Sports Activism, 1936 Style

Speedskater Joey Cheek's mobilization of Olympians to speak out against China's support for Sudan in the period preceding last year's Beijing games is reminiscent of another Olympic speedskater who risked controversy by speaking out for human rights ["As an Activist Athlete, Cheek Is a Rarity," Sports, June 26].

In 1936, speedskater Jack Shea was one of only a handful of American athletes to boycott the Olympics in Nazi Germany because of Hitler's persecution of the Jews.

Shea was not fooled by the Nazi regime's attempts to paper over its anti-Jewish actions. "Irrespective of promises for courtesy to the Jews by the Nazis, if I were chosen [to compete in the 1936 Olympics] I would refuse curtly to do so," Shea declared.

Shea's ability to see through Nazi propaganda contrasted sharply with the apparent inability of the U.S. president to do likewise. Shortly after the Games, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told American Jewish Congress leader Rabbi Stephen Wise that two tourists who attended the Berlin Olympics told him "that the synagogues are crowded and apparently there is nothing very wrong in the situation [of Germany's Jews] at present." Despite the many reports the White House had received from U.S. diplomats in Germany about the persecution of German Jews, the tourists' claim "made an impression" upon Roosevelt, Wise noted unhappily.

Sadly, Jack Shea's courageous effort had no impact on FDR. One hopes that the activities of Joey Cheek and other athletes with a conscience will have a greater influence on today's world leaders.

RAFAEL MEDOFF

Director

David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies

Washington