Satish Sekar

Ponga Liwewe, son of Zambia’s greatest commentator, Dennis, is a distinguished football journalist and administrator in his own right. Ponga did not choose footballers as his greatest Olympian, Zambian or international. Zambia’s greatest athlete Samuel Matete was his greatest Zambian Olympian and his choice as greatest ever is Jamaican athletics icon Usain Bolt, undoubtedly one of the sport’s greats.

Sixty years earlier Jesse Owens overcame horrific racism home and abroad to enter Olympic history. His talent and achievements made a mockery of the Third Reich’s claim to be the Master-Race, but he and his black teammates (18 of them) faced appalling racism in the USA too. President Franklin Roosevelt refused to congratulate Owens or other black medal winners despite their great sporting displays, and they discriminated against American Jewish athletes too.

One of the greatest Olympians of all time, American swimmer Mark Spitz was Jewish. After his magnificent haul of seven gold medals in Munich’s Olympic Games of 1972 Spitz had to leave early after fears for his safety following the infamous Black September group that murdered eleven Israeli athletes.

The 32nd Olympic Games of the modern era is underway in Tokyo – nearing its end actually. It is the first to face the challenge of the Coronavirus Pandemic. The Olympic Games is now the greatest sporting event on earth – it wasn’t always that way. But who is the Greatest Olympian and why?