1924 PARISCitius, Altius, Fortius – faster, higher, stronger. A new Games motto from the Paris Olympic Games taken to heart by Nurmi who ran seven races in six days to win five gold medals. Harold Abrahams, whose triumph was glorified in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, won the 100m. Johnny Weismuller, later to find fame as Tarzan, swam to three gold medals. There was another dramatic increase in the number of athletes with 5,533 from 44 countries.1928 AMSTERDAMFirst time the Olympic flame was used. Germany allowed to compete again. Women were allowed to compete in athletics for the first time and 16-year-old American Betty Robinson's 100m win made her the first women's Olympic champion at track and field. The 800m race sparked off a controversy when several women collapsed. IOC president Count Henri de Baillet-Latour said all women's sports should be excluded from the Olympics and the IAAF banned women from running more than 200m for another 32 years. The anti-feminists overlooked the fact that men often collapse after races. Lina Radke of GermanybeatJapan's Kinue Hitomi, who had been unable to compete in her world record events – the 200m and long jump – since they were not on the programme.1932 LOS ANGELESThe distance and the depression led to the smallest numbers since 1906 although excellent conditions led to every Olympic athletic record except the long jump being broken. Babe Didrikson showed her versatility by winning gold medals in the 80m hurdles, javelin and a silver in the high jump. Officials prevented her from competing in another two events. Japan won five gold medals in men's swimming. Just before the Games, the IOC said Nurmi would not be allowed to run in his fourth Games because he had received too much expenses on trip to Germany in 1929.1936 BERLINAdolf Hitler, who had risen to power since the Los Angeles Games, seized on the idea of using the Olympics as a platform for demonstrating the supposed supremacy of the Aryan races. The torch relay, exploited in Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia, made its first appearance. Germany won only five gold medals in men's track and field but thorough preparation in gymnastics, rowing and equestrian helped them to 89 overall, compared to 56 for the USA. Jesse Owens and the other black American athletes were described by the Nazi press as “black auxilliaries" but his four gold medals and tremendous personality won over ordinary Germans. The IOC said it had been alarmed at the ill-treatment of Jews but would not be drawn into political and other controversies. A Workers' Games, which were proving more popular, came to an end when Franco started the Spanish Civil War. There had been 150,000 at Paris in 1925 and 100,000 at Vienna in 1931.1948 LONDONThe Games had been scheduled for Tokyo in 1940. Germany and Japan were not invited, the Soviet Union decided to stay away, but other Communist countries took part. Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands became the first woman athlete ever to win four medals at a single Games, winning the 100m and 200m, 80m hurdles and anchoring the 4x100m relay. It could have been six – the mother of two did not compete in the high jump or long jump, two of the five events for which she held the world record. Alice Coachman won the women's high jump to become the first black Olympic women's champion. When she returned home to Albany, Georgia, she was not allowed to speak at a town hall reception where the audience was segregated. Bob Mathias won his first Olympic decathlon title at the age of 17.To be continued
