A NEW WHOLE NEW WORLD
Venturing away from Europe for the first time, the inaugural Winter Games in the Western Hemisphere is hosted by a small, upstate New York town of fewer than 4,000 citizens.
GREATLY DEPRESSING
The 1932 Games end up being a financial disaster, due to the Depression. Challenged in fund-raising efforts, the president of the Lake Placid committee donates family-owned land for the bobsled track. And because many countries have insufficient funds for teams and travel, more than half of the 252 athletes who participate hail from the United States or Canada.
WEATHER OR NOT
Besides the financial frustrations, warm temperatures and unseasonable weather put a damper on the Lake Placid Games. Snow becomes a foreign import as officials truck in snow from across the Canadian border to fill bare spots on the cross-country course. Some ski jumpers end up in a pool of standing water, thanks to rain runoff that collects on the outrun of the ski jump. And the four-man bobsled he first and only man to win events at both the Summer and Winter Games. Eagan had claimed a boxing gold medal in the 1920 Summer Olympics as champion in the light heavyweight division.
WHOHAT COMINes second to Karl Schafer, an Austrian 16 years his junior.
HOME-RINK ADVANTAGE
For the speedskating at Lake Placid, the North American format of mass starts and skaters racing against each other is used by local organizers, rather than the more familiar European method of two-man heats against the clock. The first-time move to actual races from timed events favors the more physical skaters, and some Europeans me gold-medalist Clas Thunberg of Finland ing not one but two gold medals at the
