Just Can't Get Enough by Matthew Robinson

The 100,000-seat stadium was adorned with swastikas, and Hitler himself was in the crowd, looking on. The Games eventually went ahead-and were the first-ever to be televised, and the first with a torch relay-and on August 5, 1936, the 21-year-old Robinson made his way to the starting line of the Olympiastadion track for the 200-meter final. In the USA, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) stated that participating in Hitler’s Olympics could be seen as supporting the Third Reich the Philadelphia Tribune, the county’s oldest African American newspaper, countered that Black victories would help undermine Hitler’s belief in Aryan supremacy. In response, a number of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France lobbied for the Games to be relocated or boycotted entirely.

The official Nazi publication, the Völkischer Beobachter, wrote that Jews and Black people should not even be allowed to compete. The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin were, in Hitler’s eyes, a chance to show the world that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryan race was supreme to all others. Jesse Owens’ shoes may have been the only thing that stopped Mack Robinson’s greatest athletic achievement from being even greater.īut Robinson showed Hitler that greatness has nothing to do with the color of a person’s skin, and then showed America that athletic talent has nothing to do with a person’s ability to be great. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Delano RobinsonĪdolf Hitler’s hatred of Jews and Black people meant Mack Robinson’s greatest athletic achievement almost never happened. Robinson, the older brother of American baseball star Jackie Robinson, won the silver in the 200m event, finishing second to Jesse Owens. American Olympic runner Mack Robinson training at the summer games in Berlin.

Just Can't Get Enough by Matthew Robinson