Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics

1st Olympic Basketball Tournament
Berlin 1936
Tournament details
Olympics	1936 Summer Olympics
Host nation	Germany
City	Berlin
Duration	August 7–14
Men's tournament
Teams	21
Medals Gold medalists  United States Silver medalists  Canada Bronze medalists  Mexico
Tournaments
← 1904 (demonstration)  London 1948 →

Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics was the first appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. The tournament was played between 7 August and 14 August 1936 in Berlin, Germany. 23 nations entered the competition, making basketball the largest tournament of the team sports, but Hungary and Spain withdrew, meaning 21 competed.

The IOC and International Basketball Federation, which is the governing body of international basketball, used the 1936 tournament to experiment with outdoor basketball. Lawn and dirt tennis courts were used for the competition, but this caused problems when the weather was adverse, especially during the final of the tournament.

The medals were awarded by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. The United States won its first gold medal, while Canada and Mexico won silver and bronze, their only medals in basketball, as of 2020.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
United States (USA) Sam Balter Ralph Bishop Joe Fortenberry Tex Gibbons Francis Johnson Carl Knowles Frank Lubin Art Mollner Donald Piper Jack Ragland Willard Schmidt Carl Shy Duane Swanson Bill Wheatley	Canada (CAN) Gordon Aitchison Ian Allison Art Chapman Chuck Chapman Edward Dawson Irving Meretsky Doug Peden James Stewart Malcolm Wiseman Stanley Nantais	Mexico (MEX) Carlos Borja Víctor Borja Rodolfo Choperena Luis de la Vega Raúl Fernández Andrés Gómez Silvio Hernández Francisco Martínez Jesús Olmos José Pamplona Greer Skousen

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
	United States
	bye
					United States	56
					Philippines	23
	Philippines	39
	Estonia	22
									United States	25
									Mexico	10
	Italy	27
	Chile	19
					Italy	17
					Mexico	34
	Mexico	28
													14 August
	Japan	22
													United States	19
													Canada	8
	Canada	27
	Switzerland	9
					Canada	41
					Uruguay	21
	Uruguay	28
	Czechoslovakia	19
									Canada	42
									Poland	15			Bronze medal match
	Poland	33
													14 August
	Brazil	25
					Poland								Mexico	26
					bye								Poland	12
	Peru
	bye

Fifth-place classification

	Classification semifinal					5th place game
	Philippines		32
	Italy		14
						Philippines		32
						Uruguay		23

First round

Winners advanced to the second round, while losers competed in the first consolation round for another chance to move on.

Byes: Philippines, United States  (drawn against Spain, who withdrew) and  Czechoslovakia (drawn against Hungary, who withdrew).

First consolation round

Winners returned to the main competition for the second round, while losers were eliminated.

• Uruguay 17–10 Belgium
• China 45–38 France
• Egypt 33–23 Turkey

Byes: Brazil, Germany and Poland

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

Bye: Estonia

Third round

The third round was the first to cause automatic elimination for losers, with no consolation round. Winners advanced to the quarterfinals.

Byes: United States and Peru

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

Bye: Poland (Peru withdrew from the Olympic Games to protest the decision of the Olympic Committee and FIFA in the football tournament).

Classification 5–8

Preliminary match

• Philippines 32–14 Italy

Bye: Uruguay (Peru withdrew from the competition - see above).

Fifth place match

• Philippines 33–23 Uruguay

Medals round

Semifinals

Bronze medal match

Final

The final was played in driving rain, turning the court into a quagmire such that it was impossible to dribble, while the conditions kept scoring to a minimum: highest scorer in the game was Joe Fortenberry of the United States, with eight points. In addition, almost all of the nearly 1,000 in attendance had to stand in the rain throughout the final, as there were virtually no seats for spectators.

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 21 nations competed at the Berlin Games:

•  Belgium (8 – from a squad of 14)
•  Brazil (8 – from a squad of 10)
•  Canada (9 – from a squad of 14)
•  Chile (7 – from a squad of 11)
•  Republic of China (13 – from a squad of 14)
•  Czechoslovakia (12 – from a squad of 12)
•  Egypt (7 – from a squad of 10)
•  Estonia (8 – from a squad of 11)
•  France (11 – from a squad of 14)
•  Germany (10 – from a squad of 14)
•  Italy (13 – from a squad of 14)
•  Japan (8 – from a squad of 11)
•  Latvia (7 – from a squad of 11)
•  Mexico (11 – from a squad of 11)
•  Peru (9 – from a squad of 13)
•  Philippines (9 – from a squad of 12)
•  Poland (10 – from a squad of 14)
•  Switzerland (8 – from a squad of 13)
•  Turkey (8 – from a squad of 10)
•  United States (14 – alternating squads of seven players)
•  Uruguay (9 – from a squad of 13)

Hungary and Spain withdrew before playing a match.

(*) NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least.

Not all reserve players are known.

Summary

Note: Hungary and Spain withdrew before competition started

References