Defying Hitler And Jostling For Goering’S Autograph

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[img]http://blogs.reuters.com/india//files/2012/06/cr_mega_729_olympicsstory.jpg[/img]

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[*][size=4]The Dutch broke his stick hoping to find a hidden magnet[/size]
[*][size=4]The Japanese suspected his stick was coated with glue[/size]
[*][size=4]Cricket legend Don Bradman gushed — “He scores goals like runs in cricket”[/size]
[*][size=4]Adolf Hitler was so impressed with him that he offered him German citizenship and a post in the army[/size]
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[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]If an athlete’s greatness is measured by the number of apocryphal stories about him or her, hockey wizard [/size][/font][/color][font="arial, helvetica, sans"][color="#006e97"][size=4]Dhyan Chand[/size][/color][/font][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4] is in a league of his own.[/size][/font][/color][/b][/size][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
Before every Olympic Games, India indulges in nostalgia about its hockey heyday and revisits the folklore around arguably the greatest hockey player ever.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
One such story is about the [b]controversy Dhyan Chand[/b] and the entire Indian contingent created by [b]refusing to salute Adolf Hitler[/b] at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
In their book “Olympics: The India Story” (Harper Sports), authors Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta shed some light on the episode.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
“The Indians were the only contingent, apart from the Americans, to not perform the raised-arm salute as a mark of respect for the German chancellor,” they wrote in what is considered the first comprehensive book on India’s Olympic history.[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans][size=4]
“… it was a political act, breathtaking in its audacity, in direct opposition to most other contingents at the Games, including the British,” they wrote in the revised edition of the book which was released recently.[/size][/font][/color]