Editing Eddie Tolan (section)

===Lead-up to the Olympics===
[[File:General view of Los Angeles Olympic Stadium on the opening day of the Games of the Xth Olympiad, while contenders from all nations take the Olympic Athlete's Oath.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on the opening day of the 1932 Olympics]]
After graduating from Michigan, Tolan enrolled at [[West Virginia State University|West Virginia State College]], where he did "graduate work preparatory to teaching and coaching at a Negro institution."<ref name=Cromwell>{{cite news|author=Dean B. Cromwell|title=Olympic Prospects|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=May 18, 1932}}</ref> Early in 1932, Tolan was not running at his prior level. Despite the slow start, [[Dean Cromwell]], Chairman of the All American Board of Track and Field, predicted great things for Tolan in his column on 1932's "Olympic Prospects." Cromwell wrote of Tolan:

<blockquote>Just as spring warms into summer Tolan slides from the class of mediocre sprinters to that of the champions. He is a slow starter, but when the weather gets warm so does Eddie, and off he goes.<ref name=Cromwell/></blockquote>

While press reports regularly referred to Tolan as "stocky," Cromwell took issue with that characterization:

<blockquote>Eddie is now 24 years of age, five feet six inches tall and weights about 130 pounds. Although he has always been termed 'stocky' by the press, a comparison of his weight and height will show that he cannot properly be so styled. He is well muscled, though, and in action gives the impression of great running power, with his arms and legs working smoothly and strongly in a machine piston-like manner.<ref name=Cromwell/></blockquote>

The [[1932 United States Olympic Trials (track and field)|Olympic trials]] were held at [[Stanford University]], and [[Ralph Metcalfe]] won both the 100 and 200 meters finals, with Tolan finishing second to Metcalfe in each case. The results meant that the top two American sprinters in the 1932 Olympics would for the first time be African-Americans. As a result, much of the press attention focused on race. ''Los Angeles Times'' sports columnist [[Braven Dyer]] wrote: "Metcalfe and Tolan make the ace of spades look positively pale by comparison … But how these boys can run … And they figure to do even better here than they did at [[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]] because it's warmer now and they enjoy the heat."<ref>{{cite news|author=Braven Dyer|title=The Olympic Torch|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=July 30, 1932}}</ref>