Hot News: Politics and the Olympics

The Olympic Games are supposed to be a celebration of athletic achievement with an atmosphere of international cooperation. But rare has been the Olympiad that is totally free of politics.

Adolf Hitler used the Games as an Aryan showcase in 1936, and a string of politically motivated boycotts in the 1970s and '80s threatened to kill the Olympic movement. The Games rebounded, but in 2008 the spectre of boycott returned as protesters sought to use the Beijing Games as a political platform.

On this edition of Rewind, a look at political events that have threatened to disrupt the Olympics.

Jesse Owens at the 1936 OlympicsThe first piece is about the 1936 Olympics. Jesse Owens was the undisputed star of the Games in Berlin, and not just because he walked away with four gold medals. As a talented black athlete, Owens decisively disproved German chancellor Adolf Hitler's belief in the supremacy of the Aryan race. CBC's Harry Brown talked to Jesse Owens in 1976 about his experience. PHOTO: US Sprinter Jesse Owens running 200-meter preliminary heat at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. (AP)

Owens said that although his personal experience in Germany was good, it was a different story when he came back to the United States. As he said, 'I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.' To make matters worse, when Owens arrived at the reception party in his honour at the Waldorf hotel, he was not allowed to enter via the main doors and also was not allowed to use the normal elevators. Instead, he had to use a freight elevator to get to his own party.Marty GlickmanBut Jesse Owens wasn't the only story to have come out of the 1936 Olympics. After 10 days by boat over the Atlantic, nine days for training in Berlin and eight days into the 1936 Olympic Games, Marty Glickman was ready for the race of his life. But just four hours before the start of his race, the American sprinter and his teammate Sam Stoller - both Jewish - learned the race was already over for them. Glickman went on to become a sportscaster based in New York. In 1998, the U.S. Olympic Committee honored Glickman and his teammate Sam Stoller, by presenting them with a plaque 'in lieu of the gold medals they didn't win' in Berlin.Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956The 1956 Olympics were just three weeks away when Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to suppress a revolution in Hungary. PHOTO: Hungarian Rebels demonstrating against the Stalinist regime, waving their flags on a tank they captured in the main square in Budapest. The uprising began October 23, 1956. Some 2,500 people were killed and a further 200,000 forced into exile. (AP).

In protest of the Soviet action, three nations withdrew from the Games: Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. But Hungary, which had placed third in the Olympic rankings in 1952, decided to send its team anyway. CBC reporter George Gross told the story for CBC Radio in 1956, just before the start of the Games.The Soviet-Hungary conflict found its way into the water polo semifinal. The game turned bloody when a Soviet player head-butted a Hungarian player, leading to the officials' decision to end the game and hand Hungary a 4-0 win. In the 1956 Games, Hungary placed fourth in the standings. A political protest over the Suez Crisis also prompted Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt to pull out of the 1956 Olympics. ApartheidIn 1968 the political tussle of the day was South Africa's apartheid regime. There was talk of a boycott. . In April of that year, the IOC voted not to allow South Africa to compete. Following the dismantling of apartheid, South Africa was readmitted to the Olympic Games and competed in the 1992 Games in Barcelona.Black Power Salute in 1968At the summer games in 1968, American runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos rocked the Mexico City Olympics by raising their arms in a black-power salute on the medal podium. The reaction was explosive. Smith and Carlos were asked to leave the country.

PHOTO: The 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. Australia's Peter Norman in front, wins the silver medal for the 200 meter run. U-S athletes Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos (in back), receive gold and bronze medals, respectively. They give the now well known 'black power salute' during the playing of the American national anthem. (AP)Canadian running great Harry Jerome, who had won a Bronze medal in the 1964 Olympics, commented on the Black Power salute made by two American athletes at the medal ceremony. While Smith and Carlos are now widely regarded as heroes of the civil rights movement, they returned to mostly hostile reaction in the United States. Contrary to some reports, they were not, however, stripped of their medals.

Munich OlympicsWe just briefly mentioned the Munich Olympics, where during the 1972 summer games, members of the Israeli wrestling team were taken hostage by a terrorist group. Eleven athletes, coaches and judges were murdered by the terrorists.

PHOTO: September 5, 1972. A hooded member of the Arab Commando group who seized and killed the members of the Israeli Olympic Team. He appears on the balcony of the Olympic Village building in Munich where the murders took place. (AP)1976 GamesAnd then we moved to 1976 and Montreal. Rugby wasn't among the 21 sports at the Games, but it had an impact there all the same. Furious that New Zealand had sent its national rugby team to play in apartheid South Africa, 22 African nations pulled out of the Games - including members of the Nigerian Olympic team pictured right, heading home from Montreal's Mirabel Airport (PHOTO from Canadian Press).Another political issue that affected the 1976 Games concerned Taiwan, which did not accept the legitimacy of communist mainland China. Taiwan wanted its team to compete under the name Republic of China. But the Canadian government only recognized the mainland, or People's Republic of China, as legitimate. Canada refused entry to Taiwanese athletes so long as they competed under the name Republic of China. The Canadian Olympic Committee disagreed with the government's stand, and though the IOC attempted a compromise, the Taiwanese did not participate. The situation so enraged U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was pro-Taiwan, that he refused to attend the Olympics.1980 Boycott in MoscowFor a country with an low profile at the Olympics, Afghanistan had a huge impact on the 1980 Games. In December 1979 Soviet forces invaded the country. The U.S. led the call for a boycott, and many countries, including Canada, followed suit. PHOTO: In August 2010, Bart Connor waves to the crowd, as he and the other members of the 1980 United States Gymnastic team are honoured. None of them had actually competed in the 1980 Games due to the U-S led boycott. (AP)

Olympic athlete Diane Jones- Konihowski was one of that athletes affected. She was Chef de Mission of the 2000 Canadian Olympic team in Sydney.

Afghanistan itself was expelled from the Olympics in 1999 because of the repressive Taliban regime that ran the country at the time. After the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan was readmitted and participated in the 2004 Athens Games. 1984 Soviet Boycott In 1984 the Soviet Union decided to pull out of the Los Angeles Olympics. Although the Soviets said their decision was to protect the safety of their athletes, the move was widely viewed as retaliation for the United States' boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow. In addition to the Soviet Union, all Eastern Bloc countries save Romania joined the boycott.Canada had its best showing ever at the 1984 Games, placing fourth overall. Before that, Canada typically placed below the top 20 nations in the medal count. In the wake of three successive significant Olympic boycotts, there were proposals to designate one permanent site, probably Athens, for the Games. So far that has, of course, not happened.The next few years were relatively peaceful in terms of the mixing of Olympic sports and politics. 2008 Beijing GamesWith a roaring economy and a new sense of optimism, China was ready to show a different face to the world with the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. But as the one-year-to-go countdown began, there was trouble looming. A year later, as the games were on the horizon, all eyes were on the Olympic flame. It has been an inspiration for athletes for years, but in 2008 the Olympic torch inspired a different kind of passion. As the torch relay reached London, protesters were doing their utmost to disrupt its progress. The IOC considered cancelling the rest of the torch relay outside China, but ultimately the international relay continued.There was no boycott of the Beijing Games and they were generally considered a success. And now we are at the Sochi Games, which have had their own share of political controversy and call for boycott. But for the athletes, it must remain first and foremost about sports.

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