Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics

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 nations entered the competition, making basketball the largest tournament of the team sports.

The 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, founder of basketball. All went to North American teams.

Contents

1 Medallists 2 Final ranking 3 Results 3.1 First round 3.1.1 First consolation round 3.2 Second round 3.2.1 Second consolation round 3.3 Third round 3.4 Fourth round 3.5 Classification 5-8 3.5.1 Preliminary matches 3.5.2 Fifth place match 3.6 Medals round 3.6.1 Semifinals 3.6.2 Bronze medal match 3.6.3 Final

Medallists

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Missing image Flag_of_the_United_States.png United States Balter R. Bishop J. Fortenberry Gibbons F. Johnson C. Knowles Lubin Mollner Piper J. Ragland Schmidt C. Shy Swanson W. Wheatley	Missing image Canada_flag_300.png Canada G. Aitchison J. Allison A. Chapman Ch. Chapman Dawson Meretsky D. Peden J. Stewart M. Wiseman	Missing image Mexico_flag_300.png Mexico C. Borja V. Borja Choperena R. Fernandez Gomez Hernandez F. Martinez J. Olmos Pamplona G. Skousen L. de la Vega

Final ranking

1. United States
2. Canada
3. Mexico
4. Poland
5. Philippines
6. Uruguay
7. Italy
8. Peru

9-14 Brazil
9-14 Chile
9-14 Czechoslovakia
9-14 Estonia
9-14 Japan
9-14 Switzerland
15-18 China
15-18 Egypt
15-18 Germany
15-18 Latvia
19-23 Belgium
19-23 France
19-23 Hungary
19-23 Spain (withdrew before competition)
19-23 Turkey (withdrew before competition)

Results

First round

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

• Estonia def. France, 34-29
• Chile def. Turkey, 30-16
• Switzerland def. Germany, 25-18
• Italy def. Poland, 44-28
• Peru def. Egypt, 35-22
• Latvia def. Uruguay, 20-17
• Brazil def. Canada, 24-17
• Japan def. China, 35-19
• Mexico def. Belgium, 32-9
• United States def. Spain, forfeit
• Czechoslovakia def. Hungary, forfeit
• Philippines, BYE

First consolation round

Winners returned to the main competition for the second round. Losers were out of the tournament.

• Uruguay def. Belgium, 17-10
• China def. France, 45-38
• Egypt def. Turkey, 33-23
• Canada def. Hungary, forfeit
• Germany def. Spain, forfeit
• Poland, BYE

Second round

Winners advanced to the third round. Losers competed in the second consolation round for another chance to move on.

• Philippines def. Mexico, 32-30
• Japan def. Poland, 43-31
• Uruguay def. Egypt, 36-23
• Peru def. China, 29-21
• United States def. Estonia, 52-28
• Italy def. Germany, 58-16
• Switzerland def. Czechoslovakia, 25-12
• Chile def. Brazil, 23-18
• Canada def. Latvia, 34-23

Second consolation round

• Poland def. Latvia, 28-23
• Brazil def. China, 32-14
• Mexico def. Egypt, 32-10
• Czechoslovakia def. Germany, 20-0
• Estonia, BYE

Third round

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

• Philippines def. Estonia, 39-22
• Italy def. Chile, 27-19
• Mexico def. Japan, 28-22
• Canada def. Switzerland, 27-9
• Uruguay def. Czechoslovakia, 28-19
• Poland def. Brazil, 33-25
• United States, BYE
• Peru, BYE

Fourth round

Winners of the fourth round advanced to the medals round, with losers playing in classification matches.

• United States def. Philippines, 56-23
• Mexico def. Italy, 34-17
• Canada def. Uruguay, 41-21
• Poland def. Peru, forfeit

Classification 5-8

Preliminary matches

• Philippines def. Italy, 32-14
• Uruguay def. Peru, forfeit

Fifth place match

• Philippines def. Uruguay, 33-23

Medals round

Semifinals

• United States def. Mexico, 25-10
• Canada def. Poland, 42-15

Bronze medal match

• Mexico def. Poland, 26-12

Final

The finals were played 14 August under abysmal 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. High scorer in the game was Joe Fortenbury 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.

• United States def. Canada, 19-8

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