Never before has there been such a heated and widespread controversy surrounding a sporting event as has been the case with the upcoming Beijing Olympics, which has been dogged by disruptions of the itinerary of the Olympic Torch and strident calls by human rights activists worldwide for a boycott of the games.
It would seem that the Olympic Games hardly come and go without some controversy or scandal to mark the event, but very few have mobilised world attention such as that of 1934 in Berlin during which the founder of Nazi Germany, arch anti-Semitist, Adolf Hitler, who had turned racism into a national religion, refused to shake hands with African-American sprint gold medallist, Jesse Owen.
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