In June 1933, the IOC held a meeting in Vienna where delegates from significant countries gathered. A questionnaire emphasized true sportsmanship, highlighting values like playing for the game's sake, team spirit, respect for authority, and fair play above winning. The focus was on whether a true sportsman would prioritize fairness over victory, especially in light of discrimination issues in Germany. Despite being aware of the situation in Germany, the International Committee did not involve itself in a country's internal athletic conditions.
Charles Sherrill was everything a gentleman of his generation was supposed to be: rich, handsome, charming, Ivy-Leagued. He was impossibly well connected and extravagantly mustachioed. He was also the person who, as much as anything, decided whether American athletes would participate in the 1936 Olympics. Faced with one of the great moral dilemmas of the day, America needed the wisdom of Solomon. Instead, it got the wisdom of Sherrill.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.