The Olympic torch's farcical progress has reminded us that carrying the flame from nation to nation was originally devised for the 1936 Berlin Games. Yet few remember that its first outing was also the focus of violent disorder. Surprisingly, it was not those drawing attention to Hitler's human rights record that caused the rumpus. Rather, the demonstrators were Austrian Nazis protesting at the affront of their country's continuing existence.

While runners had carried the torch through Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Hungary without incident, the attempt to hijack its progress began with its arrival in Vienna. Booing drowned out the welcoming speech of the Austrian Vice-Chancellor. Scuffles broke out leading to serious injuries. Stink bombs were let off and the police had to mount several charges on the baying agitators. There were 130 arrests. German propaganda blamed the disruption, somewhat implausibly, on “Jewish Marxists who used National Socialist slogans”.

Only a few days earlier three of Austria's brightest medal hopes, the swimmers Ruth Langer, Judith Deutsch and Lucie Goldner, announced their refusal to go to Berlin. All three were Jewish and wanted to protest against Nazi racial policies. The Austrian authorities responded by banning them from all sporting fixtures for two years.

Such controversy could not have been foreseen in 1931 when Berlin won the right to hold the Olympics. Appeals to have the decision rescinded after Hitler's rise to power failed. The International Olympic Committee took the view that the internal politics of the host nation was the IOC's concern only if it led to Jewish competitors being banned from the German team.

Particularly fearing a boycott from the United States, Germany provided guarantees that race would not determine its selection policy. Two German-Jewish émigrés, the fencer Helene Mayer and the high-jumper Gretel Bergmann, were duly selected. However, no sooner had the American athletes boarded their ocean liner than Bergmann, despite being the German joint record holder, was dropped. To add injury to insult, she was replaced by Dora Ratjen, who later admitted that he was a man called Hermann.

Despite having a Jewish father, Mayer agreed to return from California to compete for the Reich if her revoked German citizenship was reinstated. It helped that she was blonde and looked sufficiently Aryan. Upon winning silver, she dutifully raised her arm in the Hitler salute.

By this token gesture to Jewish inclusion, the Berlin Olympics overcame the risk of a serious boycott. Now, with politics again trespassing upon sport, China must be scratching around for something similarly face-saving. Otherwise the most poignant gestures at the Games may not be to Beijing's liking.

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