The International Olympic Committee is under fire for selling a men’s T-shirt commemorating the 1936 Berlin Olympics, hosted by Hitler.
The shirt, featuring the original Berlin 1936 poster art, showed up on the Olympics website with the kind of bland “celebrate humanity” framing that only works if you aggressively forget what a celebration of humanity Berlin 1936 was.
The IOC defended its decision to produce and sell the T-shirt. In a statement sent to CNN, an IOC spokesperson said the Olympic Heritage Collection “celebrates 130 years of Olympic art and design” and features all previous games.
The spokesperson added: “While we of course acknowledge the historical issues of ‘Nazi propaganda’ related to the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, we must also remember that the Games in Berlin saw 4,483 athletes from 49 countries compete in 149 medal events. Many of them stunned the world with their athletic achievements, including Jesse Owens.
“The historical context of these Games is further explained at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. For the 1936 edition, the number of T-shirts produced and sold by the IOC is limited, which is why they are currently sold out.”
Shocking and gross, but welcome to 2026.
I love [hate] the quotes around ‘Nazi propaganda’, which is kind of saying “so called Nazi propaganda”.
I'm with the IOC. You can't just erase history, that's the Trump administrations job.