Olympic Flame
 

Branislav Simić carrying the Olympic flame for the 1972 Games in Munich

The Olympic flame was, for the first time, symbolically lit in Amsterdam at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium, and it also burned at the Coliseum Stadium during the Los Angeles Games. However, it was not the authentic Olympic flame as we now understand the flame lit in ancient Olympia in Greece. It was only in 1936, for the Berlin Games, that the rules of the “games with the flame” lasting until the present were made. The idea of a Berlin professor, Carl Diem, concerning the lighting of the Olympic flame by the sun’s rays in Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games of the ancient Greece, and a torch relay to Berlin was introduced to the IOC by the president of the German National Olympic Committee, Theodor Lewald, and it was immediately accepted. The idea was previously, the story has it, approved by the German Propaganda Minister, Dr Joseph Goebbels.

Carried by the runners and rowers, the torch passed through Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria and Germany. It travelled 3,422 kilometres (which was also the number of the torchbearers), and the final torchbearer was athlete Fritz Schilgen.
The Olympic flame passed through Yugoslavia three times – for the 1936 Games in Berlin, the 1972 Games in Munich and, obviously, for the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo.
The most dramatic passage was the first one and it was caused by a Resolution signed by one hundred most distinguished athletes and public figures calling for the boycott of the Berlin Games.
“We, the Yugoslav athletes, are aware of the meaning and role of the Olympic Games in Germany and its organisation. We are aware of the commercial-warring meaning of the sport that will be practised at the Berlin Games. Therefore we call upon all those athletes from every part of Yugoslavia, who care not only about the sporting fame, but also about proper understanding of the sporting ideals, to refuse to participate at the Berlin Games, together with all sports forums, organisations and clubs…” stated the Resolution signed by one hundred athletes, sports workers and citizens, the footballers being the most numerous among them. The Resolution written by Vladimir Dedijer, and approved by Ivo Lola Ribar, was signed by Aleksandar Tirnanić, Jovan Mikić, engineer Milorad Arsenijević, Dr Milutin Ivković, Đorđe Lojančić, Dragoš Stevanović, Gustav Lehner, Đorđe Vujadinović, Nikola Bošković, Vojin Božović, Angelina Gajić, Izolda Brezovšek and many others...
The full text of the signed Resolution was featured in the daily newspaper “Politika” on 5 April 1936, following a true feat of its journalists and editors who had managed to outwit the censorship. It resulted in demonstrations in many places the flame passed through. The most serious and most definitely not peaceful were the protests in Banjaluka, where the police had to intervene in order to save the Olympic torch.
However, as soon as 10 April, the Yugoslav Sports Associations Council announced that Yugoslavia would participate in the Berlin Games. However, not everybody did travel to the German capital. The majority of the Yugoslav national football team refused to leave for Berlin and the Yugoslav Football Association decided not to compete in the Games.