| 1932 Winter Olympics medals | |
|---|---|
 Jack Shea of theUnited States tied for most gold medals won at the 1932 Winter Olympics, winning two in men's speed skating. | |
| Location | Lake Placid, New York, US |
| Highlights | |
| Most gold medals |  United States (6) |
| Most total medals | United States (12) |
| Medalling NOCs | 10 |
The1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were an internationalmulti-sport event held inLake Placid, New York, United States, from February 4 to 15, 1932. A total of 252 athletes representing 17National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated, 8 NOCs[a] fewer than thelast Winter Games inSt. Moritz, Switzerland. The games featured 14 events in 4sports across 7 disciplines. These Winter Games were the first held outside ofEurope, with prior editions held inChamonix, France, and St. Moritz, Switzerland.[3][4]
Overall, athletes representing 10 NOCs won at least one medal, and 7 NOCs won at least one gold medal. Host nationUnited States won the most gold medals and the most overall medals, with 6 and 12 respectively.[5]Hungary's team obtained their first Winter Olympic medal, with figure skatersEmília Rotter andLászló Szollás winning bronze in thepair skating event.[6]Norway achieved twopodium sweeps at the games, in theindividual nordic combined event withJohan Grøttumsbråten winning the gold,Ole Stenen winning the silver, andHans Vinjarengen winning the bronze, and in theindividual ski jump event withBirger Ruud winning the gold,Hans Beck winning the silver, andKaare Wahlberg winning the bronze.[7][8]
Speed skatersIrving Jaffee andJack Shea, both from the United States, tied for the most gold medals won for an individual at the games, with two. Shea became the first American athlete to win multiple gold medals at the same Olympic Winter Games.[9] Alongside Jaffee and Shea, cross-country skierVeli Saarinen ofFinland and speed skatersAlexander Hurd andWilly Logan ofCanada tied for the most total medals won with two each.[5] BobsledderEddie Eagan of the United States became the first and only person to win a gold medal in different events at theSummer Olympics andWinter Olympics,[b] after winning the gold medal in thefour-man event at these games and in themen's light heavyweight event in boxing at the1920 Summer Olympics inAntwerp, Belgium.[11]
The medals used for the 1932 Winter Olympics were minted by the Robbins Company. Theobverse of the medals featured a design of a goddess holding alaurel wreath behind theAdirondack Mountains. It also featured the host city's landscape with a stadium and aski jumping hill. The reverse of the medals featured theOlympic rings, the official name of the games, and a laurel wreath. The medal itself had curved ridges that were said to representancient Greek columns.[12]
For the first time in Olympic history, medals awarded to athletes were given out on podiums. The podiums were based on the medal awarding of theathletics events at the1930 British Empire Games inHamilton, Canada, where winning athletes stood on top of a podium while the second- and third-placed athletes stood on their sides, one step below. Then-president of theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC),Henri de Baillet-Latour, saw the practice and developed his own version. Instructions to use De Baillet-Latour's version of the practice were sent out by the IOC to the organizing committees of the1932 Summer Olympics and 1932 Winter Olympics. Shea became the first Olympic champion to be awarded a medal on top of a podium after winning the gold medal at themen's 500 metres event in speed skating.[13][14]
The medal table is based on information provided by theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses theOlympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where a nation is an entity represented by a NOC. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.[15][16] If teams are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by theirIOC country code.[17]
* Host nation (United States)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States* | 6 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| 2 |  Norway | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| 3 |  Sweden | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 4 |  Canada | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| 5 |  Finland | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 |  Austria | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 |  France | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 |  Switzerland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 |  Germany | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 |  Hungary | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (10 entries) | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 | |
