The Berlin Olympics of 1936

Politics overshadowed these Games which were used as propaganda for Nazi ideology. Hitler sat in on the events and was dismayed when his superior Aryan race didn't win everything. The four Gold medals of Jesse Owens, a black American, must have really annoyed him! Some Jewish athletes who were chosen by their countries to take part in the Games refused because of Nazi discrimination to the Jews of Germany. Power politics have continually affected the Olympics.

W.W.II meant the Olympics were not staged again until 1948. In 1952 Russia debuted and by 1960 the Games were watched on TV all around the globe.

The Munich Olympics of 1972

West Germans, mindful of Hitler's Olympics 36 years earlier, offered to stage the 1972 Olympics in Munich as an act of goodwill. It all fell apart when Arab terrorists broke into the Olympic village and made their way to the dormitories where the Israeli athletes were housed. Eight Arabs of the Black September Palestinian terrorist group shot two Israeli athletes immediately and threatened to kill another nine who had been taken hostage if the Israeli Government did not trade them for 200 terrorist prisoners held in Israeli jails. The German and Israeli Governments jointly planned to stop the terrorists but something went wrong and all nine hostages were killed. Israel pulled out of the Games and Jews all over the world mourned the deaths of their people.

Olympics and Politics

Politics have always poisoned the Olympics. In 393, Theodosius the Great banned the Games because there was too much bribery and corruption going on and the Games did not return until 1896.

Sport has long had symbolic overtones. Sport is a simple universal language: Whoever wins is best, therefore whichever race he represents is best. It's a potent message which politicians have never been slow to cash in on.

One man saw the Games as a perfect opportunity for a spot of global marketing. The 1936 Berlin Games were stage-managed to prove the superiority of Adolf Hitler's Aryan race. Three years of planning went into the selling of Nazi might and right. The opening ceremony began with the Berlin troops marching through the Brandenburg gate while Hitler himself wore the threatening brown uniform of the Storm Troopers. As he took his seat "Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles" was played.

Race issues continued to affect the Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned South Africa from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics because they would not oppose racial discrimination. Before the Mexico Olympics of 1968, the African nations threatened to boycott if South Africa selected an all-white team. A powerful but peaceful political gesture was made at the Games themselves when black American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200M, mounted the podium in black scarves and each with a single black glove. As the American anthem struck up, they raised their fists in salute. The IOC was outraged. "We are black and we are proud to be black in white America," said Carlos, but both were eventually expelled from the Games. The IOC's lack of sympathy for the concerns of black athletes was marked indelibly on many minds. Smith and Carlos may have gone away; the race question would not.

The darkest day was not far away. The killing of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist group at the 1972 games in Munich was the worse day in Olympic history. There were calls from round the world for the Games to be abandoned. "We have the strength of a great ideal," declared the President of the IOC. "The Games must go on."

There is no easy reaction to terrorist assault; to have disbanded the Games would have been seen as giving in to terrorists. But the IOC was guilty of gross insensitivity in not holding a longer period of mourning. Re-scheduling an afternoon programme is appropriate when bad weather strikes. When men with hoods and guns strike there is a need for a more considered and respectful response.

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