Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics
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 Mexico and Canada won silver and bronze, their only medals in basketball, as of 2020.
Medalists
Note: The 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
Fifth-place classification
First round
Winners advanced to the second round, while losers competed in the first consolation round for another chance to move on.Byes: Phillippines, and .
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
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
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
Classification 5–8
Preliminary match
- Philippines 32–14 Italy
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 seven 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
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:
NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least.
Not all reserve players are known.
Summary
| Place | Nation |
| 1 | |
| Head Coach: James Needles ' Asst. coach: Gene Johnson ' 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 ' | |
| 2 | |
| Head Coach: Gordon Fuller ' Asst. coach:Julius Goldman ' Gordon Aitchison ' Ian Allison ' Art Chapman ' Chuck Chapman ' Edward Dawson ' Irving Meretsky ' Doug Peden ' James Stewart ' Malcolm Wiseman ' Norman Dawson ' Don Gray ' Stanley Nantais ' Bob Osborne ' Tom Pendlebury ' | |
| 3 | |
| Carlos Borja Víctor Borja Rodolfo Choperena Luis de la Vega Raúl Fernández Andrés Gómez Silvio Hernández Francisco Martínez Jesús Olmos José Pamplona Greer Skousen | |
| 4 | Head Coach: Walenty Kłyszejko Zdzisław Filipkiewicz Florian Grzechowiak Zdzisław Kasprzak Jakub Kopf Ewaryst Łój Janusz Patrzykont Andrzej Pluciński Zenon Różycki Paweł Stok Edward Szostak |
| 5 | Head Coach: Dionisio Calvo Charles Borck Jacinto Ciria Cruz Franco Marquicias Primitivo Martínez Jesús Marzan Amador Obordo Bibiano Ouano Ambrosio Padilla Fortunato Yambao Antonio Carillo Miguel Pardo John Worrell |
| 6 | Head Coach: Juan A. Collazo Gregorio Agós Umberto Bernasconi Galvar Rodolfo Braselli Prudencio de Pena Carlos Gabín Leandro Gómez Harley Alejandro González Roig Víctor Latou Jaume Tabaré Quintans Héctor González Alberto Martí Amílcar Mesa |
| 7 | Coaches: Decio Scuri-Guido Graziani Gino Basso Ambrogio Bessi Enrico Castelli Galeazzo Dondi Livio Franceschini Emilio Giassetti Giancarlo Marinelli Adolfo Mazzini Mario Novelli Sergio Paganella Michele Pelliccia Remo Piana Egidio Premiani |
| 8 | Head Coach: Pedro Vera Manuel Arce Rolando Bacigalupo Willy Dasso Antuco Flecha José Carlos Godoy Miguel Godoy Luis Jacob Cañón Oré Armando Rossi Koko Cárdenas Roberto Rospigliosi Fernando Ruiz Pedro Vera |
| Place | Nation |
| 9–14 | Armando Albano Baiano Coroa Carmino de Pilla Nelson Monteiro de Souza Miguel Pedro Martinez Lopes Américo Montanarini Pavão Cacau José Oscar Zelaya Alonso |
| 9–14 | Luis Carrasco Augusto Carvacho José González Eusebio Hernández Luis Ibaseta Eduardo Kapstein Suckel Michel Mehech |
| 9–14 | Jiří Čtyroký Alois Dvořáček Ludvík Dvořáček František Hájek Vítězslav Hloušek Josef Klíma Karel Kuhn Josef Moc František Picek F. Prokop Ladislav Prokop Ladislav Trpkoš |
| 9–14 | Head Coach: Herbert Niiler ' Erich Altosaar ' Artur Amon ' Aleksander Illi ' Vladimir Kärk ' Robert Keres ' Evald Mahl ' Aleksander Margiste ' Heino Veskila ' Bernhard Nooni ' Leonid Saar ' Georg Vinogradov ' |
| 9–14 | Richin Cho Takehiko Kanakogi Masayasu Maeda Satoshi Matsui Uichi Munakata Takao Nakae Seikyu Ri Kenshichi Yokoyama |
| 9–14 | Fernand Bergmann Pierre Carlier René Laederach Raymond Lambercy John Pallet Jean Pare Marcel Wuilleunier |
| 15–18 | Feng Hsu Li Shao-Tang Liu Bao-Cheng Liu Yun-Chang Mou Tso-Yun Shen Yi-Tung Tsai Yen-Hung Wang Hung-Pin Wang Shi-Hsuan Wang Yu-Tseng Wong Nan-Chen Yu Sai-Chang |
| 15–18 | Abdel Moneim Wahib Hussein Albert Fahmy Tadros Edward Riskalla Gamal el din Sabri Goanni Nosseir Kamal Riad Mohamed Rashad Shafshak |
| 15–18 | Head Coach: Hermann Niebuhr Bernhard Cuiper ' Robert Duis ' Karl Endres ' Emil Göing ' Otto Kuchenbecker ' Emil Lohbeck ' Hans Niclaus ' Kurt Oleska ' Siegfried Reischieß ' Heinz Steinschulte ' Willy Daume ' Otto Gottwald ' Adolf Künzel ' Jupp Schäfer ' |
| 15–18 | Head Coach: Rihards Dekšenieks Eduards Andersons ' Voldemārs Elmūts ' Mārtiņš Grundmanis ' Rudolfs Jurciņš ' Maksis Kazaks ' Visvaldis Melderis ' Džems Raudziņš ' Edgars Rūja ' Askolds Hermanovskis ' Aleksejs Anufrijevs ' J.Tiltiņš ' |
| Place | Nation |
| 19–21 | Robert Brouwer Gustave Crabbe René Demanck Raymond Gerard Émile Laermans Guillaume Merckx Pierre van Basselaere Gustave Vereecken |
| 19–21 | Pierre Boel ' Pierre Caque ' Georges Carrier ' Robert Cohu ' Jean Couturier ' Jacques Flouret ' Edmond Leclere ' Étienne Onimus ' Fernand Prud'homme ' Étienne Roland ' Lucien Thèze ' |
| 19–21 | Head Coach: Rupen Semerciyan Şeref Alemdar ' Hayri Arsebük ' Nihat Riza Ertuğ ' Jak Habib ' Naili Moran ' Hazdai Penso ' Dionis Sakalak ' Sadri Usluoğlu Kamil Ocak ' |
Note: Hungary and Spain withdrew before competition started