The Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which was used for the 1936 Games, pictured in 2019 AFP/Paul ZinkenPARIS: The International Olympic Committee on Friday deleted a tweet of film from Nazi Germany's 1936 Berlin Games which carried the"stronger together" hashtag and drew fierce criticism.Advertisement
"This is turning out to be quite a ThrowbackThursday already! Berlin 1936 marked the 1st Olympic torch relay to bring the flame to the cauldron.The cheery tone contrasted with the images which, as well as photos of black American sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens, also showed images of the lighting of the cauldron, carefully staged by film-maker Leni Riefenstahl to serve as Nazi propaganda.The 1936 Games were exploited by Adolf Hitler to promote Nazi ideas of racial supremacy.
On Friday afternoon, the IOC deleted the film and fired out a string of tweets explaining what it had intended, highlighting the Owens photos and, in the final one, apologising to"those who feel offended."