Olympic GOLD - A piece of tangible history

As we approach the Olympic Games which are being held in Paris this year, Year 10 History classes have been reminded of the 11th Games which took place in Berlin in 1936.

Freddie Wolff (the great grandfather of five recent Chase students) won the 4 x 400 meter relay race with the Americans coming second and Germany third. Two direct descendants of Freddie are in Years 10 and 12 at The Chase. Mr Jackson brought in the Olympic Gold Medal for the class to see, along with the original numbers and photos of the team, and a photo of Jessie Owens (who ran in the American team).

The 1936 Olympic Games were held in Germany when the Nazi Party were in power and Hitler was present when this race was run. Jessie Owens was a black American who won four Gold medals in 1936 – 100m, 200m, 100m relay and long jump as well as the silver racing against Freddie Wolff’s relay team.

The Nazi’s held unpalatable views on racial superiority and Jessie Owens has become something of an icon in Black History. Despite his success in Berlin, even when returning to the USA he faced discrimination because of his skin colour. Mr Jackson’s father-in-law (Freddie’s son who looks after the Gold Medal) told the following story: At the party for the returning teams at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, Jessie Owens was forced to use the servant’s lift - he said that this was the most difficult thing for him in the whole story.

One of Freddie’s great grandchildren, who is autistic, Daniel Wolff, will be competing for Great Britain in Sweden in June at the Virtus European Athletics Championships and in the UK Athletics Championship in Manchester in the same month in the Ambulant Paralympic class. He has also ran for GB in the Special Olympics.