Economics, Politics and the Olympics

Did you know that only 24 out of 69 members of Brazil’s Olympic team competed during the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles?

It was due to the $1 head tax per person, which the US required when entering the country.

At that time, Brazil was heavily impoverished by the Great Depression that the only way they could get their team to Los Angeles was to put them on a barge together with 25 tons of coffee that acts as their ticket when sold in the ports they’d pass along the way.

Unfortunately, only US$24 worth of coffee were sold. The Brazilian consulate in San Francisco was their last hope, who did send out a cheque worth US$45 by courier but by the time it got to them, the Brazilian cruzeiro, Brazil’s monetary unit at that time, was so devalued that it only amounted to US$17 and to make matters worse for the Brazilians, nobody was willing to cash the check.

Sad, eh?

Source: Wikipedia