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Jesse Owens and the Nazi Olympics

4 Extra Debut. Michael Portillo looks back to the 1936 Berlin Olympics when black American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals. From 2010

Michael Portillo looks at some of the forgotten aspects of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Did Adolf Hitler really snub Jesse Owens after the American athlete won an unprecedented four gold medals?

What have we forgotten about the efforts made in Britain and the United States to boycott the Games and why weren't those efforts successful?

And what do the Games tell us about the uneasy relationship between sport and politics in the years before the outbreak of war.

Producer: Joanne Cayford

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010.

Available now

30 minutes

On radio

Tue 11 Aug 202610:30

Broadcasts

  • Mon 22 Nov 201020:00
  • Mon 1 Aug 201117:00
  • Tue 11 Aug 202610:30
  • Tue 11 Aug 202616:30
  • Wed 12 Aug 202600:30

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