France took part in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin with a delegation of 201 athletes, including 190 men and 11 women. At just twelve years old, Noël Vandernotte , who won two bronze medals as a rower, was the youngest participant. The sailor Pierre Arbaut was the oldest participant at the age of 60.
With seven gold medals and six silver or bronze medals each, France and Finland took fifth place in the medal table . The weightlifter Louis Hostin also set an Olympic record when he lifted a total of 372.50 kg in the light heavyweight class .
After the takeover of the Nazis , especially the United States and France protested against the hosting of the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany. This was based primarily on the apparent anti-Semitism and the establishment of the first concentration camps for political opponents. However, after the Amateur Athletic Union in the United States voted in favor of the Games, boycott efforts were also dropped in other countries, including France. Indeed, under the Jewish Prime Minister Léon Blum, the French government subsidized France's participation.
France was all the more shocked at the opening ceremony: Together with the teams from Bulgaria , Italy and Austria , the French delegation decided to show the Hitler salute and received thunderous applause from the stands. This sparked international protests, whereupon France's sports officials talked their way out by claiming that their athletes had shown the Olympic salute that looked exactly the same. The gesture was later used by Leni Riefenstahl for her film Olympia .
↑ "Everyone is enthusiastic" . In: Der Spiegel . tape5 , January 28, 1980, p.123 ( spiegel.de [accessed on March 8, 2018]).
^ Detlef Wienecke-Janz: The great chronicle of world history: National Socialism and World War II: [1933 - 1945]. Vol. 16 . Wissenmedia Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-577-09076-6 , p.162 ( google.de [accessed on March 8, 2018]).
↑ Antonia Kleikamp: Dispute about the Queen: Who else has used the Hitler salute . In: THE WORLD . July 20, 2015 ( welt.de [accessed March 8, 2018]).
↑ Erik Eggers: Reception of the Olympic Games 1936: Fit with the Hitler salute . In: The daily newspaper: taz . August 3, 2011, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed March 8, 2018]).