Tumbling, Men

This is the only time that a tumbling event has been contested at the Olympics, but the event is still well-known. There have been World Tumbling Championships contested by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) since 1999, and World Championships were contested from 1976-98 by the International Trampoline Federation (ITF), which was formed in 1965. Tumbling has also been contested at the World Games since 1981. In the United States, national championships were first held in 1886, and were continuous through 1968, at which time they were stopped. However, the United States Trampoline & Tumbling Association later reinstated tumbling nationals, sometime around 1971.

There were only four competitors in 1932 Olympic tumbling, which consisted of a compulsory and voluntary routine, with each routine lasting from 2-3 minutes. Three of the gymnasts were Americans and they won all the medals, led by Rowland Wolfe, who performed a backflip with two twists. The silver went to Ed Gross with Bill Hermann winning bronze, and Hungarian István Pelle, the all-around runner-up, placing a distant fourth, in an event which was likely strange to him.