Rings of Berlin 1936

The book sheds light on the destiny of the athletes of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia who refused to raise their right arm to the leader of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, in the Nazi salute at the opening ceremony of the XI Summer Olympics in Berlin in 1936.

Tamara Malešev is an Olympian. She competed at the games in Barcelona in 1992 under the Olympic flag, as a member of the Independent Team because her country, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had been banned from participating due to United Nations sanctions. The Independent Team was not allowed to participate in the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony.

Tamara Malešev (Novi Sad, SFR of Yugoslavia, January 8, 1967) grew up in her hometown of Novi Sad and was a member of the Yugoslavian national athletics team. She set three national records (SFRY) in as many as three events, she was the Mediterranean and Balkan champion in the long jump, placed 4th at the World Indoor Championships in the triple jump, and set a European record for juniors in the high jump. This book, which documents the lives and sports achievements of a particular generation of Olympians, is her first printed account of this type, but Tamara has extensive experience in researching obscure parts of sports history, in particular events relating to athletics. For over ten years she has been the administrator and editor of the very respected and popular Facebook page called the Athletics Federation of Yugoslavia (Atletski savez Jugoslavije). In addition, during the 90s, she worked for a while as a radio reporter for the Novi Sad Pan–Radio where she had the opportunity to cover important events and interview famous athletes. One of her many assignments was to report from the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, where she was also a participant. However, she could compete only as an Independent Olympic participant because the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had been banned from participating due to international sanctions. The team from Yugoslavia was not allowed to participate in the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony, either. She competed in the long jump but failed to qualify for the finals due to a painful injury to her take-off foot. Shortly after the Games she moved to the USA, because of the international sanctions, and stopped competing although she achieved some of her best results during that very period. Throughout her career, she set state records in three disciplines: the long jump with 6.73 meters, the triple jump (13.51 meters), and the indoor high jump with 192 centimeters. The last result was achieved in March 1984 at the European Athletics Championships (where she placed 5th) and since she was just seventeen years old at the time, it became also the European indoor junior record holder. Interestingly, neither she nor the people around her knew about the record because it was not announced. It was only later that the European Athletics Federation acknowledged it when they were summarizing the achievements of the younger categories. Tamara Malešev lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She has a degree in post-Master Studies in Health Sciences and works as a Nurse Practitioner. The material for the book Rings of Berlin 1936, in other words, the stories about the lives of the Olympians from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia who refused to greet Adolf Hitler with the Nazi salute at the opening ceremony of the 11th Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 were collected over a period of many years. Tamara went searching for official documents, photos, news reports, but she also contacted the surviving family members of these heroes. She managed to collect a large number of credible materials, selected and prepared them, and added stories from the private lives of these athletes to be presented to the public, for the first time, in one single volume—an endeavor which had never been attempted before. She had some help from her father, Pavle Malešev, a retired sports journalist and former national team member of the SFRY in the decathlon and long jump, who wrote the entry on Jaša Bakov because he had known Jaša personally. While gathering information for this book, Tamara made numerous new friends not only among athletics fans and among the Olympians’ family members, but also from other walks of life. She would like to take this opportunity and express her deep appreciation for their cooperation one more time.