From Wikipedia:
Track career spoiled by anti-Semitism at the Berlin Olympics
Glickman was a member of the U. S. team in the
1936 Summer Olympics in
Berlin,
Germany, as a
sprinter. He had been a track star at
Syracuse University. Glickman traveled to Germany and spent two weeks practicing as part of the 400-yard relay team. However, the day before they were scheduled to compete, Glickman and teammate
Sam Stoller, two
American Jews, were replaced on the
4x100m relay team.
By Glickman’s own account, the last-minute switch was a straightforward case of
anti-Semitism.
[2] Avery Brundage, chairman of the
United States Olympic Committee, was an enthusiastic supporter of
Hitler’s regime and denied that the
Nazis followed anti-Semitic policies.
[3] Brundage and assistant U.S. Olympic track coach
Dean Cromwell were members of
America First, an
isolationist political movement that attracted
American Nazi sympathizers.
Glickman's friend
Jesse Owens was apologetic and protested the maneuver, even though he was one of the replacements, along with
Ralph Metcalfe.
In 1998, William J. Hybl, president of the United States Olympic Committee, citing: “great evidence of anti-Semitism was there,” presented Glickman with a special plaque: “in lieu of the
gold medals they didn’t win.”
[4]
