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The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Berlin, Germany, from 1 August to 16 August. Berlin had previously been chosen to host the 1916 Summer Olympics, which were subsequently cancelled due to the First World War.[1]

Bidding[]

Voting results for the 1936 Summer Olympic Games
City Country Round 1
Berlin Germany 43
Barcelona Spain 16

The 1936 Games had 3,963 athletes from 49 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participating in a total of 129 events in 19 sports. This was the highest number of nations represented at any Games to date.[2] Athletes from 32 NOCs won medals, of which 21 secured at least one gold medal. As a result, 17 NOCs were left without any medal. The host NOC, Germany, received a total of 89 medals, a record for a united German team, although East Germany broke that record in 1976, 1980 and 1988.[3]

While a boycott by the United States was suggested due to Germany's National Socialist regime, it was not implemented as the President of the United States Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, felt that politics should be kept separate from sport.[1] The other NOCs which threatened to boycott the Games for the same reason were the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands.[2] An alternative People's Olympiad was planned to take place in Barcelona, Spain, but was canceled at the last moment following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War after the athletes had already begun to arrive.[2] The civil war also meant that Spain's NOC did not compete at the 1936 Games.[1] While no NOCs ended up boycotting the Games, a multinational Jewish-led boycott of the Games took place, with individual athletes refusing to take part.[4]

Marjorie Gestring became the youngest Olympic champion ever at the age of 13, winning a gold medal in the women's 3 metre springboard.[1] As Korea was under Japanese rule, Korean athletes who hoped to compete in the Games were required to qualify for the Japanese team. Sohn Kee-chung, competing as Kitei Son, won gold in the marathon, which made him Japan's first gold medallist at these Games and the first Korean ever to win a medal.[5] His fellow countryman Nam Sung-yong won the bronze medal in the same event.[6] For the first time since the 1908 Games, the United States failed to lead the medal table.[1]

Medal table[]

A black and white photograph of a female athlete with short cut hair. She wears a white sleeveless top with two horizontal stripes and a crest in the middle of her chest, and dark shorts.

Ibolya Csák, gold medallist for Hungary in the women's high jump

A black and white photograph of a female athlete in an all white outfit with the Nazi eagle and swastika in the middle of her chest. She holds a small plant and wears an laurel wreath on her head.

Tilly Fleischer, gold medallist for Germany in the women's javelin

The ranking in this table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a National Olympic Committee have won (a nation is represented at a Games by the associated National Olympic Committee). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If NOCs are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IOC country code.

A dead heat in the lightweight section of the weightlifting competition resulted in gold medals being awarded to both Austria's Robert Fein and Egypt's Anwar Mesbah, and resulted in a silver medal not being awarded for that event. A dead heat for third place in the floor competition of the gymnastic events resulted in bronze medals going to both Germany's Konrad Frey and Eugen Mack of Switzerland. This resulted in 130 gold and bronze medals being awarded, but only 128 silver medals.[7]

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Germany 33 26 30 89
2 United States 24 20 12 56
3 Hungary 10 1 5 16
4 Italy 8 9 5 22
5 Finland 7 6 6 19
5 France 7 6 6 19
7 Sweden 6 5 9 20
8 Japan 6 4 8 18
9 Netherlands 6 4 7 17
10 Great Britain 4 7 3 14
11 Austria 4 6 3 13
12 Czechoslovakia 3 5 0 8
13 Argentina 2 2 3 7
13 Estonia 2 2 3 7
15 Egypt 2 1 2 5
16 Switzerland 1 9 5 15
17 Canada 1 3 5 9
18 Norway 1 3 2 6
19 Turkey 1 0 1 2
20 India 1 0 0 1
20 New Zealand 1 0 0 1
22 Poland 0 3 3 6
23 Denmark 0 2 3 5
24 Latvia 0 1 1 2
25 Romania 0 1 0 1
25 South Africa 0 1 0 1
25 Yugoslavia 0 1 0 1
28 Mexico 0 0 3 3
29 Belgium 0 0 2 2
30 Australia 0 0 1 1
30 Philippines 0 0 1 1
30 Portugal 0 0 1 1

See Also[]

  • Logos - A collection of logos featuring this event.
  • Torch - Information about this Olympics' torch.
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Olympic history: Berlin 1936", March 12, 2012. Retrieved on March 15, 2012.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Movement to Boycott the Berlin Olympics of 1936. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved on March 17, 2012.
  3. "Olympic Medal Table". Retrieved on March 28, 2012.
  4. Pope, John. "Fred Feran, who boycotted 1936 Olympics in Berlin, dies at age 92", 1 March 2010. Retrieved on March 17, 2012.
  5. Kitei Son. Olympic.org. Retrieved on March 17, 2012.
  6. Lewis, Mike. "Obituary: Sohn Kee-chung", 30 November 2002. Retrieved on March 17, 2012.
  7. The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XI Olympiad (PDF). The Organising Committee for the XI Olympiad (1936). Retrieved on March 17, 2012.
Preceded by
Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936
Olympics
1936
Succeeded by
St. Moritz 1948
Preceded by
Los Angeles 1932
Summer Olympics
1936
Succeeded by
London 1948


Olympic Games
Summer Olympic Games
Athens 1896Paris 1900St. Louis 1904Athens 1906 (Intercalated Games)London 1908Stockholm 1912Berlin 1916Antwerp 1920Paris 1924Amsterdam 1928Los Angeles 1932Berlin 1936London 1948Helsinki 1952Melbourne 1956Rome 1960Tokyo 1964Mexico City 1968Munich 1972Montreal 1976Moscow 1980Los Angeles 1984Seoul 1988Barcelona 1992Atlanta 1996Sydney 2000Athens 2004Beijing 2008London 2012Rio de Janeiro 2016Tokyo 2020Paris 2024Los Angeles 2028Brisbane 2032
Winter Olympic Games
Chamonix 1924St. Moritz 1928Lake Placid 1932Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936St. Moritz 1948Oslo 1952Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956Squaw Valley 1960Innsbruck 1964Grenoble 1968Sapporo 1972Innsbruck 1976Lake Placid 1980Sarajevo 1984Calgary 1988Albertville 1992Lillehammer 1994Nagano 1998Salt Lake City 2002Torino 2006Vancouver 2010Sochi 2014Pyeongchang 2018Beijing 2022Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026
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