[b] The selection of the host city for the 1932 Summer Olympics was made at the 23rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy, on April 9, 1923.

An Olympic Village was built for the first time and became a model for future games, in Baldwin Hills, occupied by male athletes.

[6][7][c] An Olympic mascot, Scottish Terrier Smoky, was featured for the first time in history, albeit unofficially.

Finland's Paavo Nurmi was suspended from competition by the IAAF for alleged violation of amateur rules.

Finns charged that the Swedish officials had used devious tricks in their campaign against Nurmi's amateur status,[8] and ceased all athletic relations with Sweden.

[9] A year earlier, controversies on the track and in the press had led Finland to withdraw from the Finland-Sweden athletics international.

[12][13] Babe Didrikson won both events and also competed in the high jump where she was controversially denied gold, leaving her with silver.

[14] As women, unlike men, were only allowed to enter a maximum of three events, Didrikson could not compete in the discus throw, long jump, and relay where she would have likely medaled based on her prior results.

Had the 200 meters and pentathlon been contested at these games (they debuted in 1964), Didrikson would have won them easily based on her performances prior to the Olympics.

[16] Helene Madison won three gold medals in swimming, while the Japanese upset the men's events and took all but one title.

Dunc Gray won Australia's first cycling gold medal; he set a world record of 1m 13s in the 1000 time trial.

The Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics awarded medals for works inspired by sport-related themes in five categories: architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.

The Rose Bowl, constructed in 1921, was made into a temporary velodrome for track cycling events under the auspices of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

[19][20] The Olympic Auditorium was constructed in 1924 in preparation for Los Angeles being awarded the Games; it was modified to meet the specifications of the boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling federations.

[27][28] The Coliseum was the first (& temporary) Los Angeles home for the National League (NL) Dodgers baseball team when it moved from Brooklyn, New York before the 1958 season.

Los Angeles Harbor continues to be a major sea port in the Western United States, employing 919,000 people and generating US$39.1 billion in annual wages and tax revenues as of 2007.

The nations that participated in the previous games in Amsterdam 1928 but was absent in Los Angeles 1932 was Bulgaria, Chile, Egypt, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Panama, Rhodesia and Romania.