美国国家公共电台 NPR Black U.S. Olympians Won In Nazi Germany Only To Be Overlooked At Home

Black U.S. Olympians Won In Nazi¹ Germany Only To Be Overlooked At Home

ALLISON AUBREY, HOST:

Eighty years ago this month, the U.S. competed in the Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany.

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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: On their way to the Olympic Games in Berlin on the USS Manhattan are the best of American athletes.

AUBREY: The best of American athletes in the 1936 newsreel was Jesse Owens. But he wasn't the only black athlete representing the U.S. There were 17 others. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang tells us more about their stories.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE²: What 17 of the 18 African-American Olympians did in Berlin has largely been forgotten.

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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: First, Johnson, America. Second, Albritton, America.

WANG: Cornelius Johnson was the 1936 gold medalist in the men's high jump. Dave Albritton won silver. Another silver medalist that year was one of Jackie Robinson's older brothers, Mack, and future U.S. Congressman³ Ralph Metcalfe brought home two medals. Altogether, they won 14 medals, eight of them gold.

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JOHN WOODRUFF: Determination. That's what it takes - a lot of fire in the stomach.

WANG: During a 1996 oral history interview for the U.S. Holocaust⁴ Memorial Museum, gold medalist John Woodruff spoke⁵ about winning the men's 800-meter race in Adolf Hitler's Germany.

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WOODRUFF: It was very definitely a special feeling in winning the gold medal and being a black man. We destroyed his master race theory whenever we start winning those gold medals.

WANG: Unlike Woodruff, two Jewish athletes on the U.S. team did not get a shot at winning any medals. They were benched at the last minute.

The same thing happened to Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes in 1932 when they became the first black women to qualify for the U.S. team, but were later replaced with white runners. Pickett and Stokes were eager to finally compete in Berlin until Pickett broke her foot during a semifinal race, and Stokes was replaced again with a white teammate.

DEBORAH RILEY DRAPER: I think she could have been the first black woman to bring home a gold medal for America.

WANG: Deborah Riley Draper wrote, directed and produced a new documentary called "Olympic Pride, American Prejudice." It includes another story of disappointment, involving American boxer⁶ Howell King. He was sent home from Berlin by the U.S. boxing team manager, supposedly because of homesickness. Draper says King suspected the manager wanted to replace him with a white boxer.

DRAPER: Howell King himself said, I didn't quit. I took a 10-day boat to Berlin. Why would I quit and want to go all the way back to Detroit?

WANG: All of the African-American athletes at the 1936 Olympics should be remembered, Draper says, not just Jesse Owens.

DRAPER: It was easier to tell the story of one African-American because that's an anomaly. But 18 - that's a lot for Jim Crow newspapers to want to report on.

WANG: For many of the 18, living in a racially integrated Olympic Village in Berlin was a high point they would never come close to again.

DRAPER: They were Olympic athletes when they were on the medal stand. When they came back home to a segregated⁷ America, they came back to being negroes.

WANG: Some entered academia. Others held elected office. Many struggled to establish stable careers, including Jackie Robinson's brother Mack, a silver medalist in the 200-meter dash who once used his Olympic jacket to keep warm while working as a street sweeper.

Still, they all represented a generation of pioneers who chiseled⁸ away at stereotypes⁹, according to Charles Ross, an historian at the University of Mississippi.

CHARLES ROSS: You have to have Jesse Owens and the other 17 African-Americans before you could have John Carlos, Ali, George Foreman.

WANG: Ross says the 18 African-American Olympians of 1936 understood that their dreams had to be limited. Jesse Owens may have won four gold medals in Berlin, but months after he returned home, Owens told a crowd, the president didn't even send a telegram. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News.

1 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

4 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 boxer   

n.制箱者，拳击手

参考例句：

• The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。
• He moved lightly on his toes like a boxer.他像拳击手一样踮着脚轻盈移动。

7 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

8 chiseled   

adj.凿刻的，轮廓分明的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Woltz had chiseled the guy, given him peanuts for the book. 乌尔茨敲了这个作家的竹杠，用了他的书，却只给微不足道的一点点钱。 来自教父部分
• He chiseled the piece of wood into the shape of a head. 他把这块木头凿刻成人头的形状。 来自辞典例句

9 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》