At the time of the ancient Greeks, the Olympics had the power to stop a war between Sparta and Athens. Today many large European cities are at risk of experiencing an urban guerrilla afternoon during a football game. Sport is almost the same age as the society in which we live, and inevitably reflects its vices and virtues. From Olympia to Baron De Coubertin, to the paralympics for the disabled, many people have looked to sport to improve our world at least a little and spread principles such as tolerance and integration. There are many individual stories of men and women, famous and otherwise, who have won real personal battles thanks to their competitive efforts. But there has always been someone who does not think so. Sometimes this someone is racist.

An emblematic case was that of the 1936 Olympics. Berlin was to be the city of the Olympic games already in 1916, but the First World War blocked the preparation work. After the war Germany - officially declared the main responsible for the war - was excluded from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was only readmitted in 1925. Germany had become a democratic republic and Berlin ran, together with 12 other cities, again to host the Olympic games in 1936. In 1931 two cities remained in the competition: Berlin and Barcelona and the IOC voted with 43 votes in favor of Berlin , against 16 for Barcelona, ​​with 8 abstentions. Josef Goebbels, Hitler's government's propaganda minister, was the first to understand that the Olympic games in Berlin could become a great opportunity for Nazi Germany to increase its international prestige and silence many internal criticisms. Until then, there was no regular TV broadcast in any country and technology was still being tested, but Nazis did everything they could to make Germany the first country to make it possible to watch the Olympics on television too. Hitler did everything he could to show the world not only perfect and spectacular games, but also a Germany which under his leadership must have seemed a peaceful, tolerant and flourishing country.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics were important because the world was at war and Hitler needed to show off. He not only wanted to promote the image of his government, but also to demonstrate his theory that Aryans were superior to blacks and Jews. He went so far as to say that the two racial groups should not have participated in the Olympic Games, but after other nations had threatened to boycott the Olympics, he withdrew this proposal. In fact, during the games all propaganda against Jews ceased and all discriminatory signs and writings were eliminated - to reappear shortly thereafter. To reassure the critical voices, the government publicly guaranteed free access to the games for everyone, including Jews. From a sporting point of view these Olympics were a great success for the

German athletes who conquered first place in the medal ranking for the first time, with 33 gold medals, 26 silver medals and 30 bronze medals, ahead of the United States and Hungary.

The big star of these Olympics was the American Jesse Owens who won 4 gold medals (in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump). Hitler was not very happy that Jesse Owens, an African-American black athlete, was in those days the center of attention around the world, also because he blatantly contradicted his theory of the superiority of the Aryan race. Hitler tried in every way to exploit the echo of a magnificent sporting event such as the Olympiad to make propaganda, but did not do well with that boy who eclipsed the Führer and who will link his name forever to sport and storytelling of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Jesse Owens won the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the 4 × 100 relay and the long jump. The latter was the success that made him enter the story where Jesse managed to beat Long, a German athlete in whom Hitler placed all hope of triumph in athletics, jumping 8.60 m against the 7.87 of the German and thus won his second title . It was a checkmate for Hitler, certainly the Führer could not know that it was his "winning bet" that betrayed him by fraternizing with his rival. The two athletes became friends, but a few years later Long was called to arms after being employed for a long time in a sports office in Berlin. During an American counterattack, in July 1943, he was shot dead near the airport of Santo Pietro in Sicily. He was only thirty years old, a small story that faded in the shadow of the immortal one of Jesse. He fell in the same way as many other soldiers, without noise, Long died in silence, was thrown into a mass grave which later became a mausoleum to the fallen soldiers. The man who a few years earlier was to be the symbol of German power was immediately forgotten. While Jesse, the hero of that Olympiad, never gave much importance to his medals, which were not even recognized at home with the respect they deserved.

In light of what has happened, what should emerge and be there of teaching, it is not so much the solidarity between two athletes who despite the competition have managed to create a relationship of friendship and complicity, but the strength of Long, capable of going against the stereotypes desired by the historical moment.

Despite the propaganda and despite being in a favorable situation for the media of the time, the German, Aryan athlete, emblem of perfection, was able to recognize in his opponent the qualities useful to achieve the goal. Against any attempt at discrimination implemented by the regime of the time, this is a clear example of how it is possible, if you want, to deconstruct the paradigms imposed by a society that wants us against each other.

Yet there is something more: somehow it seems that sport catalyses the best and worst of this cultural clash. The competitive competitions have had, for the full integration of African Americans, an importance comparable to that of the preachings of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: today a character like Micheal Jordan is an authentic totem of national unity, and his return to the fields The game was experienced by the Americans as one of the first moments of rebirth after the Twin Towers tragedy. Another black like Tiger Woods has become the most beloved golf champion, perhaps the most elite and in some ways snobbish discipline on the American scene. Also in other countries there are bright examples. In South Africa, the decline of apartheid has also gone by sport: if once upon a time football was reserved for blacks and rugby for whites, now the respective national teams are decidedly "mixed". The first ebony giants entered the melee packs of the glorious Springboks, while the African Football Cup, won in front of special fan Nelson Mandela, was an unforgettable popular celebration of national reconciliation. Another nice page was written at the Sydney Olympics by Cathy Freeman, the Australian athlete of Aboriginal origin. After a difficult childhood and a few crooked years following the first successes, the 400m Olympic gold finally rewarded his pride and that of an entire population. The other side of this planet however frightens: right here in Europe, sport (and football in particular) seems to be one of the favorite stages of violent and racist. The phenomenon of ultrà has now been studied and described from every angle. The extreme xenophobic right has its strongholds in the curves of the stadiums: the display of swastikas and Celtic crosses, the howls of ridicule towards the colored athletes (the now sadly famous "monkey's way") are the bad frame of many games. Sport and racism, unfortunately, have not yet stopped crossing. And they are almost always dangerous crossings.