Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics
| 1st Olympic Basketball Tournament | |||||||||
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| Berlin 1936 | |||||||||
| Tournament details | |||||||||
| Olympics | 1936 Summer Olympics | ||||||||
| Host nation | Germany | ||||||||
| City | Berlin | ||||||||
| Duration | August 7 – August 14 | ||||||||
| Men's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 23 | ||||||||
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| Tournaments | |||||||||
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Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics was the first appearance of the sport as an official medal event. The tournament was played between 7 August and 14 August 1936 in Berlin, Germany. 23 (2 withdrew) nations entered the competition, making basketball the largest tournament of the team sports.
The IOC and International Basketball Federation, which is the governing body of international basketball, used the 1936 tournament to experiment with outdoor basketball. Lawn tennis courts were used for the competition. This caused problems when the weather was adverse, especially during the final game.
The medals were awarded by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. All went to North American teams.
Medallists
Note: The International Olympic Committee medal database shows only these players as medalists. They all played at least one match during the tournament. The reserve players are not listed as medalists.
Results
Brackets
Third round onwards
| Third round | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Gold medal match | |||||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | 56 | |||||||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | 23 | |||||||||||||
| 39 | |||||||||||||
 | 22 | |||||||||||||
| 25 | |||||||||||||
 | 10 | |||||||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | 27 | |||||||||||||
 | 19 | |||||||||||||
| 17 | |||||||||||||
| 34 | |||||||||||||
| 28 | |||||||||||||
| 14 August | ||||||||||||||
 | 22 | |||||||||||||
| 19 | |||||||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | 8 | |||||||||||||
| 27 | |||||||||||||
 | 9 | |||||||||||||
| 41 | |||||||||||||
 | 21 | |||||||||||||
| 28 | |||||||||||||
 | 19 | |||||||||||||
| 42 | |||||||||||||
 | 15 | Bronze medal match | ||||||||||||
| 33 | |||||||||||||
| 14 August | ||||||||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | 25 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | | 26 | |||||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} | 0 | | 12 | |||||||||||
Fifth-place classification
| Preliminary round | 5th place game | ||||||||
| 32 | ||||||||
| 14 | ||||||||
| 32 | ||||||||
| 23 | ||||||||
| 3 | | 2 | |||||||
| 0 | ||||||||
First round
Winners advanced to the second round. Losers competed in the first consolation round for another chance to move on.
| 7 August 1936 | Switzerland |
25–18 | .svg.png){kind=small} |
Berlin, Germany |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoring by half: 8–10, 17–8 | ||||
| 7 August 1936 | Japan |
35–19 |  |
Berlin, Germany |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoring by half: 15–10, 20–9 | ||||
United States  |
2–0 | .svg.png){kind=small} |
||
First consolation round
Winners returned to the main competition for the second round. Losers were out of the tournament.
Second round
Winners advanced to the third round. Losers competed in the second consolation round for another chance to move on.
- Philippines 32-30 Mexico
- Japan 43-31 Poland
- Uruguay 36-23 Egypt
- Peru 29-21 China
- United States 52-28 Estonia
- Italy 58-16 Germany
- Switzerland 25-12 Czechoslovakia
- Chile 23-18 Brazil
- Canada 34-23 Latvia
Second consolation round
- Poland def. Latvia, 28–23
- Brazil def. China, 32–14
- Mexico def. Egypt, 32–10
- Czechoslovakia def. Germany, 20–9
- Estonia
Third round
The third round was the first to cause automatic elimination for losers, with no consolation round. Winners advanced to the quarterfinals.
The United States and Peru had byes given, causing them to advance to the quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals
Winners of the quarterfinals advanced to the medals round, with losers playing in classification matches.
- United States 56-23 Philippines
- Mexico 24-17 Italy
- Canada 41-21 Uruguay
- Poland w/o Peru
※The National Olympic Team from Peru abandoned the Olympic games in protest to the actions of German authorities in the football tournament.
Classification 5–8
Preliminary matches
- Philippines 32-14 Italy
- Uruguay w/o Peru
Peru forfeit: See above.
Fifth place match
- Philippines 33-23 Uruguay
Medals round
Semifinals
Bronze medal match
Final
The final was played on 14 August in bad conditions. The contest was played outdoors, on a dirt court in a driving rain. Due to the quagmire, the teams could not dribble and the score was held to a minimum. Highest scorer in the game was Joe Fortenberry for the United States with 7 points. In addition, there were no seats for spectators and the nearly 1,000 in attendance had to stand in the rain throughout the entire game.
Awards
| 1936 Olympic Basketball Champions |
|---|
United States First title |
Participating nations
For the team rosters see: Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads.
Each country was allowed to enter one team of 14 players and they all were eligible for participation; however, only seven were allowed to dress for competition at any one game.
A total of 199(*) basketball players from 23 (2 withdrew) nations competed at the Berlin Games:
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(*) NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least.
Not all reserve players are known.
Summary
References
- ↑ (in Italian) – Un viaggio all’interno di questi Ottanta anni Archived October 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.. FIP.it.
| Tournaments |
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| Qualifications |
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| Squads |
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