Is it true L.A. 1932 Olympics & L.A. 1984 Olympics were the two greatest track and field meets on North American soil ?

It's really hard to say. I think the best individual running performance on North American soil was when I saw a black man running from the cops on the COPS tv show.

ummm... ever heard of atlanta?

'84 was boycotted by the commies, so not nearly as "great" as other olympics

I'd say Atlanta '96.

The eastern bloc boycotted LA 1984, and most African nations boycotted Montreal 1976.

Altitude at Mexico City 1968 made it an unusual track meet. Good for sprinters, throwers and jumpers, not so much for distance runners.

Do you count Mexico City as North America?

For me, personally, the '84 games cemented my love of T&F. Partly because that's the year I started running.

The United Mexican States[7] (Spanish: Es-mx-Estados Unidos Mexicanos.ogg Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), commonly known as Mexico (English: /ˈmɛksɪkoʊ/) (Spanish: Es-mx-México.ogg México (help·info) [ˈmexiko]), is a federal constitutional republic in North America.

"Do you count Mexico City as North America?"

This is a joke, right? I can never tell who is trolling on this site.

Yes it is true. '32 and '84 were the two greatest track meets ever in N.A.

Edmonton World Champs 2001 also comes to mind.

Edmonton was a failure. TV didn't get high ratings at Edmonton 2001. Next time they should hold the WCs in L.A. where the two most successfull Olys were held twice.

TV ratings are the measure, then?

Not sure. I'm pretty partial to the 1972 Olympic Trials, actually: truly outstanding competition in almost every event. Certainly one of the greatest track meets ever.

Atlanta 1996 > Los Angeles 1984.

Highlights 1996:

# Donovan Bailey of Canada won the men's 100 m, setting a new world record of 9.84 seconds at that time. He also anchored his team's gold in the 4x100 m relay.

# Michael Johnson won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m, setting a new world record of 19.32 seconds in the 200 m. Johnson afterward began disputing Bailey's unofficial title as the "world's fastest man", which later culminated in a 150-metre race between the two to settle the issue.

# Marie-José Perec equaled Johnson's performance, although without a world record, by winning the rare 200 m/400 m double.

# Carl Lewis won his 4th long jump gold medal at the age of 35.

+ for distance fans, the Geb/Tergat battle in the 10k

Highlights 1984:

# Carl Lewis made his first of four appearances in the Olympics, equalled the performance of Jesse Owens of 1936, and won four gold medals in the 100 m, 200 m, 4x100 m relay; and the Long jump.

# Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco became the first female Olympic champion of a Muslim nation, and the first of her country in the 400 m hurdles.

# Carlos Lopes, from Portugal won the Marathon (2:09:21 - Olympic record that stood for 24 years). It was the first Gold Medal ever for Portugal.

# A marathon for women is held for the first time at the Olympics (won by Joan Benoit). The event is considered notable because of Swiss runner Gabi Andersen-Schiess, who - suffering from heat exhaustion - stumbled through the last lap, providing dramatic images.

# Daley Thompson apparently missed a new world record in winning his second consecutive gold medal in the decathlon; the next year his score was retroactively raised to 8847, giving him the record.

+ for distance fans, the Slaney/Budd battle

1996: 14 Olympic records, 2 world records

1984: 6 Olympic records, 1 world record

Atl was nice but it wasn't L.A./Hollywood which magnifies any show into a global spectacle. L.A. had the greatest two track meets in 1932 and 1984 because it was in L.A. Plus that Atlanta totally bungled the security job and let that crackpot white racist terrorize the games and commit murder.

Ugh, Atlanta will always be remebered for the royal f-ups it did. Ted Turner and his country hicks ruined the Olympics.

You can't judge things by TV coverage. NBC was at the all-time height of its jingoism in Atlanta in 1996 and completely ignored anything that wasn't American. But it was still a great track meet.

W/o Mayor Tom Bradley's innovations, the 84 Olympics would have lost money like every Olympics had done before. After Tom Bradley, the 84 Olympics made money, and FIFA, IAAF, etc. copied the model. You would not have had Atlanta 96, IAAF Berlin 2009l, etc. w/o the magic that Mayor Tom Bradley brought to fruition.

Mayor Tom Bradley wrote:

W/o Mayor Tom Bradley's innovations, the 84 Olympics would have lost money like every Olympics had done before. After Tom Bradley, the 84 Olympics made money, and FIFA, IAAF, etc. copied the model. You would not have had Atlanta 96, IAAF Berlin 2009l, etc. w/o the magic that Mayor Tom Bradley brought to fruition.

Peter Ueberroth