alec Burns	Great Britain	15: 25.8 min
2	Paul Rekers	United States	15: 34.6 min
3	Erik Pettersson	Sweden	15: 36.4 min
4th	Roger Rochard	France	15: 37.8 min
5	Scotty Rankine	Canada	15: 39.6 min
6th	Max Syring	German Empire	15: 48.5 min
7th	Shoichiro Takenaka	Japan	15: 56.0 min
8th	Valentín González	Mexico	16: 00.0 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Lauri Lehtinen	Finland	14: 30.0 min	OR
2	Ralph Hill	United States	14: 30.0 min
3	Leave Virtanen	Finland	14: 44.0 min
4th	John Savidan	New Zealand	14: 49.6 min
5	Jean-Gunnar Lindgren	Sweden	14: 54.7 min
6th	Max Syring	German Empire	14: 59.0 min
7th	Alec Burns	Great Britain	15:04.4 min
8th	Daniel Dean	United States	15: 08.5 min
9	Erik Pettersson	Sweden	15: 13.4 min
10	Alex Hillhouse	Australia	15: 15.0 min
11	Scotty Rankine	Canada	15: 24.0 min
12	Shoichiro Takenaka	Japan	17: 20.0 min
DNF	Paul Rekers	United States
	Roger Rochard	France

Date: August 5, 1932

The Finns Lauri Lehtinen as world record holder and Lasse Virtanen were considered top favorites for the Olympic victory. Lehtinen actually won the gold medal in the end, but his behavior on the home straight left him a little lacking in sportiness and Olympic spirit.

As expected, the two Finns set the pace right from the start, runner after runner from the rest of the field gradually fell back. Halfway through the course, only John Savidan, Jean-Gunnar Lindgren and Ralph Hill could follow. After Savidan and Lindgren lost touch, it was surprisingly too fast for Virtanen too. Only Hill could not be shaken off and was cheered loudly by the audience. On the home stretch, the American tried to overtake twice. At first he wanted to pass to the left, but Lehtinen at the same time pulled to the left and blocked his way. Then the same scene played out on the right. Both runners reached the finish line with an Olympic record at the same time , but Lehtinen had a tiny lead. He was booed by the audience for his unfair behavior. But the announcer was able to calm the situation down again. The judges discussed the question of disqualification of the Finn for a long time. Despite his clearly illegal behavior, he was awarded the gold medal.

The award ceremony did not take place until the following day. Obviously the Finnish team management had given their runner instructions, because Lehtinen wanted to take Hill with him to the top step of the podium. This, however, refused, pointing out that he saw the displacement as unintentional. Lehtinen then stuck the Finnish team pin on his opponent and Hill reciprocated with the same gesture. The audience cheered at this reconciling sportiness.

Ralph Hill won the first US medal in this discipline.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 2

Web links

• SportsReference 5000 m , accessed September 16, 2017
• Official report pp. 423-425, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 16, 2017
• Olympics - 1932 Los Angeles - Track Mens 5000m - FIN Lauri Lehtinen & USA Ralph Hill imasportsphile , published on February 18, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed on September 16, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 551 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)