How Jesse Owens proved that sport has the beating of politics

Ordinarily, the best possible thing for politicians to do is to stay the hell away from sport. The moment pollies start to dip their grubby little fingers into the administration of sport, dumb decisions are made and the only impact that the meddling has is to damage the sport.

The Olympic Games have been the sporting whipping post of choice for political interference. The games have been hijacked so many times by political causes as to make a mockery of the IOC’s claim that it is apolitical.

In 1920, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey and Hungary were excluded as punishment for their roles in World War I. Similarly, Germany and Japan were barred from the 1948 London Games over their involvement in World War II.

The 1936 Berlin games were designed not to be a showcase of world sport, but to be a demonstration of Aryan superiority. Of course, Jesse Owens made a laughing stock of that. Sadly, however, his emphatic performances in defeating the best that Germany had to offer were unable to prevent the terrible events of the following years.