1936 - Berlin

The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany August 1-16, 1936 Mascot - none 49 countries, 4069 athletes (328 women) 19 sports (basketball, handball, canoe/kayak, football, polo added) 129 events Opening - Chancellor Adolf Hitler (GER) Torch lit by - Fritz Schilgen Candidates: Barcelona, Alexandria, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lausanne, Nuremberg, Rio de Janeiro, Rome JESSE OWENS RISES ABOVE THE NAZI PROPAGANDA Berlin was awarded the 1936 Olympics in 1931, two years before the Nazi party came to power. Adolf Hitler immediately seized on the games as an opportunity to showcase the efficiency and might of his regime. There were doubts in many quarters about the wisdom of attending the Berlin Olympics. An alternative, to be called the "People's Olympics," was actually scheduled for Barcelona, but that plan was destroyed by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In the United States, a move to boycott the Olympics was led by Judge Jeremiah T. Murphy, president of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Murphy and his supporters were concerned chiefly about Nazi anti-Semitism, since Jewish sports clubs throughout Germany had been shut down. However, in 1935 the AAU voted by a narrow margin to sanction participation and Murphy resigned. He was replaced by Avery Brundage, who went to Germany on an inspection tour and reported that everything looked just fine. Despite the preliminary doubts and the growing international tensions that were to culminate in World War II, the leaders of the Third Reich were at pains to make these Games a resounding success and welcomed more athletes (4069) from more countries (49) than any previous Olympics to compete in events from August 1 - 16. On the positive side, the Berlin Games were noted mainly for technological achievements. Events were televised on a closed-circuit system throughout the Olympic village and to public halls and theaters throughout the country. Zeppelins carried newsreel film to other European cities, while results were transmitted to news media by telex as soon as events were completed. But many athletes and members of the press were alarmed by the nationalistic and militaristic atmosphere in Berlin. The ever-present swastika and icon-like portraits of Hitler and the martial music that blared endlessly through loudspeakers were deeply disturbing to many. Nor did it help that many journalists, suspected of anti-Nazi sentiments, discovered that their rooms had been searched by the secret police. Following Pierre de Coubertin's message at his final Games - he would die one year later in 1937 - the grandiose opening ceremony began with the arrival of the Olympic flame, lit for the first time at Olympia and brought to Berlin by more than 3000 relay runners. The official boxes were full whilst Adolf Hitler appeared - 120,000 arms were raised towards the Fuehrer in the Nazi salute. Hitler was sure that everything was in place for his propaganda machine to operate smoothly. But nothing could have prepared him for the one obstacle to his white-supremacist policies - the colored American, Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals. In Nazi Germany's pro-Aryan setting, Owens first took the 100m title (10.3), then beat the German Lutz Long with a long jump of 8.06m. Incidentally, both men became friends during their contest, a fact Hitler inherently found hard to accept. Owens would go on to win another two gold medals - in the 200m with a world record time of 20.7 secs and in the 4x100m relay, another new world record. All this in the Berlin stadium built to extol the virtues of Nazi propaganda left Hitler and his deputies speechless.  Black athletes were certainly denigrated, though, by the semi-official newspaper, Der Angriff (The Attack), which referred to them as America's "black auxiliaries" and did not include them in its daily scoring chart. The publisher of the paper was Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. Owens' feats relegated every other achievement at the Games, a huge success (3 million viewers) which coincided with the birth of television, albeit restricted to 160,000 viewers in the Berlin area. In order to record the occasion for posterity, the Reich commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to film an official documentary. Named, "Gods of the stadium", to this day it offers an historic insight into the 1936 Berlin Games. Besides Owens, the top individual athletes in 1936 were two German gymnasts, Konrad Frey and Alfred Schwarzmann; Dutch swimmer Hendrika "Rie" Mastenbroek; French cyclists Robert Charpentier and Guy Lapebie; and U. S. sprinter Helen Stephens. Frey was the top medallist with three golds, one silver, and two bronze, while Schwarzmann collected three gold and two bronze medals. Mastenbroek won three golds and a silver. Charpentier won three gold medals, Lapebie two golds and a silver. Stephens won the women's 100-meter dash and also anchored the 400-meter relay team to victory. In part because of a greatly expanded men's gymnastics program, Germany led all countries with 89 medals, including 33 gold, to 56 total and 24 gold for the United States. To no one's surprise, one of the American gold medals came in basketball, which was added to the Olympic program in 1936. The games were played outdoors, often in rain, but that couldn't prevent the U. S. team from rolling through its opposition. The biggest threat to American victory actually came just after the games started, when the International Basketball Federation decided to ban any players 6-foot-3 or taller. The ban, which would have applied to only three players, all Americans, was quickly rescinded. The Japanese dominated men's swimming, winning four of the six events, while Holland won four of the five women's events. Jack Medica and Adolph Kiefer were the only American gold medallists in swimming, although Medica added two silvers to finish among the top total medallists. Four different U. S. athletes won the diving events. Marjorie Gestring, the women's springboard champion, was only 13 years and 9 months. She is still the youngest gold medallist in Olympic history. BERLIN 1936 GOLD MEDAL WINNERS  105 Men, 15 Women, 9 Open Events 16 new events; 5 new sports - Basketball, Canoe/Kayak, Football, Handball, Polo 3 Gymnastics events removed; Women's Gymnastics introduced ATHLETICS, Men 100m: Jesse Owens, USA 200m: Jesse Owens, USA 400m: Archie Williams, USA 800m: John Woodruff, USA 1500m: Jack Lovelock, New Zealand 5000m: Gunnar Hockert, Finland 10000m: Ilmari Salminen, Finland 4x100m: United States 4x400m: Great Britain 110m Hurdles: Forrest Towns, USA 400m Hurdles: Glenn Hardin, USA 50km Walk: Harold Whitlock, Great Britain 3000m Steeplechase: Volmari Iso-Hollo, Finland Marathon: Kitei Son, Japan Discus Throw: Ken Carpenter, USA Hammer Throw: Karl Hein, Germany High Jump: Cornelius Johnson, USA Javelin Throw: Gerhard Stock, Germany Long Jump: Jesse Owens, USA Pole Vault: Earle Meadows, USA Shot Put: Germany Triple Jump: Naoto Tajima, Japan Decathlon: Glenn Morris, USA ATHLETICS, Women 100m: Helen Stephens, USA 4x100m: United States 80m Hurdles: Trebisonda Valla, Italy Discus Throw: Gisela Mauermayer, Germany High Jump: Ibolya Csak, Hungary Javelin Throw: Tilly Fleischer, Germany BASKETBALL (NEW)  Team, men: United States BOXING 50.8kg: Willie Kaiser, Germany 53.5kg: Ulderico Sergo, Italy 57.2kg: Oscar Casanovas, Argentina 61.2kg: Imre Harangi, Hungary 66.7kg: Sten Suvio, Finland 72.6kg: Jean Despeaux, France 79.4kg: Roger Michelot, France 79.4+kg: Herbert Runge, Germany CANOE/KAYAK, Men (NEW) C1 1000m: Francis Amyot, Canada C2 1000m: Jan-Felix Brzak/Vladimir Syrovatka, TCH C2 10000m: Vaclav Mottl/Zdenek Skrland, TCH K1 1000m: Gregor Hradetzky, Austria K1 10000m: Ernst Grebs, Germany K2 1000m: Adolf Kainz/Alfons Dorfner, Austria K2 10000m: Ludwig Landen/Paul Wevers, Germany Folding K1 10000m: Gregor Hradetzky, Austria Folding K2 10000m: Eric Bladstrom/Gunnar Johansson, SWE CYCLING, Men Road Race: Robert Charpentier, France Team Road Race: France 1km Time Trial: Arie van Vliet, Netherlands 2000m Tandem Sprint: Charly Lorenz/Ernst Ihbe, Germany Sprint: Toni Merkens, Germany Team Pursuit: France EQUESTRIAN, Open Individual Dressage: Heinz Pollay, Germany Individual Jumping: Kurt Hasse, Germany Individual 3-Day Event: Ludwig Stubbendorff, Germany Team Dressage: Germany Team Jumping: Germany Team 3-Day Event: Germany FENCING M\Individual Epee: Franco Riccardi, Italy M\Individual Foil: Giulio Gaudini, Italy M\Individual Sabre: Endre Kabos, Hungary M\Team Epee: Italy M\Team Foil: Italy M\Team Sabre: Hungary W\Individual Foil: Ilona Elek, Hungary FOOTBALL (NEW) Team, men: Italy GYMNASTICS M\Floor Exercise: Georges Miez, Switzerland M\Horizontal Bar: Aleksanteri Saarvala, Finland M\Parallel Bars: Konrad Frey, Germany M\Pommel Horse: Konrad Frey, Germany M\Rings: Alois Hudec, Czechoslovakia M\Vault: Alfred Schwarzmann, Germany M\Individual All-Around: Alfred Schwarzmann, Germany M\Team: Germany W\Team: Germany HANDBALL (NEW) Team, men: Germany HOCKEY Team, men: India MODERN PENTATHLON  Individual: Gotthardt Handrick, Germany POLO (NEW) Team, men: Argentina ROWING, Men Single Sculls: Gustav Schafer, Germany Double Sculls: Jack Beresford Jr./Leslie Southwood, GBR Coxless Pair: Hugo Strauss/Willi Eichhorn, Germany Coxed Pair: Germany Coxless Four: Germany Coxed Four: Germany Eight: United States SAILING X\6m Class: Great Britain X\8m Class: Italy X\Star: Germany M\Finn: Daniel Kagchelland, Netherlands SHOOTING, Men 25m Rapid Fire Pistol: Cornelius van Oyen, Germany 50m Free Pistol: Torsten Ullman, Sweden 50m Small-Bore Rifle prone: Willy Rogeberg, Norway SWIMMING, Men 100 Freestyle: Ferenc Csik, Hungary 400m Freestyle: Jack Medica, USA 1500m Freestyle: Noboru Terada, Japan 100m Backstroke: Adolf Kiefer, USA 200m Breaststroke: Tetsuo Hamuro, Japan 4x200m Freestyle Relay: Japan 3m Springboard: Richard Degener, USA 10m Platform: Marshall Wayne, USA WATER POLO: Hungary SWIMMING, Women 100m Freestyle: Rie Mastenbroek, Netherlands 400m Freestyle: Rie Mastenbroek, Netherlands 100m Backstroke: Nida Senff, Netherlands 200m Breaststroke: Hideko Maehata, Japan 4x100m Freestyle Relay: Netherlands 3m Springboard: Marjorie Gestring, USA 10m Platform: Dorothy Poynton, USA WEIGHTLIFTING 60kg: Anthony Terlazzo, USA 67.5kg: Mohammed Mesbah, EGY & Robert Fein, AUT 75kg: Khadr Sayed El Thouni, Egypt 82.5kg: Louis Hostin, France 82.5+kg: Josef Manger, Germany WRESTLING FREESTYLE 56kg: Odon Zombori, Hungary 61kg: Kustaa Pihlajamaki, Finland 66kg: Karoly Karpati, Hungary 72kg: Frank Wyatt Lewis, USA 79kg: Emile Poilve, France 87kg: Knut Fridell, Sweden 87+kg: Kristjan Palusalu, Estonia WRESTLING, GRECO-ROMAN 56kg: Marton Lorincz, Hungary 61kg: Yasar Erkan, Turkey 66kg: Lauri Koskela, Finland 72kg: Rudolf Svedberg, Sweden 79kg: Ivar Johansson, Sweden 87kg: Axel Cadier, Sweden 87+kg: Kristjan Palusalu, Estonia