The Issue of Racism

at the 1 936 Olympics

by: D. A. Kass

Kansas City

Although Berlin was awarded the 1936 Olympic Games by the

International Olympic Committee in 1932, circumstances arose

that caused many officials to doubt their decision. They made it in Germany as an attempt for discriminate of Jews. America's decision to

participate may have been the forecast of Hitler's eventual downfall when Jesse Owens, a Black American, won four gold

medals which shattered the myth of Aryan racial supremacy.

All the laws regulating the Olympic Games shall be

observed.

As a principle, German Jews shall not be excluded

from German teams at the games of the eleventh

Olympiad.

went to Germany for the purpose of getting at least

one Jew on the German Olympic Team and I feel that

my job is finished. As to obstacles placed in the way

of Jewish athletes or any others trying to reach

Olympic ability, I would have no more business dis-

cussing that in Germany than if the Germans attempted

to discuss the Negro situation in the American South

or the treatment of the Japanese in California.

Meaning he wanted to promote care for Jews

That myth, frequently bolstered by claims of scientific legitimacy, has grown increas

ingly powerful in American culture since Owens ran in Berlin. In an essay entitled "R

and Runners" and in other scientific articles, Cobb fought the flourishing mythology t

Owens and his fellow "black auxiliaries," as the international press corps dubbed Africa

American Olympians, owed their medals to any "physical attributes peculiar to their race."

Cobb s efforts did little to halt the advance of theories about "athletic genes." In fact,

successes of Owens and other African-American athletes in the 1930s marks a crucial sh

in scientific paradigms and popular beliefs about the relation of race to athletic perfo

mance.6