MADE THE LAW, MADE THE TRAP (PART 3)

April 2, 2022

Con las botas puestas

TASIO MUÑOZ

Gestor Deportivo y Maestro de Educación Física

MADE THE LAW, MADE THE TRAP (PART 3)

        1936 Berlin Olympic Games. We all think of the great Jesse Owens, winner of the 100 m, 200 m, 4x100 m and long jump, without a doubt one of the best athletes in history, in addition to everything that was generated around his figure and that of Adolf Hitler. But today, our protagonist will be Dora Ratjen, born in Erichsof in 1918, who at the age of 17 was the representative of the Germans in the high jump test, replacing Gretel Bergmann, German-Jewish, who at that time She was the best jumper, but of course, due to her Jewish condition, she did not have the approval of the Nazi regime, which had been in charge of scrupulously cleaning the selection that represented them.
        At a sporting level, Dora was at the gates of the medals, occupying fourth place in said Games; two years later, in 1938, he managed to break the high jump world record at the European Championships in Vienna (1.70 m.). It must be said that at that time, the technique most used by high jump athletes was the ventral roll or rib roll, the technique currently used, Fosbury style, began to be practiced after the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
        On the way back from the aforementioned European Championships, when Dora was traveling on the train, the inspector was suspicious of her physical appearance, thinking that she could be a transvestite, something totally prohibited in Nazi Germany, and sounded the alarm to an officer. of the SS who made the athlete get out to clarify this aspect. A medical examination was carried out, determining that he was a man, and he was detained by the German military.

        She was accused of fraud and all her records and medals were annulled, including the last gold she had achieved, that of Vienna.
        Dora was a medical case; he had been born with a malformation in his sexual organs (hypospadias) in addition to micropenis and cryptorchidism (during the formation of the sexual organs, the testicles do not descend). Since her birth there were doubts about her sex, but her parents thought she was a girl, even when she was 9 months old, a doctor confirmed it.
        In 1939, Dora changed her sex at registration and was renamed Heinrich Ratjen.
        In 1966, Time magazine published some statements by our protagonist, where she came to say that everything was a setup by the Nazis, who forced her to cross-dress, to prevent a Jewish woman from winning gold: "Not even hermaphroditism (excuse used then) or nothing. I have always been a man, but the Nazi regime, obsessed with winning a medal, forced me to compete as a woman. This reporting led to the film ´Berlin 36´, filmed in 2009, the year after the death of Dora Ratjen or… should I say Heinrich Ratjen?