1. In 2003, the International Olympic Committee voted that Vancouver had won the bidding process and would be rewarded with the opportunity to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. In second place in the voting for those Olympics was the city of Pyeong Chang in South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria came in third place.

2. The opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics were the first Olympic opening ceremonies, summer or winter, to ever be held indoors.

3. The venue hosting Olympic Ice Hockey events is named Canada Hockey Place. Before and after the Olympics, this building hosts Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey games and is known by the name of GM Place. This name change occurred because Olympic rules state that corporate sponsorship is not allowed.

4. The Olympic medals and mascot of the 2010 Winter Olympics were designed by Leo Obstbaum. Obstbaum was born in Argentina and then grew up in Spain, before moving to Vancouver in 2005. He died unexpectedly in 2009 at the age of 39, less than six months before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics of which he played such a visible and important role.

5. The first video game to be officially licensed by the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. It became available for the Wii and Nintendo DS in late October of 2009.

6. The Olympic Torch set a record for the longest route within one country when it traveled more than 45,000 kilometers (27,900 miles) inside the nation of Canada before reaching Vancouver in time for the opening ceremonies.

7. Seven countries sent teams to the Winter Olympics for the first time ever in 2010, they are: The Cayman Islands, Columbia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru, and Serbia.

1. The 1932 Summer Olympics was the first Olympics where the head of the host nation did not appear at the games. Herbert Hoover was the President of the United States during this time and he chose not to travel to Los Angeles where the games were being held.

2. The 1932 Summer Olympics were the first Olympic Games where an Olympic Village had been built to house the athletes.

3. The 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were the first Olympics where a victory podium was used for the medal presentations.

4. The USA won a bronze medal in field hockey in the 1932 Summer Olympics, this was mainly due to the fact that only three countries competed in the sport that year.

5. Japan’s Takeichi Nishi would win the gold medal in the equestrian event, individual show jumping. This would be the only equestrian gold medal that Japan would ever win. Nishi would go on to fight for Japan in World War II and die defending Iwo Jima.

6. American football was a demonstration sport at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

7. The USA finished first in the medal count with 103 different medals won during the 1932 Summer Olympics, Italy finished second with 36 and Finland was third with 25.

The 1932 Summer Olympics were an important event during their time and affected more than just the sporting world. The entire world focused on Los Angeles during those summer days in the early part of the last century, and people were not disappointed as some great drama unfolded both inside and outside of the main coliseum. The Summer Olympics have the ability to capture the imagination and wonder of the entire world’s population every four years. It is no wonder that they are some of the most watched events in recent world history.