Los Angeles on Monday marked the 75th anniversary of the 1932 summer Olympic Games held in the city.

City officials lit the the Olympic Torch at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as a show of keeping the Olympic spirit. The torch will remain lit for 24 hours.

"We have a great tradition in Los Angeles in support of the Olympic movement dating to our first games in 1932 and again in 1984," said City Councilman Tom LaBonge. "By marking this anniversary today, we keep that spirit going as well as our ambition to host the Olympic Games a third time in our lifetime."

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, county Supervisor Yvonne Burke and Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games President David Simon also participated in the ceremony.

The 1932 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the X Olympiad, drew 37 nations' participants in 116 separate events, involving 1,408 men and 127 women. Tenth Street, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, was renamed Olympic Boulevard in honor of the games.

"On this, the 75-year anniversary of the 1932 Olympic Games, it is important that we salute our great city, the greatest athletes in the world and our historic Memorial Coliseum for the roles they all have played in keeping the Olympic Spirit alive," said Parks.

There are five surviving Olympians who participated in the 1932 Summer Olympic Games and all are now living in California.

"Today's ceremony is a reminder that the 1932 Olympic Games were considered at the time the most successful ever held, and that they made possible the eventual success of the 1984 games," Simon said.