Helene Mayer, a talented fencer whose father was Jewish, was selected to represent Germany at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin only after considerable political wrangling. The International Olympic Committee insisted that a Jewish athlete be placed on the German team as proof that Jews were not being denied the opportunity to compete, and the German Olympic Committee, which was then under the control of Nazi Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten, was hesitant to make such a concession. Only under threat of a cancellation of the Games did Germany finally allow Mayer, a statuesque blonde with a Christian mother,