Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

Men's 5000 metres at the Games of the X Olympiad
Venue	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Dates	August 2 and August 5
Competitors	18 from 11 nations
Medalists
Lauri Lehtinen  Finland Ralph Hill  United States Lasse Virtanen  Finland

Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeple		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

The men's 5000 metres event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1932 Summer Olympics. The competition was held on Tuesday, August 2, 1932, and on Friday, August 5, 1932.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics.

World Record	14:17.0	Lauri Lehtinen	Helsinki (FIN)	June 19, 1932
Olympic Record	14:31.2	Paavo Nurmi	Paris (FRA)	July 10, 1924

In the final Lauri Lehtinen set a new Olympic record with 14:30.0 minutes.

Results

Semifinals

Both semi-finals were held on Tuesday, August 2, 1932, and started at 4:45 p.m.

The best seven finishers of every heat qualified for the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Ralph Hill (USA)	14:59.6	Q
2	Lauri Lehtinen (FIN)	15:05.5	Q
3	Jean-Gunnar Lindgren (SWE)	15:06.0	Q
4	Lauri Virtanen (FIN)	15:06.4	Q
5	Billy Savidan (NZL)	15:08.2	Q
6	Alex Hillhouse (AUS)	15:14.0	Q
7	Daniel Dean (USA)	15:19.6	Q
8	George Bailey (GBR)
9	Masamichi Kitamoto (JPN)
10	22x20px Juan Morales (MEX)	DNF

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1	Alec Burns (GBR)	15:25.8	Q
2	Paul Rekers (USA)	15:34.6	Q
3	Erik Pettersson (SWE)	15:36.4	Q
4	Roger Rochard (FRA)	15:37.8	Q
5	22x20px Scotty Rankine (CAN)	15:39.6	Q
6	Max Syring (GER)	15:48.5	Q
7	Shoichiro Takenaka (JPN)	15:56.0	Q
8	22x20px Valentín González (MEX)	16:00.0

Final

The final was held on Friday, August 5, 1932, and started at 3:15 p.m.

In a controversial move Lehtinen blocked Hill when he tried to pass Lehtinen on the final straight. Both runners broke the Olympic record but Lehtinen finished 30 cm in front.

Place	Athlete	Time
	Lauri Lehtinen (FIN)	14:30.0 OR
	Ralph Hill (USA)	14:30.0
	Lauri Virtanen (FIN)	14:44.0
4	Billy Savidan (NZL)	14:49.6
5	Jean-Gunnar Lindgren (SWE)	14:54:7
6	Max Syring (GER)	14:59.0
7	Alec Burns (GBR)	15:04.4
8	Daniel Dean (USA)	15:08.5
9	Erik Pettersson (SWE)	15:13.4
10	Alex Hillhouse (AUS)	15:15.0
11	22x20px Scotty Rankine (CAN)	15:24.0
12	Shoichiro Takenaka (JPN)	17:20.0
—	Paul Rekers (USA)	DNF
	Roger Rochard (FRA)	DNF

References

• sports-reference.com
• Official Olympic Report