The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were held in a tense, politically charged atmosphere. The Nazi Party had risen to power in 1933, two years after Berlin was awarded the Games, and its racist policies led to international debate about a boycott of the Games. An alternative competition, to be called the "People's Olympics," was scheduled for Barcelona, Spain, but this plan was abandoned with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party viewed the Olympics as an opportunity to advance Nazi ideology. Pamphlets and speeches about the natural superiority of the Aryan race were commonplace.

The track-and-field competition starred American Jesse Owens, who won three individual gold medals and a fourth in the 4x100-metre relay. The success of Owens and the other African American athletes, referred to as "black auxiliaries" by the Nazi press, was considered a particular blow to Hitler's Aryan ideals.

Emil Zatopek, Czech long-distance runner, won the gold medal in the 10,000-metre race at the 1948 Olympics in London and three gold medals at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki: in the 5,000- and 10,000-metre races and in the marathon. In Helsinki, he set Olympic records for the 5,000- and 10,000-metre races and ran the fastest marathon ever run to that time.

Zátopek was known as "the bouncing Czech" because of his ungainly running style.

Carl Lewis, American track-and-field athlete, won nine Olympic gold medals during the 1980s and '90s.

At the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Lewis won gold medals in the 100-metre (9.9 sec) and 200-metre (19.8 sec) races, the long jump (8.54 m), and the 4x100-metre relay, where he anchored the U.S. team.

Lewis added two more gold medals and a silver medal at the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, becoming the first Olympic athlete to win consecutive long-jump gold medals with a leap of 8.72 m. Lewis' other gold medal at the 1988 Games came in the 100 metres (9.92 sec), after Canadian Ben Johnson, who had won in world record time (9.79 sec), was disqualified three days later after testing positive for anabolic steroids. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Lewis won two more gold medals, including his third consecutive long-jump title with a leap of 8.67 m. Again anchoring the American 4x100-metre relay team, Lewis won his eighth gold medal as the U.S. team set a world and Olympic record of 37.40 sec.

He won his fourth consecutive long-jump title and ninth gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Paavo Nurmi was track athlete who dominated long-distance running in the 1920s, capturing six gold medals in three Olympic Games (1920, 1924, 1928).

At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerpen, he won the 10,000-metre run and the 10,000-metre cross-country race; at the 1928 Games, in Amsterdam, he took another gold medal in the 10,000-metre run. Most spectacular were his feats at the 1924 Games in Paris. In little more than one hour on July 10, an extremely hot day, he set Olympic records in the 1,500-metre and 5,000-metre runs. Two days later, again in oppressive heat, he repeated his 1920 triumph in the 10,000-metre cross-country race (an event discontinued after 1924), and the following day he finished first in an unofficial 3,000-metre team race that was won by Finland (no medals were awarded).

Bob Beamon, American long jumper, set an impressive world record of 8.90 m at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. He had jumped 55 centimeters farther the existing mark.

Soviet jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan said: "Compared to this jump, we are as children."

Beamon never again came close to matching his record jump. He barely competed between 1970 and '72, saying he had a consistent leg injury.

His world record stood for 23 years, until Mike Powell of the United States surpassed it in 1991.

Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast, the first to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event.

At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Comaneci received seven perfect scores and won the gold medals for the balance beam and the uneven bars.

Mark Spitz, American swimmer, was the first athlete to win seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games.

At the 1972 Games in Munich, Spitz placed first and set world records in all four individual men's events he entered: the 100-metre and 200-metre freestyle, and the butterfly over the same distance. He added three more gold medals as a member of victorious U.S. men's teams (in the 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle relays and the 400-metre medley relay), which also set world records.