by Max Howell
As it was soon 1936 it did not take much family discussion about going to the Olympic Games at Berlin. The most excited was Helene, who had been brought up with stories of her in their arms and the nurse at the 1932 Games. She talked on and on about the Olympics, and Joanne would read the swimming news to her from the newspapers. The University championships (NCAA) were held first, and then the AAU, or open championships, before the USA Olympic team was announced for the 1936 Games. Despite being only five years of age, Helene already had her heroes and heroines. Swimming, and the Olympic Games, had become important parts of her life. Secretly, the parents already hoped that Helene’s interests would continue, because it had become clear that Olympic representation for her was a distinct though distant possibility. After 1936 the 1940 Games would be in Tokyo. She would be 9 then, in 1944 she should be 13, and in 1948 some 17 years of age. Who, however, could predict what Helene’s goals might be in the future? What Joanne and Henry were convinced about was that her interest was a healthy one, and they were simply happy with that.
The parents decided that they would make arrangements to travel overseas with the USA Olympic team, and made their bookings accordingly. This would provide a unique opportunity for Helene to become acquainted with those she admired.
Though they had decided to go to Berlin in 1936, the world scene since the 1932 Games had deteriorated. Japan had invaded Manchuria; Italy had conquered Ethiopia; Spain was on the brink of civil war; political disunion was rife in Austria, France and Greece; the USSR threatened both China and Japan; and Nazism had quietly spread its tentacles into Spain and Italy. Anti-semitism was gaining alarming momentum in Germany, and official anti-Jewish sentiment was becoming blatantly obvious. Many nations threatened to boycott the Games because of this; some had already withdrawn, though reportedly 49 nations would still compete.
In the USA, there was such a strong anti-Nazi sentiment that the American Olympic Committee agreed, only by the narrowest of margins – one vote actually – to participate in the Berlin Games. Avery Brundage, the then czar of amateurism in the USA, was sent to Germany to investigate the situation, and he wrote after the visit:
‘We have obtained every assurance from both political and sport leaders in Germany that the Games will be held according to all the rules and regulations of amateur sport. As a matter of fact, sport leaders have obtained so far as I know the first and only concession that has been made by the Nazi authorities in connection with the so-called ‘Aryan problem’… Boycotts are un-American, and undemocratic.’
Both Joanne and Henry realised that Adolph Hitler saw the Olympic Games primarily as a vehicle for propaganda, and as a way of making other nations, indirectly at least, acknowledge the Nazi regime by their very presence. The Games would also demonstrate to the world, the Germans felt, the superiority of the Aryan race, as well as the might of the ‘new’ Germany.
It soon became obvious to all that the Games were most certainly going to be used as a magnificent showpiece for the Third Reich. Some $30 million was spent by Germany on the Games, the overall facilities exceeding those of Los Angeles. The magnificent Stadium, originally built for the cancelled 1916 Games, was expanded to accommodate more than 100,000 spectators. The Stadium was only one part of the large new sports complex called the ‘Reichs-sportfeld’, which was the largest complex ever constructed in the world up to this time for sport. Included in this complex were sport halls, swimming pools, playing fields, offices and parking lots. Henry had read that the Germans had come up with the idea of an Olympic Caravan, which consisted of four Mercedes trucks, carrying the Olympic message to rural Germans.
On the ship going over to Germany on the SS Manhattan, the five-year-old Helene was virtually adopted by the USA team, who saw this pretty youngster obviously hero-worshipping them. She knew the names of most of the swimmers and some in track and field. There was a small pool on board, and though a trifle cool the USA team would warm up in it, and Helene would dive in and join them. They would often play with her in the pool, and when they exercised on the ship’s deck she would try to imitate them. Everyone who walked past her on the ship would pat her on the head and have a conversation with her. One sensation occurred on the ship as Eleanor Holm, the gold medallist in 1932, was thrown off the team for keeping irregular hours and having a glass of champagne. Helene knew there was something wrong, as she saw Eleanor crying, but her parents found it difficult to explain the circumstances to her.
When in Berlin, the three of them stayed at the new Olympic Hotel, which was close to the Stadium. Helene could talk of nothing else but the Games.
They were soon at the Opening Ceremony. A packed Stadium cheered the entry of Adolf Hitler into the Olympic Stadium and a 3000 member chorus, directed by Richard Strauss, sang the German National Anthem and the Olympic Hymn. A huge bell, called the Olympic Bell, weighing over 14 tonnes, rang out its carefully prescribed message: “I summon the youth of the world!” At the last clang, the first of the athletes entered the Stadium for the March Past. The huge airship, the Hindenberg, hovered over the Stadium, with the Olympic flag flying from it. Helene waved a USA flag, and kept saying: “There’s Jesse! There’s Katherine!” On and on she went.
After a 21-gun salute, 20,000 doves were released from their cages by the Hitler Youth Corps. Just before the end of the ceremony, the Greek Spiridion Loues, the winner of the first Olympic marathon in 1896, presented Hitler with a branch of wild olive – a symbol of peace – that had been brought all the way from Olympia.
Of all the special effects of the Games that impressed them, the most significant and enduring was the torch relay, the bringing of the Olympic flame from Olympia in Greece to the Stadium for the start of the Games. An elaborate ceremony had taken place at Olympia, as white-robed Greek virgins lit the flame in the ancient site using the rays of the sun. This Olympic flame was then carried by a relay of 3000 runners through Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Berlin. At the Opening Ceremony the torch lit the Olympic flame, which burned throughout the Games period. This was the first time this had happened at an Olympic Games and afterwards became a regular feature.
The USA athletes, as always, dominated the track and field, winning eleven gold medals. The first gold medal of the Games however was to the German Hans Woelke in the shot put, which was Germany’s first medal in athletics since 1896. The mainly German crowd was ecstatic, as it reinforced Hitler’s notion of the superiority of the Aryan race. Hitler brought Woelke up to his box to personally congratulate him.
The high jump was also one of the first track events to be completed. It was won by the USA black athlete Cornelius Johnson, and to avoid congratulating him Hitler showed his racial bias by leaving the Stadium.
It was ironic that the hero of the Berlin Games would be Jesse Owens, a black American, who had often talked to Helene on the boat. A superb athlete, quiet and unassuming, perhaps the greatest Olympian ever, he won three individual gold medals, in the 100m, 200m and long jump, and a fourth gold as a member of the USA 4x 100m relay team. One of the most enthralling stories of the Games had to do with Owens and his long jump performance. Owens had fouled in his first two attempts, and if he fouled a third time he would have been disqualified. The German jumper, Lutz Long, was leading the event at this point. He gave advice to Owens regarding his take-off. Owens followed the suggestion and jumped to a new world record. Owens was not the only black American to perform well. John Woodruff won the 800m, Ralph Metcalf was second in the 100m and Mark Robinson in the 200m. Cornelius Johnson, as mentioned, won the high jump, with David Albritton second. Their dominance was so great that one day of the Games was referred to as ‘Black Tuesday’. The German press called them black auxiliaries, and some papers even refused to record their feats.
One of the most exciting races for the Luces was the 1500m, with the American Glenn Cunningham a clear favourite. Other notables in the field were Jack Lovelock, of New Zealand, Italy’s Luigi Beccali, the reigning
Olympic champion, and Great Britain’s John Cornes. Lovelock, a medical student, surprisingly charged ahead in the final lap to finish in world record time. The next four runners broke the existing world record.
In the swimming pool Japan continued its 1932 successes, winning 10 of the possible 17 medals in the men’s events, and one in the women’s. It was in diving where the American dominance continued.
It was somewhat disappointing for the USA swimming team. Among the men, the 22-year-old from the Washington Athletic Club of Seattle, Jack Medica, was the hero. In the 400m freestyle, he set a new World’s and Olympic record. Medica drew a lane between the Japanese swimmers Uto and Makino, and he was behind in the last lap before starting his sprint to win sensationally by eight feet. He also came a creditable second to Norburu Terada of Japan in the 1500m freestyle.
In swimming the other USA winner was the massive Adolph Kiefer in the 100m backstroke. Helene was cheering him on, as he had regularly stopped to talk to her on the SS Manhattan coming over.
In the 4 x 200m freestyle, which was usually dominated by American swimmers, Japan romped home easily, with the USA second.
American pride was restored somewhat in the diving events. Richard Degener, Marshall Wayne and Al Greene completed a clean sweep in springboard diving, and Marshall Wayne and Albert Root came 1-2 in high diving.
Helene was disappointed with the Women’s Team, as she knew most of them intimately, and to her school-girlish mind they would be invincible in the pool. It was the Dutch team that was foremost, however, winning all but one final, the 200m breaststroke, won by Hideko of Japan.
The heroine of the Games was Hendrika Mastenbroek, the magnificent Dutch swimmer. She almost matched Jesse Owens’ feat, winning three gold medals in the 100m, the 400m and the 4 x 100m relay. She was also second in the 100m backstroke won by her team-mate Dina Senff.
It was in the 400m women’s swim relay that the American team was shocked. They could only manage third, behind Holland and Germany. It was the first time that America had ever lost the event since American swimmers started to compete in the Olympic Games of 1920 at Antwerp. Helene however was pleased to see them mount the podium to receive their third place medals, as she knew them all, Katherine Rawls, Bernice Lapp, Mavis Freeman and Olive McKean.
However Helene had something to be ecstatic over, as the women duplicated what the men had done in diving. In the springboard event, it was 1-2-3 for the USA, with Marjorie Gestring, followed by Katherine Rawls and Dorothy Poynton Hill. In high diving, it was Dorothy Poynton Hill first, and Velma Dunn second.
On the afternoon of August 16, the three of them sat with 110,000 others to watch the Closing Ceremony. Many were drawn by the attraction of the Equestrian ‘Prix des Nations’ (Jumping Event) before the Games was formally concluded.
The Closing Ceremony began when the Olympic Band broke the silence of the huge multitude with a stirring march reminiscent of the parade of nations on the opening day. From the tunnel on the west end of the Stadium emerged the bearer of the banner of Greece leading all of the other nations into the Stadium in alphabetical order. At the Closing Ceremony only those carrying the banners and flags of their respective countries appeared. They marched down the straightaway and came to a stop in front of the Tribune of Honour.
By this time darkness had fallen and in the shadows, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Count Henri de Baillet-Latour, called upon the youth of the world to assemble in four years time at Tokyo, there to celebrate the Games of the XIIth Olympiad. As his words were spoken to the silent assemblage, the large Olympic flag was slowly lowered from the central mast and distant cannons roared in a farewell salute.
Count Baillet-Latour then turned the Olympic flag over to Mayor Lippert of the City of Berlin, to be held in that City Hall until the 1940 Olympic Games at Tokyo.
Trumpets were sounded and a farewell song was heard while the flags and banners were carried back to the tunnel, with the great five-ringed Olympic flag bringing up the rear of the procession. The Olympic torch was slowly extinguished and the saddened spectators, Helene and her family among them, gradually wended their way out of the Stadium long past nine o’clock in the evening.
When the Games were over, the five-year-old Helene turned and said emphatically to her parents: “I will swim for America in the Olympic Games when I am old enough.”
Henry in particular was taken aback at how adamant their daughter was. “Helene”, he cautioned, “that is a very worthy goal, and we would be happy for you to do that. But it will take a lot practice on your part, a lot of commitment, and maybe a slice of luck.”
She stuck her jaw out, and replied: “Whatever I have to do, I will do. I want to make the Olympic team and, Mum and Dad, can we come to all the Games from now on? I just love the atmosphere. I have never been so excited. I loved every minute of it. Thanks for bringing me. I am still so excited.”
“Well”, interrupted Joanne, “like your father I approve of your interest in swimming, and who knows what will happen if you set your mind to it? It is hard to believe this is your second Olympics, as you were less than a year old when we carried you as a baby to the Los Angeles Games. Also, young lady, if it is at all possible we will take you to all the Olympic Games we can.”
“Thanks, Mum and Dad, I just hate to wait four years for the next one. Let me see, I will be 9 years of age then, and 13 at the one after. So my age three Olympics from now will be 17. Is that right, Mummy?”
“Yes, darling, you will be 17 then.”
“I will be there, Mum and Dad, and hopefully as part of the team.”
“We shall see, Helene, we shall see.”
When they talked privately about their visit to the Games, Henry and Joanne felt that a European war was imminent. They had talked to many people in Berlin about Germany’s re-armament and their notion of a super race, and about the anti-Jewish stance that was obvious in Germany, all of which had been deliberately put under the carpet for the period of the Games. They found an English copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and read it, and Hitler’s intentions were there for them to see. It had only been 18 years since Germany had been badly beaten in the First World War, and yet they seemed incredibly to be on the march again.
It would be some time before they would see another Olympic Games. War broke out in Europe in 1939, though the USA did not enter until the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1942. The two main protagonists in the war were Japan and Germany. Ironically the 1936 Games were in Berlin, and the 1940 Games were to be held in Tokyo. The 1944 Games were to be in London.
Because of the war, Helene was to miss seeing her next two Olympic Games, but she never wavered in her primary goal. From the age of 15 onwards she made her mark in national swimming competitions, in all the freestyle events. She swam daily at the Berkeley Women’s City Club under the new University of California swimming coach George Schroth, and her parents extended their pool at Berkeley to 50m so she could train at home at the Olympic distance.
Helene had developed into a beautiful woman by the time she was 17, with lustrous black hair similar to her namesake, Helene Schliemann. A brilliant student, she was dux of her school at Summerhill College, a private school for girls. She only dated a few times on formal occasions, like the Graduation Ball. There were suitors aplenty who asked her out, but she politely declined each time. She had two ambitions, one related to her success in school and the other was a virtual obsession, to make the USA Olympic Swimming Team.
She was 16 when she graduated from high school. Her 17th year was left free to concentrate on Olympic selection. She was pleased to know that, despite the ravages of war, the Games were to be awarded to London.
The final Olympic try-outs for the swimmers were held in Detroit on July 8 to 11 in 1948. This is what she had aimed for, and she was nervous, as Olympic trials over the years had always produced some long-shots. Past performances meant nothing, and Olympic selection was only attained by a place in the top three in
a final. A disqualification, like false starts, would shatter her dream, and though she knew many of the swimmers, there were also in the field a bunch of unknowns, from collegiate ranks and even high school ranks.
The events for women were limited in those days. There was the 100 metres freestyle, 200 metres breaststroke, 100 metres backstroke, 400 metres freestyle and 400 metres (4 x 100) freestyle relay. There were two other events, the women’s springboard diving and the women’s highboard diving. So there were only seven events. She was entered in the 100 and 400 metres freestyle. She won the 100m in these final trials, and was fourth in the 400m. So her dream had been fulfilled.
Although it was a foregone conclusion Helene was moved to tears, as was Henry and Joanne, when she was officially informed of her Olympic selection in the 100m and the 4 x 100m freestyle relay. “I have planned for this all my life”, a relieved Helene told her parents.
“We know only too well, young lady, and you did it all by yourself”, her father said.
“That’s not quite true”, replied Helene, “it was you two who introduced me to the Olympic Games, and it was you both who provided all the help that I have received, and I will always be grateful.”
“But you were the one who actually did it”, interrupted Joanne, “it could not have been done without your single-minded commitment. We are so happy for you. One’s dreams are not always realised in this life.”
“All that is true, Mum, but I do remember you telling me that Daddy was the man of your dreams, and he married you. So your dreams have been realised too.”
