| | Event type
Decathlon, Men
| Date | 5 – 6 August 1932 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California | |
| Participants | 15 from 10 countries | |
| Format | Scoring by 1912B point tables. | |
The favorite was the silver medalist from 1928, Akilles Järvinen. But he was beaten by US champion, Jim Bausch, who broke the world record with 8,462.235, winning by almost 200 points. Bausch was a former football player at the University of Kansas and was dominant in the throwing events, winning the shot put, discus, and javelin throws. His javelin dominance was especially surprising as Järvinen’s brother, Matti Järvinen, had won the javelin gold medal two days before.
| Pos | Number | Competitor | NOC | Points | Points (1934 Tables) | Points (1952 Tables) | Points (1962 Tables) | Points (1985 Hand Tables) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 405 | Jim Bausch |  USA | 8462.235 | 7396 | 6588 | 6896 | 6736 | Gold | ||
| 2 | 119 | Akilles Järvinen |  FIN | 8292.480 | 7378 | 6707 | 7038 | 6879 | Silver | ||
| 3 | 163 | Wolrad Eberle |  GER | 8030.805 | 7107 | 6361 | 6830 | 6661 | Bronze | ||
| 4 | 409 | Buster Charles | USA | 7985.000 | 7147 | 6449 | 6901 | 6716 | |||
| 5 | 175 | Hans-Heinrich Sievert | GER | 7941.075 | 7016 | 6213 | 6699 | 6515 | |||
| 6 | 140 | Paavo Yrjölä | FIN | 7687.990 | 6773 | 5954 | 6566 | 6385 | 1 | ||
| 7 | 412 | Clyde Coffman | USA | 7534.410 | 6641 | 5859 | 6480 | 6265 | |||
| 8 | 253 | Bob Tisdall |  IRL | 7327.170 | 6722 | 6085 | 6557 | 6398 | |||
| 9 | 178 | Erwin Wegner | GER | 7179.935 | 6457 | 5762 | 6331 | 6189 | |||
| 10 | 238 | Péter Bácsalmási |  HUN | 7001.735 | 6117 | 5205 | 6011 | 5788 | 2 | ||
| 11 | 373 | Harry Hart |  RSA | 6799.255 | 6043 | 5178 | 5891 | 5697 | |||
| 318 | Jānis Dimza |  LAT | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 366 | Zygmunt Siedlecki |  POL | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 1 | Héctor Berra |  ARG | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 58 | Carlos Wöbcken |  BRA | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 102 | José Antonio Masó |  CUB | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 4 | Hermenegildo de Rosso | ARG | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 134 | Matti Sippala | FIN | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 252 | Pat O'Callaghan | IRL | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 294 | Shuhei Nishida |  JPN | – | – | – | – | – |