At the 1932 Summer Games held in Los Angeles, only 24 members of Brazil's Olympic team of 69 actually competed! Brazil was so poor from the Great Depression that the only way it could get the athletes to the U.S. was to pack them on a barge with 25 tons of coffee to sell at ports along the way. The U.S. required a $1 head tax per person entering the country, but the team, apparently not as adept at sales as at athletics, managed to sell only $24 worth of coffee.
The only hope of getting the whole team ashore rested on the Brazilian consulate in San Francisco, who sent out a courier with a check written out for the equivalent of $45. By the time the courier arrived in L.A., however, the Brazilian currency devalued so much that the check was only worth $17. To add insult to injury, the check bounced!
When the water polo team competed they were upset at the ref and at the end of the game they beat the ref up. They were disqualified from the rest of the competetion.
At the end of the Olympics, no medals were won and the athletes that did compete joined the rest for the long journey back.
When they returned to Brazil, they discovered that their country was in the midst of a revolution.
Not a good year for Brazilian athletes!
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