Abstract

When Hitler came to power, the Olympic Games had already been awarded to Germany. In the early phase of Nazi rule, Jews were expelled from sport clubs, making it impossible for them to train for, or participate in, the 1936 Olympics. The Amateur Athletic Union and American Olympic Committee, the organizations responsible for sending a U.S. team to Germany, were worried about the racist policies of the new regime. Despite a German pledge of non-discrimination made to the International Olympic Committee in 1933, the AAU and AOC passed resolutions making American participation contingent upon the cessation of discrimination against German-Jewish athletes. Discriminatory practices did, however, continue. Meanwhile, German officials in charge of the Games' preparations received continual pressure from Hitler to secure American presence at the Games. The boycott movement in the United States did, in the end, fail; but not because of German pressure. It failed primarily because of the personal intervention of AOC president Avery Brundage. Brundage, as well as other well-connected Olympic officials, had the opportunity to let the AAU and AOC determine American participation on the basis of an accurate assessment of the German-Jewish situation. Instead, they deliberately misled the two organizations and world public opinion by giving assurances they knew were false.