The modern Olympics, the world’s foremost international sporting competition, is supposed to be an exemplar of human athletic achievement, good sportsmanship, and friendly competition among nations. Unfortunately, the Olympics has not been immune to antisemitism. (The same can be said regarding racism.) Two low points that come to mind are “the Nazi Olympics” of 1936 and the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich, Germany, in 1972.
Quote: “When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Summer and Winter Olympic Games to Germany in Spring 1931, it could scarcely have realized the political ramifications for the Olympic movement and its ideals of equality and international cooperation that would result from the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933.”
Sources: Wikipedia (introduction), United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (quotation)
Learn more about antisemitism in the Olympic Games from Wikipedia. ►
Watch “The Nazi Olympics: Jewish Athletes (Part 1)” [6:22]. ►
Watch “The Nazi Olympics: Jewish Athletes (Part 2)” [5:06]. ►
Watch “1972 Olympics: The Munich Massacre” [11:07]. ►
Watch “Olympics Riddled with Anti-Israeli & Anti-Semitic Behavior” with David Pakman [6:32] ►
Image: Britannica.com
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