History of Sorts

(Originally posted 1 August 2018)

It is safe to say that the Olympic Games are the biggest sporting event. Every four years, the event attracts the attention of hundreds of millions of sports enthusiasts and people with very little interest in sports, for aside from the sports, it is also entertainment, especially the opening ceremony.

Beyond sports and entertainment, the Olympic Games have always been political and the perfect tool for mass propaganda.

What many people don’t realize is that one of the highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the lighting of the flame after the torch relay, was first introduced by the Nazi regime to the modern Olympic Games.

The 1936 Summer Olympic Games were the first to use the torch relay. Each of the 3,422 torchbearers ran one kilometer along the route of the torch relay from the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece, to Berlin. The route passed through the capitals of each country visited.

The idea of the torch relay was a brainwave of Carl Diem, a German sports administrator.

Adolf Hitler thought the connection with the ancient Games was the perfect way to show his belief that ancient Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich. He quoted:

“The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn’t separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That’s why the Olympic Flame should never die.”

The relay started on July 20, 1936, in Olympia and ended on August 1, 1936, in Berlin, at the start of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games.

These games were going to be the template for all future games.

Sources

https://www.olympics.com/en/olympic-games/berlin-1936/torch-relay

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics_torch_relay

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936-inauguration-of-the-olympic-torch-relay