Glickman’s Complaint Doesn’t Get Sympathy

Marty Glickman’s bitter claim that he and Sam Stoller were taken off the 1936 gold-medal sprint relay team because of their heritage is ridiculous.

Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe and Frank Wykoff finished 1-2-3 in the 100 at the U.S. Olympic trials and Foy Draper was fourth. Selecting the four fastest 100 runners to make up the 400 relay team makes sense. Their exclusion wasn’t based on racism, just the ego-free reality that comes from a stopwatch. Glickman and Stoller were simply slower runners. Which of those U.S. runners should have been taken off the relay team so two slower guys (who happened to be Jewish) could run?

PATRICK LANCASTER

Glendale