re: What is your all time favorite moment at the summer Olympics?

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Ah, Jesse Owens sticking it to Hitler.

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Dude seriously?

Sorry but I hate when people continue to spout bad history.

Just to provide some real history...because like any story from the past...it gets cartoon like.

That's middle school history.

This is you...

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Growing up in the United States, I was taught in history about Jesse Owens going over to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, winning a gold medal and then getting snubbed by Hitler who was angry that a black man beat all of the white athletes. I even remember my teacher reading a picture book about this to us.

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And this is real history...

Owens said in his autobiography that the Germans cheered him and that he was treated worse in the USA. So you could say, he stuck it to Jim Crow. But America at that time didn't want to hear that.


In Owens' own words: "I wasn't invited up to shake hands with Hitler- but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either."

On the first day of the 1936 Olympics, Hitler met with two German medalists and a Finnish medalist in his suite. In the afternoon, two black American athletes won medals - but Hitler had left. It looked very much like an intentional snub, and the world press noticed it. The next morning, the Olympic officials informed Hitler that he had to congratulate all athletes - or none.

Hitler decided not to meet any other athletes, and thus did not meet Owens or any other medalist on the second day of competition, when Owens won his first medal.

Several other misconceptions and false myths about the 1936 Olympics are prevalent.

Not only was Owens not rebuffed by Hitler, Owens wasn't shunned by the German audience at the Berlin stadium either.

Baker reports that Owens so captured the imagination of the crowd it gave him several ear-shattering ovations. Later Owens recalled that he had gotten the greatest ovations of his career at Berlin.

Another popular belief is that the games marked a humiliating moment for the Germans because a few blacks walked away with a fistful of medals.

In reality, the competition was anything but a German humiliation.

It is forgotten that Germany managed to pick up more medals than all the other countries combined.