How Jesse Owens’ historic win at 1936 Berlin Olympics trumped Adolf Hitler’s Aryan project

In 1934, one year after the International Olympics Committee awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to take place in Berlin, Adolf Hitler sparked global outrage with the Nazi sports office floating an “Aryans-only” policy. After a lot of deliberation and Olympic organisers in the US and Europe threatening to pull out of the major sporting event, Hitler rolled back the policy.

After a sham of an inspection initiated by the US Olympic Committee, it was declared that Jewish and non-white athletes were treated fairly in Hitler’s Germany and subsequently it was decided that athletes of all races could attend the event in Berlin and the red, white, and black Nazi swastika flags were hoisted in every corner of the city to celebrate the news.

1934 was a period of political turmoil in Germany as Hitler had made waves with a swath of new laws such as banning labour unions and classification of non-white and Jewish races as “inferior” and “degenerate”. It was also the year Hitler merged the offices of the German Chancellor and President, thereby effectively declaring himself the “Fuhrer” (leader) or in other words dictator. 

Owens' hair-raising victory amidst the grandest of spectacle

Amidst all this chaos, the Berlin Olympics officially commenced on August 1, 1936. Among the 3,963 athletes who competed only 18 were African American. And among them, Jesse Owens proved to be the most successful athlete – of any race. Between August 3 and August 9, Owens who was 22 years old then won four gold medals in long jump, 100 and 200-metre dashes, and finally the 4x100 metre relay. Notably, he was also the first American track and field athlete to win four golds at a single Olympic Games until then.

After his powerful display at the races, when it was time to receive his first medal, it was reported by local media that he was “snubbed” by Hitler, and according to newspapers, claimed that he did not want to acknowledge a non-Aryan athlete’s ability. When an aide asked Hitler to invite Owens over to the viewing box to congratulate him, according to reports, multiple accounts stated that Hitler had savagely replied, ‘Do you really think that I will allow myself to be photographed shaking hands with a Negro?’ Owens himself had confirmed this to be true in multiple interviews after he returned to the US.

While it is true that Hitler did not shake hands with Owens, he had reportedly met other white medallists and posed for photographs. However, soon after the first day’s fiasco, the IOC head Henri de Baillet-Latour informed that Hitler could either congratulate all the winners or none of them at all, in an attempt to save face and stop the newspapers from covering the previous day’s racist turnout. 

Adolf Hitler reportedly avoided Owens and the other 17 Black athletes till the final day of the event, when it is understood that he finally smiled and waved from his seat to Owens after he won his fourth and final medal in the event. Owens confirmed this to be true as well.

Nazi propaganda and Owens’ dream run

With Hitler hosting the grandest sporting event and throwing the most lavish of parties it was supposed to be his moment in the sun – the summer he had planned to make rousing speeches hoping to acquire more political clout for his Aryan supremacy project. However, it was Owens’ unbeatable run that kept making headlines worldwide.

Funnily enough, it was the same games at which, India’s very own Hockey legend Dhyan Chand swept the field leading the Indian side to a spellbinding victory against Germany with an 8-1 in the final of the men’s field hockey. Notably, it was reported that Hitler who met him after the event quipped, “If you were a German, I would have at least made you a Major General.”

Although Germany ended up winning 89 medals, more than any other country, the spotlight was stolen from Hitler’s grand white supremacy idea. Owens upstaged his project by doing just one thing-running as if nothing else mattered.

However, the biggest irony after his spectacular feat is that Owens who claimed he didn’t feel the slightest bit offended by Hitler during the games, did feel snubbed by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is believed that a month after the Olympic Games ended, Roosevelt never publicly acknowledged Owens’ triumphs or that of any of the 18 Black athletes who competed and represented the US at the Berlin Olympics. Adding salt to the wound, Roosevelt invited to the White House, all the white Olympians. Several explanations exist for the president’s actions, all pointing to his political motives such as not wanting to risk losing the support of Southern Democrats by appearing to appease to the Black community. The Black Olympians who competed in Berlin were not recognised by the White House until 2016 when Obama invited the athletes’ relatives to an event in memory of their lives and accomplishments.