Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, great US athletes excluded: 1936.

Robert Barty grew up as part of the Indigenous Ngarigo tribe in Bowen in rur­al Nth Queensland. Daughter Ashleigh Barty is therefore a mem­ber of the same Ngarigo people who grew up in Ipswich Queensland. In 2022, when Ash became the Women’s Single champion at the Australian Tennis Grand Slam, every single Australian proudly gathered around, to celebrate her success. Cathy Freeman & Evonne Goolagong Cawley were Barty’s important ath­letic mentors and indigenous heroines.

Newly-crowned Australian Open champion Ash Barty 

standing between Cathy Freeman (L) and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley (R), 

Jan 2022. NITV

Now consider the opposite case, when talented athletes were punished specifically because of their minority ethnic status. Different era, of course.

In 1931 the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to Berlin, specifically to incl­ude Germany in the de­mocratic world. Only after Hitler became Chancellor in Jan 1933 did Ger­many become a totalitar­ian state control­l­ed by Nazi policies. Ger­man sports imagery from 1933-on promoted the id­eal of Ar­y­an racial sup­­er­iority and physical power.

Democrats warned that the Nazis would use the 1936 Ber­l­in Games for propaganda purposes and that the USA team should boycott the games. But Avery Brundage, Pres of U.S Olympic Committ­ee, opposed the boycott. He believed that a] German Jews were not persecuted and b] politics and sport should never mix. Wasn’t Brun­dage worried about black U.S ath­letes?

As the Olympics Boycott fight heated up in 1935, Brundage alleged the ex­­is­tence of a Jewish-Communist con­sp­iracy to keep the USA out. In the end, Brun­dage won. Note that Hit­ler rewarded Brund­age 2 years later by giving his company the con­tract to build Wash DC’s German embassy.

In Aug 1936, the Games opened in Berlin. 49 countries competed, with Germany having the largest team and USA having the 2nd largest team. The ceremonies commenced in the new Olym­pic Stadium, a 110,000 goliath built under Jo­s­eph Goebb­els' direction to showcase Aryan supremacy.

German officials believed Ger­many would dominate the Games with vict­ories, since non-Aryans were inferior. Desp­ite pers­on­­ally congratulat­ing two German gold medallists and a Fin­­nish win­ner on the opening day, Hitler left the stadium after a black American Corn­elius John­son won the high jump. The Führer said that Americ­ans should be ash­am­ed for letting their medals be won by black athletes.

So it was excellent news for democratic Americans that the most brill­iant athlete in Berlin was black Jesse Owens. He went on to win four gold medals, including a world record. The spectators were mesmerised. 

German soccer team, Berlin Olympic Games 1936. Irish Times

Apparently politics WERE allowed into sport

Note that Hitler st­orm­ed out of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, leaving Ow­en’s hand dangling. Germany had been hum­il­iat­ed; his Aryan supermen had been beaten by a sub-human, rac­­­ial infer­ior. Hit­ler's racist snub­bing of Owens was clear; he shook hands only with Aryan com­p­etitors!

Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, 1936

Exclusion of Jewish American athletes

Another cont­r­overs­ial decision at these Games was the excluding of two Am­er­ican sprinters, Marty Glickman & Sam Stoller, from 4x100m relay, the day before. Stoller and Glickman, the only Jews in the entire U.S team, were totally withdrawn from the relay team. They were both horrified.

Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper, Frank Wykoff, 

American relay team, minus the Jews

But why did it happen? The relay coaches cl­aim­ed they needed their fast­est run­ners to win the race, regardless of who’d been promised the spots. But most people said it was because Avery Brund­age did not want to em­bar­ra­ss Hitler by hav­ing Jews win gold medals. Glickman said both the U.S athletic coach Dean Crom­well and Avery Br­und­age were motivated by their own anti-Semitism.

In the end the U.S relay team of Jesse Owens, Ralph Met­calfe, Foy Dr­ap­er and Frank Wykoff brilliantly won in a world record time of 39.8. Yet Glick­man and St­oller had travelled from the U.S to compete ONLY in the Am­erican relay team. So how did their Jewish heritage get public­ised? Were they seen without knickers in the changing room? Did they ask for kosher meat from the kitchen?

Note that Berlin had already been cleaned up with rac­ist graffiti tak­en down and Fascist papers removed from newsstands. Hitler had already passed the Cit­izenship Laws, strip­ping Jews of their nationality but the Füh­rer wanted to maximise the Berlin Games as a propa­ganda exer­cise for Nazism. So I must conclude that the overt anti-Sem­it­­ism against Glickman and Stoller was not solely displayed by Nazi Ger­many. The Jewish ath­letes were snubbed by THEIR OWN Olympic Committee.

The US Olympic Committee did admit eventually that Glickman and Stoll­er were replaced by Av­ery Brundage at the Germans’ insistence. This was repeated in the HBO do­cumen­tary called Glickman (Aug 2013). But had Avery Brundage not readily agreed to throw the Amer­ican Jews out, what would the Germans have done?

Stoller later denied that it was purely anti-Semitism but re­corded the in­ci­d­ent in his diary as the most humiliating episode in his life. His career quickly faded.

Paul Taylor's book, 2008

Glickman en­listed in the Mar­ines during WW2, then post-war he launched a very suc­cessful broadcasting career, cov­er­ing top New York sports. His inability to compete in the 1936 U.S ath­letic team because of his religion had not ruined his career. He dev­ot­ed his life to helping teens, working with New York high schools and Pol­ice Ath­let­ic League. Glickman was a lifelong advocate of sports to transcend divisions created by race, class and relig­ion. Glickman died in 2001.