1936 Winter Olympics#Participating nations

While the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin months later have attracted extensive examination for the Nazi Party's spectacles and the accompanying racial controversies – including the exclusion of most Jewish athletes and Jesse Owens's achievements – the Winter Games took place five months earlier and saw some of the same efforts by Adolf Hitler's propaganda machine.

Globally, there had been efforts to initiate boycotts from different countries, and a number of Jewish athletes faced pressure not to participate in an event held in a nation ruled by a blatantly antisemitic regime.Marsha Lederman, "A Glimpse of Canada at the 1936 Nazi Games," The Globe and Mail, October 13, 2009

The Nazis took steps to soften the appearance of their harsher policies before visitors from other nations arrived, such as removing antisemitic signage that was common in Germany, and – under pressure from a potential American boycott and Olympic officials – allowing the Jewish athlete Rudi Ball to play on Germany's ice hockey team.{{Cite web |title=The Nazi Olympics -1936 Berlin Olympic Games |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-olympics-berlin-1936 |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en}}

A few weeks before the Games began, William L. Shirer, the Berlin correspondent for the Universal wire service, wrote a series of articles describing preparations for the competition. "I had written... that the Nazis at Garmisch had pulled down all the signs saying that Jews are unwanted (they're all over Germany) and that the Olympic visitors would thus be spared any signs of the kind of treatment meted out to Jews in this country."William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary, ©1941 reprinted 2011 by Rosetta Books, entry for January 23, 1936

File:Bundesarchiv R 8076 Bild-0019, Olympische Winterspiele.- Eröffnung.jpg with Rudolf Hess, IOC president Henri de Baillet-Latour, and Adolf Hitler]]

None of the member nations boycotted the Winter Games, and 49 in all participated, the greatest number at that time.Lederman, "A Glimpse of Canada at the 1936 Nazi Games" The Games were completed with a minimum of political controversy, although the Canadian skiing team raised their arms in what appeared to be a Nazi salute as they entered the opening ceremonies.{{Cite web |date=2014-02-12 |title=So This Happened: Hitlers Winter Olympics in Photos |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/02/this-happened-hitlers-winter-olympics.html |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Intelligencer |language=en}} The German crowd erupted in applause at the salute, which was later explained as the "Olympic Salute" that was identical to the Nazi version but with the arm extended laterally instead of forward.

However, even Shirer was impressed by the effectiveness of the Nazis' efforts, writing:

{{poemquote|This has been a more pleasant interlude than I expected. ... On the whole the Nazis have done a wonderful propaganda job. They've greatly impressed most of the visiting foreigners with the lavish but smooth way in which they've run the games and with their kind manners, which to us who came from Berlin of course seemed staged. I was so alarmed at this that I gave a luncheon for some of our businessmen and invited Douglas Miller, our commercial attaché in Berlin, and the best-informed man on Germany we have in our embassy, to enlighten them a little. But they told him what things were like, and Doug scarcely got a word in. ... Back to Berlin tomorrow to the grind of covering Nazi politics."Shirer, Berlin Diary, undated entry February 1936}}

Twelve days after the Games closed, Hitler sent German troops to remilitarize the Rhineland, his first territorial violation of the Treaty of Versailles and a critical test of European resolve to resist Germany's military expansion. None of the Western powers lifted a finger and Europe's first steps towards World War Two were taken.

• German skier Willy Bogner took the Olympic oath during the opening ceremonies.
• Alpine skiing made its first appearance in the Winter Olympics as the combined, which added a skier's results in both the downhill and slalom. German athletes Franz Pfnür and Christl Cranz won the men's and women's alpine events.
• Ivar Ballangrud won three out of the four speed skating races.
• Sonja Henie won her third consecutive gold medal in woman's figure skating.
• Switzerland won the four-man bobsled competition with a time of 5:19.85.
• Great Britain upset 1932 gold medalists Canada in ice hockey when Edgar Brenchley scored the winning goal within the last 90 seconds.
• Norway won the overall games with a total of seven gold medals, five silver medals and three bronze medals.
• The 1936 Winter Olympics presented the largest and heaviest medals ever awarded to athletes: {{convert|100|mm|abbr=on}} diameter, {{convert|4|mm|abbr=on}} thick and weighing {{convert|324|g|abbr=on}}.

Medals were awarded in 17 events contested in four sports (eight disciplines).

• {{GamesSport|Bobsleigh|Events=2}}
• {{GamesSport|Ice hockey|Events=1}}
• Skating
• {{GamesSport|Figure skating|Events=3}}
• {{GamesSport|Speed skating|Events=4}}
• Skiing
• {{GamesSport|Alpine skiing|Events=2}}
• {{GamesSport|Nordic skiing}}
• {{GamesSport|Cross-country skiing|Events=3}}
• {{GamesSport|Nordic combined|Events=1}}
• {{GamesSport|Ski jumping|Events=1}}

• Military patrol
• Ice stock sport

{{Main|Venues of the 1936 Winter Olympics}}

• Große Olympiaschanze – Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Ski Jumping.
• Gudiberg – Alpine skiing (combined – slalom)
• Kreuzjoch – Alpine skiing (combined – downhill)
• Kreuzeck – Alpine skiing (downhill finish line)
• Olympia-Kunsteisstadion – Figure skating and Ice hockey
• Riessersee and surrounding areas – Bobsleigh, Ice hockey, and Speed skating

A total of 28 nations sent athletes to compete in Germany. Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, Liechtenstein, Spain and Turkey all made their Winter Olympics debut, and Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia returned after having missed the 1932 Winter Olympics.

{{Main|1936 Winter Olympics medal table}}

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-09482, Sonja Henie.jpg figure skater Sonja Henie]]

{{Medals table

| caption =

| host = GER

| show_limit =

| remaining_text =

| flag_template = flagIOC

| event = 1936 Winter

| team =

| gold_NOR = 7 | silver_NOR = 5 | bronze_NOR = 3

| gold_GER = 3 | silver_GER = 3 | bronze_GER = 0 | host_GER = yes

| gold_SWE = 2 | silver_SWE = 2 | bronze_SWE = 3

| gold_FIN = 1 | silver_FIN = 2 | bronze_FIN = 3

| gold_SUI = 1 | silver_SUI = 2 | bronze_SUI = 0

| gold_AUT = 1 | silver_AUT = 1 | bronze_AUT = 2

| gold_GBR = 1 | silver_GBR = 1 | bronze_GBR = 1

| gold_USA = 1 | silver_USA = 0 | bronze_USA = 3

| gold_CAN = 0 | silver_CAN = 1 | bronze_CAN = 0

| gold_FRA = 0 | silver_FRA = 0 | bronze_FRA = 1

| gold_HUN = 0 | silver_HUN = 0 | bronze_HUN = 1

}}

{{IOC seealso|games=1936 Winter Olympics }}

• National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise

Notes

{{Notelist}}

Citations

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• {{IOC games|games=1936 Winter Olympics }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070809151326/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1936/1936win.pdf Complete official IOC report. In German]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080720025239/http://www.marcolympics.org/jeux/1936/winter/index.php The program of the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics]

• Berlin Games – How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream, by Guy Walters; {{ISBN|0719567831}} (UK), {{ISBN|0060874120}} (US)

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{{Olympic Games}}

{{Events at the 1936 Winter Olympics}}

{{Nations at the 1936 Winter Olympics}}

{{1936 Winter Olympic venues}}

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Category:Olympic Games in Germany

Category:Winter Olympics by year

Category:1936 in German sport

Category:1936 in multi-sport events

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Category:February 1936 in sports

Category:Winter multi-sport events in Germany

Category:1930s in Bavaria

Category:Sports competitions in Bavaria