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Nazi Olympics Research Paper

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The vast majority of my earliest memories consist of cheering on my favorite sports teams along with my father. The weekends were dedicated to watching games, regardless of the sport or level of the athletes. We would gather around the old box television and cheer on Notre Dame football and basketball, Detroit Tigers baseball, and every two years, the U.S. Olympic teams. The Olympics always bring out patriotic sentiments in Americans, and we were no exception. From Beijing, to Vancouver, to London, to Sochi, to Rio, I recollect watching the nightly recaps with Bob Costas, and checking the medal count, hoping to see the United States firmly situated in first place among the many other competing countries.
However, sports is not the only field …show more content…

Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany, viewed the Games as an opportunity to flaunt the supremacy of Germany and the Aryan race (The Nazi Olympics), and to degrade the so-called “inferior races”, specifically Jewish and black athletes (Unsung sprinters’ dreams). This caused many to call for a boycott of the Olympics for the first time. Their efforts were unsuccessful, but it established an example that would be followed numerous times in the years to come (The Nazi Olympics). In the end, Jesse Owens -- an African American track star -- stole the show from Hitler, running and leaping his way to four gold medals, while also setting three world records (Jesse OWENS). Hitler’s Germany did win the most medals in the Games by a wide margin (Berlin 1936), but that was little consolation as the media’s focus was mostly on how his Aryan runners were overmatched compared to the rapid …show more content…

They took eleven Israeli athletes and coaches hostage, but killed two almost immediately after they put up a fight (Davis). The world watched, transfixed, as the scene played out throughout the day. German officials attempted to negotiate with the captors by pushing back deadlines by which the Palestinians said they were going to kill the athletes. Eventually, a settlement was reached where the captives were to be taken to an airport and flown to Egypt where negotiations could continue. The Germans set up an ambush on the runway in an attempt to rescue the Israelis, but tragically, it miserably failed and each athlete was murdered by their captors (1972: Munich and

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