"The most controversial Olympics" an outtake from Allen Guttmanns' "The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games", tells the story of the story of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin Germany as well as the controversy surrounding it. The facilities and the spectacles of the game were great but they were only superficial. Under the surface of the 1936 Olympics was undeniable corruption.The battle for hosting the games was between Berlin Germany and Barcelona Spain, but Berlin was selected after winning the vote with a convincing margin of forty-three to sixteen. At this time in 1931 Hitler was not in command of Germany but did become so in 1933, this was not anticipated when Germany was selected ...view middle of the document...
But to their surprise he did not, instead the situation was looked at as ""¦splendid opportunity to demonstrate German vitality and organizational expertise."(55). Hitler even gave full financial support to the organizers. Even though Hitler was in favor of the Olympics being held in Germany it was worried that he would not abide by the Olympic rules concerning equality, especially the right for German Jews to try out for the national team. However the Germans give a written guarantee that German Jews would have the chance to try out for the national team, much to the surprise of many. But even though they were agreeing to follow by the rules the reliability of the Nazi's claims were in question over and over again. Because of all of the skepticism an inspection was made, with the results being that it was likely, according to the Nazi's, that Jewish athletes would make the National team. The inspector went back to the United States saying that they should accept the invitation. A strange thing happened when a man name Sherrill had an interview with Hitler; when asked about the pledge made by the Nazi's that all Germans were allowed to try out for the team Hitler said that Jews would not be allowed on the team. In another interview a little while later Hitler said that Jews were allowed to compete. So to make himself look good to the rest of the world Hitler allowed two members of mixed ethnicities to compete on the German team, Rudi Ball a hockey player and Helen Mayer an Aryan looking woman who did not consider herself a Jew. One strange thing was that a German high jumper, with dark hair, was deprived of a spot even though she jumped four centimeters higher than anyone else. Hitler also showed his...