Editing 1936 Summer Olympics (section)

====United States====
[[File:Brundage at Berlin.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Avery Brundage meeting the mayor of Berlin [[Julius Lippert (politician)|Julius Lippert]] and IOC German Secretary Theodor Lewald in 1936]]

Traditionally, the United States sent one of the largest teams to the Olympics, and there was a considerable debate over whether the nation should participate in the 1936 Games.<ref name=USHMM_boycott /> Americans [[Milton Green]] and [[Norman Cahners]] refused to attend, and the [[American Jewish Congress]] and the [[Jewish Labor Committee]] supported a boycott.<ref name=USHMM_boycott />

Those involved in the debate on whether to boycott the Olympics included [[Ernest Lee Jahncke]], Judge [[Jeremiah T. Mahoney]], and future [[IOC President]] [[Avery Brundage]]. Some within the United States considered requesting a boycott of the Games, as to participate in the festivity might be considered a sign of support for the Nazi regime and its antisemitic policies. However, others such as Brundage (see below) argued that the Olympic Games should not reflect political views, but rather should be strictly a contest of the greatest athletes.

Brundage, then of the American Olympic Committee, opposed the boycott, stating that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the Games should continue. Brundage asserted that politics played no role in sports, and that they should never be entwined. Brundage also believed that there was a "Jewish-Communist conspiracy" that existed to keep the United States from competing in the Olympic Games.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> Somewhat ironically, Brundage would be later [[Avery Brundage#Soviet Union|accused of being a Soviet dupe]] for his controversial stance on the Soviet sports system that allowed them to circumvent the amateur rules.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005800260002-1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005800260002-1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Central Intelligence Agency Information Report: Soviet Sports as an Instrument of Political Propaganda|website=Cia.gov|access-date=2022-02-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005600130009-0.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005600130009-0.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Central Intelligence Agency Information Report: Soviet Sports and Intelligence Activities|website=Cia.gov|access-date=2022-02-14}}</ref> On the subject of Jewish discrimination, he stated, "The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race."<ref name=USHMM_boycott />

During a fact-finding trip that Brundage went on to Germany in 1934 to ascertain whether German Jews were being treated fairly, Brundage found no discrimination when he interviewed Jews and his Nazi handlers translated for him, and Brundage commiserated with his hosts that he belonged to a sports club in Chicago that did not allow Jews entry, either.<ref>[[Andrew Nagorski|Nagorski, Andrew]]. ''[[Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power]]''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012, p. 190.</ref>

Unlike Brundage, Mahoney supported a boycott of the Games. Mahoney, the president of the [[Amateur Athletic Union]], led newspaper editors and anti-Nazi groups to protest against American participation in the Berlin Olympics. He contested that racial discrimination was a violation of Olympic rules and that participation in the Games was tantamount to support for the Third Reich.

Most African-American newspapers supported participation in the Olympics. The Philadelphia ''Tribune'' and the ''[[The Chicago Defender|Chicago Defender]]'' both agreed that black victories would undermine Nazi views of Aryan supremacy and spark renewed African-American pride. American Jewish organizations, meanwhile, largely opposed the Olympics. The [[American Jewish Congress]] and the [[Jewish Labor Committee]] staged rallies and supported the boycott of German goods to show their disdain for American participation.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> The JLC organized the World Labor Athletic Carnival, held on 15 and 16 August at New York's Randall's Island, to protest the holding of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jewish Labor Committee: 1936: Anti-Nazi World Labor Athletic Carnival Held in NYC|url=http://www.jewishlaborcommittee.org/2016/08/august_1516_1936_antinazi_worl.html|access-date=2021-08-08|website=Jewishlaborcommittee.org}}</ref>

Eventually, Brundage won the debate, convincing the Amateur Athletic Union to close a vote in favor of sending an American team to the Berlin Olympics. Mahoney's efforts to incite a boycott of the Olympic games in the United States failed, although some athletes like Harvard University track star [[Milton Green]] chose to sit at home.<ref name=hp1/>

US President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] and his administration did not become involved in the debate, due to a tradition of allowing the US Olympic Committee to operate independently of government influence. However, several American diplomats including [[William E. Dodd]], the American ambassador to Berlin, and [[George Messersmith]], head of the US legation in Vienna, deplored the US Olympic Committee's decision to participate in the games.<ref name=USHMM_boycott />