Politics & the Games

• The 1936 Berlin Games were seen by the Hitler Government as a golden opportunity to promote its Fascist ideology. The Fuhrer famously snubbed Black sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals

• At the 1956 Melbourne Games, a water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union had to be called off after political tensions resulted in pitched battle between the teams

• The 1960 Rome Games saw the arrival on the world scene of a light heavyweight boxer named Cassius Clay. He would later become Muhammad Ali and throw his gold medal away in disgust after being refused service in a “Whites only” restaurant in his home town. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ali, visibly afflicted by Parkinson’s, would be given a replacement for that medal

• Already in the middle of a controversy over altitude affecting performances of athletes, the 1968 Mexico City Games were shaken when medal winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos each gave the “Black Power” salute on the podium. The US team and the International Olympic Committee condemned the incident, but it generated much sympathy elsewhere

• The 1972 Munich Olympics will always be remembered for the attack on the Games Village by a Palestinian group named Black September, which held several members of the Israeli weightlifting team hostage, and killed two of them. The terrorists demanded that Israel release numerous Arab prisoners. Eventually the captors, still holding their hostages, were offered safe passage and taken to an airport, where they were ambushed by German security forces. In the firefight that followed, 15 people, including the remaining nine Israeli athletes and all but one of the terrorists were killed. After much debate, it was decided that the Games continue. Few remember that these were the same Games where US swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals.

... contd.