Sport brings out the best of people
Tonight I watched the self-explanatory documentary "Olympics 1968: Black Power Salute" on TV. What was really astonishing about it was the character of Avery Brundage, head of the International Olympic Committee at the time. He was active in the Olympic movement since the 1930s, when he played a major role in ensuring the 1936 Olympics in Berlin went smoothly, discouraging boycotts and protests (although not in the film, there are rumours he got Jewish athletes removed from the US team). In the late 1930s he was a member of America First, which opposed taking military action against Germany, but he was thrown out in 1940 for being too pro-Hitler. In the 1960s he opposed boycotts of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (which had similar apartheid-style racial policies), claiming that the Olympics should be for all and free of politics. At time of the 1968 Olympics, he owned a country club in California which banned blacks and Jews. He filled the IOC with fascists such as Franco's minister for sports Juan Antonio Samaranch. In 1968 he took the lead role in having black power saluters Tommie Smith and John Carlos thrown out of the Olympic village - some of the Harvard rowing eight, also taking part in the Olympics, were supportive of Smith and Carlos, but Brundage let them off because they were white and privileged and went to Harvard. Other controversial things include his handling of the terrorist attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics; having 2 secret illegitimate children in the 1950s; campaigning against plans to return medals to legendary Native American athlete Jim Thorpe who died in poverty; and when he was 85 marrying a 36 year old woman. He died 2 years later.