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I agree. end of

This was an interesting article, thanks ´óÏó´«Ã½

Fantastic article yet again Mr Fordyce. Nice bit of light and shade.

What a great blog! Sport breaches boundaries like nothing else

Very moving article.

Sport proves that we are all inherently evil, and only on a level playing field can the world unite.

Great article.

Again I read an off-cricket blog and again I found it compelling reading.

Couldn't agree more, sport has a unique way of being above politics. Take rugby for example, a united Irleand; truly wonderful.

Great article, and probably an oft forgotten part of that era. I for one didn't know that had happened, and I'll now keep that story in mind.

Excellent reading. It appears that Sport really does unite, if people let it.

"The Berlin Olympics were designed by the Nazi government to showcase the superiority of the white Aryan race over the rest of the world."
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Not really Tom, unless you mean culturally. Yes, I dare say they were as conceited as chocolate chips in cookies in that regard. But athletically people of African descent were regarded as having superior physiques. The attempt to show that non-whites were inferior happened at the St. Louis Olympics and World's Fair in 1904, with results of, naturally, no scientific value. Article here:

Excellent piece Forders, you are fast becoming one of my favourite journos.

Is the Worlds inspiring you for the decathlon or hindering your training, and how is the hammy holding up?

Hitcho

Nice blog. More than makes up for your ham-fisted coverage of Wimbledon.

Great piece.

A moving account of individuals setting a good example for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, it is not enough, as is recorded in the later history of the 20th century.

Athletes still compete under under their national flags, national anthems are played at medal ceremonies, the media likes to count the national medal-tally, and politicians won't miss an opportunity to be associated with sporting heroes.

Another party at 10 Downing Street if England reclaim the Ashes?
Arise, Sir Freddy?

Rudi was just eight in 1936

______________________________________

Doesn't add up

Great article. London 2012 has already become bogged down in cost and medal tally discussion. I feel sure though that such wonderful memories as those of Rudi and Werner will also be born out of London.

Thats what sport is all about and what it should be.
Maybe we should play more sport in the Middle East and forget about the war.
The cold war should have been wintersports-nice to dream

As a younger German that is born after the war I think it´s unfair to view the Federal Republic of Germany through the pair of glasses of that time. The more or less comparison of the Federal Republic of Germany with the so-called "Third Reich" is wrong.
The responsibility of the criminal Nazi dictatorship lies firstly at the generation of old Germans that supported it with a majority.
I do have nothing in common with that.

A fantastic story - especially that the crowd were so ignorant of the regime's intentions and delighted at Owens' performances; what a pity that sense of anti-racism did not bring down the Nazi government!

Still, it proves the unifying power of sport, one that is hard to underestimate.

No one is born hating people who belong to to a race different from his or her own. The adults, especially the white adults are the ones who promote hatred between races. When my daughter, who is black, was six years old, she kept me waiting in the car whenever I wanted to take her home from a childcare centre. She didn't want to come away quickly because she was often saying, "bye-bye" again and again, to her white peers. I just yelled at her, "enough. Come into the car, please!"

If you read about Jessie Owens not how the media have added to it and changed it.
Hitler would only shake the hands of German competitors so was told shake all hands or shake no hands so Hitler shoke no hands.
Jessie Owens was more upset with FDR tgh American President who never contacted him after he returned.
Owens turned to professional running but could not make any money so ended up racing horses.
Owens sais the horses he raced were knackered plus when the gun went off it startled the horses so he had the advantage.

Good piece that does not stretch the truth unlike a piece on the TV coverage. Saddest part of all is that Owens was snubbed by his own president and not in his own mind by the evil dictator (claimed they exchanged waves). Ike eventually recognised him 20 years later.

Sad to say Owens had more rights in Germany at the time than his home land - could stay in any hotel he liked. Indeed 32 years later Americans were still making a protest at their conditions and rights at an Olympics (ironically shouted down by Owens).

The head of the 1936 US Olympic Committee Avery Brundage was probably a committed Nazi. Owens and Metcalfe only got their places in the relay at the last minute exclusion of Jewish Athletes. Although as they were 1 and 2 in the world it's bizarre they were not originally selected. Brundage who also opposed women in sport was head of the IOC for 20 years from 1952. Brundage threw the greats Smith and Carlos out of the games in 1968.

It's funny that when rehashing Olympic history we tend to get a potted soap opera easy view with only enduring good and ancient evil embodied in personal confrontations that often did not happen.

Let's be honest racists never down play the 'athleticism' of those they consider inferior. They still do not. How far different Hitler's view was from FDR, Brundage, Trueman, US public and others is problematic.

Owens told reporters at the time: "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler. You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four carat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment."


Wow! This actually moved me to tears, Luz Long what a guy!

@JobyJak wrote:

"Sport proves that we are all inherently evil, and only on a level playing field can the world unite"

Speak for yourself there. Don't presume to speak for anyone else.

Otherwise once again a very nice, sensitive and well balanced piece by Mr Fordyce - a true gem of a sports journalist amongst so much mediocrity at the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

Great blog, when I read about the grand-children giving out the medals on saturday I cried. I love that sport can do this for us. Nothing divides us like religion and nothing unites us like sport.

Whilst i dont disagree with the article the bbcs coverage of a wonderful athletics event has been satured with this. Please does every program have to go on about the same thing. Typical example of the bbc milking a story for all its worth.
I wonder if when the olympics are held in this country will the worlds media go on about great fire of London or the plague or the british empire and its atrocities. Please give us a break and i am not being insensitive but at what point are people allowed to move on. I like the bbc mixing up the coverage but they have overdone this Hitler thing. Please seperate sport from the politics.

Jesse Owens was a very brave man,he had more racist problems in his own country USA.Put into perspective for the time.

"It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler. You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four carat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment."

What a fantastic quote. Excellent blog Tom. I didn't realise how historic Jessie Owens' victories were. This site has stepped with the quality of the blogs. I was critical in the past, but I take it all back. There is a lot of diversity and some extremely interesting reads.

Tom this has just given me the motivation to read ur blogs more, just so i can get a feel of the history of athletics..... race, politics etc exempted! I am from kenya where we have good knowledge of our athletes however we lack knowldege of the sport. Bravo to you! can you do a blog on kenyan atheletes? Too much to ask may be... but wd love a kipchoge keino blog of his mexico debut 1960! far fetched but hope you indulge me.

Great blog. I did not know about this wonderful act of sportsmanship by
Long or his friendship with 'JO'.
Paid a visit to this Stadium about ten years ago and found the place
really spooky (maybe because there was nobody else in the place!) but I really did get a sense of what the atmosphere must have been like all
those years ago.

I am glad that I am not the only one at this blog who thinks that this kind of coverage is offending the Federal Republic of Germany as the host of the 2009 World Athletics Championships.

Utterly brilliant!!! Thanks!

What people seem to forget or ignore is that Jesse Owens was a second class citizen in the USA in just as much as the jews were in nazi germany. Owens couldn't eat in white restaurants, had to use coloured only bathrooms etc, so when all these commentators harp on about Hitler etc Yes Owens did shatter Hitlers dream. However what's the point if you are not free in your own country and yet a nation of nazi's take you to their hearts. That says more about the USA racial segregation policy than it did about Hitler.

Nice article, very touching and thought-provoking.
Two minor criticisms: I wouldn't say that "The Berlin Olympics were designed by the Nazi government to showcase the superiority of the white Aryan race over the rest of the world" any more than any other Olympics, from Los Angeles to Beijing, have to a certain extent a similar purpose. Also, I take issue with you calling Leni Riefenstahl's documentary "infamous"; despite its blatant propaganda purpose, it is so technically and artistically brilliant, that it is rightly considered a masterpiece in its genre.