Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, 29 athletics events were contested, 23 for men and 6 for women. It was the first time the 50 kilometres race walk appeared in the men's athletics at the Games. This was only the second time women's events in athletics were included in the Olympic Games program and the first time that women competed in the javelin throw at the Olympics. There was a total of 386 participants from 34 countries competing. Paavo Nurmi from Finland was suspended one week before the Games by the IAAF
Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics not the venue for the opening or closing ceremonies in Rio de Janeiro – that honour went to Brazil's foremost soccer venue, the Maracanã Stadium. On the first day, the first gold medal was won by Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia, who broke a long-standing world record in the women's 10,000 metres by almost fifteen seconds. The race as a whole was historically fast, setting four of the five fastest times ever for the distance and seeing eight national records broken. China's Wang Zhen was the first male winner of the 2016 Olympic athletics, topping the 20 kilometres race walk podium.