The pole vault competition had the highest quality of any in the world yet; Graber broke both the amateur world record of Lee Barnes and the unofficial professional record of Charles Hoff, while Miller equaled the Barnes record.
The triple jump (contemporarily hop, step and jump) resulted in a minor controversy surrounding the third Olympic spot behind Bowman and Romero; 1928 Olympic silver medalist Levi Casey placed third at the Trials, but the AOC instead selected Sol Furth, who placed fourth.