80 metres Hurdles, Women

Babe Didrikson had won the US Championship in 1931, and again won in 1932 at the combined AAU/Olympic Trials, but there she narrowly defeated Evelyne Hall. Women had contested the 80 metre hurdles at the FSFI Women’s World Games in 1930, but none of the medalists from that event competed in Los Angeles.

At the Olympics, Hall and Didrikson waged a very close battle, with Didrikson winning by inches, both timed in a world record 11.7. Hall insisted, until her death, that she had won the race and not Didrikson, but film of the race contradicts that.