7 Significant Political Events at the Olympic Games

Berlin was voted to host the 1936 Olympic Games in 1931. When 1933 came around, however, the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany. Proposed boycotts of the Berlin Olympics arose in many Western countries, who were appalled by Germany’s racist policies and human rights violations. Still, 49 countries attended the Games in Berlin, the most countries to attend any Olympic Games so far. The German government used the international spotlight as an opportunity to portray the country as a benign and progressive nation while also providing fuel for its Aryan-superiority propaganda, the latter of which the IOC specifically prohibited. The IOC also required that the German government would accept qualified Jewish athletes on their team. As a result, Helene Mayer represented Germany in women’s fencing. Record-breaking American sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, an African American, won four gold medals. Many consider that Owens single-handedly destroyed Germany’s attempt at proving Aryan superiority.

Germany and Japan were not invited to take part in the first Olympic Games after WWII, which took place in 1948 in London. (The Soviet Union was invited but refused to send a team.) London, like many European cities, was still recovering from the war. The city had limited time to prepare for the Games and ultimately used already-created sport and housing facilities for the competition. Wembley Stadium was the center of the events, hosting the opening ceremony, athletics events, and more. Allegedly, German prisoners of war retained in the U.K. constructed Wembley Way, a path from the London Underground to the stadium.

Two protests led to fewer than 67 countries participating in the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games. The Suez Crisis in the Middle East came to a head when Israeli brigades invaded the Sinai Peninsula in October of 1956. Egypt, Lebanon, and Iraq boycotted the Games to protest the invasion from Israel and the support of its allies. Meanwhile, the Soviet army invaded Budapest, Hungary, a few weeks before the opening ceremony. To protest this invasion, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland pulled out of the Games. Hungary remained in the Games, and an intense water polo face-off ensued between its team and the U.S.S.R.

The 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City saw two major political events. Ten days before the opening ceremony of the Games, Mexican students staged a protest in the Plaza of Three Cultures (Plaza de las Tres Culturas) in the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City. They opposed the use of government funding for the Olympic Games rather than for social programs. The Mexican army surrounded the plaza and opened fire, killing over 200 protesters and injuring more than 1,000, an atrocity which became known as the Tlatelolco massacre. Additionally, American politics infiltrated the athletics competition. U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos protested their country’s treatment of black citizens during the men’s 200-meter award ceremony. They took their first- and third-placed podiums barefoot and, during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, raised a single black glove while bowing their heads. The American sprinters and second-place Peter Norman from Australia wore human rights badges. Smith and Carlos were promptly banned by the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The 1972 Games were marred by the Palestinian terrorist attack against Israel’s team. On September 5, 1972, eight terrorists affiliated with the Black September organization sneaked into the Olympic Village and killed two members of the Israeli team. They took nine others hostage, attempting to bargain for the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners. After a standoff with an inadequate German police force, the terrorists were able to arrange transportation for themselves and the hostages to a nearby airport. When the German police force failed at their ambush attempt, the terrorists killed the Israeli hostages. The police then killed five of the eight Palestinian terrorists; one German police officer was killed.

Some two dozen countries, mostly from Africa, boycotted the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal after the IOC refused to ban New Zealand from the Games. New Zealand’s national rugby team had toured South Africa, a country that had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 because of its apartheid policies. While the boycott did not succeed in banning New Zealand from the Games, it did have a significant financial and athletic effect on the Games. Most importantly, it brought worldwide attention to apartheid policies in South Africa. In fact, when the South African Springboks took their rugby tour in New Zealand in 1981, they were met with antiapartheid protests.

Ten refugee athletes were selected to compete in the first ever Refugee Olympic Team (ROT) for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. The IOC created this team to bring the refugee crisis to the international forefront. Athletes originally from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were chosen for the squad, and each athlete trained in a host country (Kenya, Belgium, Luxembourg, Brazil, or Germany). The athletes—judokas, distance runners, sprinters, and swimmers—entered the opening ceremony before host country Brazil, carrying the Olympic flag.