All About - History - Nero - Rome's Deadliest tyrant

The Nazi Olympics
The stars
of Berlin
The competitors who lit up
the XI Olympiad
01
42
Hendrika (Rie)
01Mastenbroek
The first female athlete to win four medals at one
Olympics, 17-year-old Mastenbroek was a talented
Dutch swimmer at all strokes.
Achievements: gold medal 100-metre freestyle,
gold medal 400-metre relay, gold medal 400-metre
freestyle, silver medal 100-metre backstroke
02
Helene Mayer
The only athlete with Jewish ancestry to
make the German team, Mayer justified her selection
with some skilled fencing, duelling with her rival
Hungary’s Ilona Schacherer.
Achievement: silver medal fencing
03
Sohn Kee-Chung
Long distance runner Sohn was a Korean
forced to fun under the flag of Japan. He signed the
Olympic roster with a Korean flag in defiance.
Achievement: gold medal marathon
04
Jack Lovelock
Kiwi John Edward Lovelock had a rivalry with
American runner Glenn Cunningham and both jostled
for the top spot at the 1936 Olympics, with Lovelock
winning the battle.
Achievement: gold medal 1,500 metres
05
Dhyan Chand
Considered one of the greatest field hockey
players of all time, Indian Chand captained his nation
and had already played in the 1928 and 1932 Olympics.
Achievement: gold medal field hockey
06
Helen Stephens
Helen Stephens left the 1936 Olympics
undefeated and with two gold medals. She later served
in the US Marine Corps during World War II.
Achievements: gold medal 100 metres, gold medal
4x100-metre relay
07
Majorie Gestring
At the tender age of just 13, American
Gestring wowed the German crowds and became the
youngest ever female Olympic champion at women’s
springboard diving.
Achievement: gold medal women’s springboard diving
08
Inge Sørensen
Even younger than Gestring was 12-yearold
Inge Sørensen, who managed a bronze medal in
swimming for her native Denmark.
Achievement: bronze medal 200-metre breaststroke
09
Luz Long
The German Olympian is remembered for
his battles with American Jesse Owens. Hitler was
incensed at the two Olympians being arm in arm during
the awards ceremony.
Achievement: silver medal long jump
03
05
07
09
02
04
06
08
Goebbels and his propaganda machine were
intent on making the Olympics a spectacle
that showed off the Third Reich to the world
one step further by refusing to lower the Stars
and Stripes to Hitler, which infuriated the Führer.
If the first day of the Olympics proved anything
to the world, it was that the German people were
seemingly devoted to the Nazi regime.
On the track and field
The day after the excitement of the opening
ceremony, it was down to serious sporting
business. The star of the show was undoubtedly
Jesse Owens, who would win four gold medals
in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 4x100-metre
relay and long jump. The African-American’s
exploits infuriated Hitler and he was labelled
‘Negro Owens’ by the German media, with all US
black competitors branded ‘Black Auxiliaries’. The
German people, however, were the polar opposite
to the journalists, and chanted Owens’s name from
the stands and pestered him for autographs at any
opportunity. The Berlin Olympics was also the first
year that basketball was played at a Games, and it
was won by the US, who began their domination
of the sport, beating Canada 19-8 in the final.
Despite not selecting world-class athletes such
as tennis ace Daniel Prenn and formidable boxer
Erich Seelig due to their Jewish roots, the Germans
finished top of the medals table for the first and
only time with a haul of 89 medals, far ahead of
the USA in second place with 56. It wasn’t just the
Germans not picking their competitors on talent