Opening Date 30 Jul 1932 Closing Date 14 Aug 1932 Country of the host city USA

Candidate cities None

Information

The USA had applied as early as 1920 to host the Games and twelve years they came to Los Angeles. The sailing competition was down the Californian coast at Long Beach along with the rowing. In post-Depression USA, the Games needed a lot of subsidy and it saw the first Olympic Village built.

The 6- and 8-Metre classes were carried over, but the una-rigged Snowbird replaced the Twelve-Voetsjol as the single-handed dinghy. Supplied by the Americans, all three medals went to Europeans with the gold won by Jacques Lebrun of Belgium. In fact, the American Snowbird competitor, Charles Lyon, was the only one in the US team not to win a medal. Making its debut was the Star two-person keelboat, so beginning the longest run of any class in the Games, broken only in 1976 when the Star was supplanted by the Tempest for one regatta.

The subsidies were not sufficient to lure Sixes and Eights from Europe, save for Swede Tore Holm who won his second gold in the 6-metre class following his 1920 victory in the 40 Square Metre class. Indeed with only three Sixes and two Eights - from USA and Canada - every entrant 'earned' a medal.

The Stars were originally slated as an exhibition, but in a seven race series Gilbert Gray of New Orleans and his crew Andrew Labino scored five 1sts to claim the gold. In fact the Stars class got its hooks really into Olympic sailing for Snowbird winner Lebrun sailed a Star and silver medallist behind Gray, British sailmaker Colin Ratsey, kept one of his two Stars in New York.

Among the competitors was France's Jean Peytel, later to play a prominent role in offshore racing in developing the One Ton Cup IOR level rating championship.