First Use At Olympics
According to Professor Emeritus Robert K. Barney, the University of Western Ontario's founding director of Western's International Centre for Olympic Studies, the idea of having winning athletes mount a podium while they received their medals, is a Canadian idea born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930.
Professor Barney's 25-page research paper in the International Journal of Olympic Studies indicates podia were first used at the 1930 British Empire Games (now Commonwealth Games) in Hamilton and subsequently during the 1932 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles and Winter Games in Lake Placid.
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