Heavyweight (>82½ kilograms), Men

The defending champion was Josef Straßberger of Germany, who was the 1929 European Champion, and had won bronze at the Europeans in 1930-31. The top heavyweight since Amsterdam had been Egyptian Sayed Nosseir, the 1928 gold medalist in light-heavyweight, who had won the European heavyweight titles in 1930-31 and held the world record of 400.0 kg coming into Los Angeles. But he did not compete in 1932.

Without Nosseir present, Straßberger seemed to have a clear path to gold but the best he could do was win bronze behind two Czechoslvaks, Jaroslav Skobla and Václav Pšenička, Sr.. All the medals were closely fought, with Skobla taking gold over Pšenička by only 2.5 kg. Pšenička and Straßberger tied at 377.5 kg but Pšenička won the silver medal based on lower bodyweight. He would repeat as silver medalist at Berlin in 1936. Skobla’s son would win a bronze medal in the shot put at Melbourne in 1956.