In social networks, publications about the “unexpected” victory of the athlete Zhosi Bartel are popular - the organizers were allegedly so dumbfounded that the orchestra could not play the hymn of the victorious country and sparkled. We checked the reliability of this story.
The details of the events that occurred in the summer of 1952 at the Olympic stadium in Helsinki vary from the source to the source. For example, "Teacher's newspaper" reports: “At the 1952 Games, the athlete from Luxembourg Josie Bartel was the best in a race of 1,500 m. His victory was so unexpected that the organizers of the competition did not even bother to record the anthem of the dwarf state. A group of local musicians came to the rescue, who tried to simulate the melody of the anthem. The attempt was so unsuccessful that the champion standing on the pedestal wrapped his arms around his head and cried. ”
A slightly different interpretation was replicated on VKontakte: “In 1952, Josie Bartel took first place in the Helsinki, setting an Olympic record. The success of the athlete was a complete surprise for the organizers. When it was time to honor the winners, it turned out that there was no recording of the anthem of Luxembourg, and the orchestra improvised. Bartel on the pedestal burst into tears, but not from the joy of victory, but from resentment for his small country. ” The same type of publications with a photograph of Bartel Crying on the pedestal were distributed by many large publics: "5 interesting facts", "History of mankind", Moments of History, World of History, HistoryPorn, "Vintage" and others. In one form or another, users also spoke about Helsinki embarrassment Facebook, Pikabu, Livejournal and other social networks and a blog-platform.
Joseph (Josie) Bartel is a sign figure for Luxembourg. In 1952, he with an Olympic record He ran A distance of 1500 m at the Helsinki Olympics. Before him, only one representative of a small duchy managed to win Olympic gold - this did In 1900, the Teto Michelle, and for a long time, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recorded this medal at the expense of the French national team. Be that as it may, after Bartel, not a single Luxembourg athlete managed to climb the highest level of the Olympic pedestal. In 1973-1977, a former athlete He headed National Olympic Committee of Luxembourg, now his name wear The country's main stadium and a special fund, involved support for young athletes.
We managed to find two rather authoritative sources, which described a story that looks like a plot popular on the Internet. In 2017, the journalist The New York Times Maggie Astor I presented it On the pages of the publication, a selection of embarrassments and conflicts associated with the execution of hymns in various sports competitions. The reason for the appearance of such a material was confrontation President Trump and his administration with American athletes who began to kneel during the performance of the national anthem. Athletes in this way expressed their disagreement with the actions of the police against black Americans. Astor tried to present in a selection different stories on this topic: "From offensive to funny and simply absurd." The first journalist called just the episode with the participation of Bartel: “little has a greater influence on the popular consciousness than the Anderdog triumph. But imagine how it upset when the organizers of the Olympic Games do not even have your national anthem. This is exactly what happened to Josie Bartel from Luxembourg when he won a 1500 m male race at the 1952 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, bypassing Bob Makmillen from the USA and Werner Luega from Germany. Bartel cried on the rostrum when the Olympic orchestra, without the necessary notes, improvised the anthem of his country. "
In 2018, on the official YouTube channel of the IOC I went out The video "Sensational Gold of Bartel", dedicated to the success of the Luxembourg athlete in Helsinki. The salary text, accompanying the personnel of the historical chronicle, reads: “Bartel won the first gold medal for Luxembourg with a new Olympic record. And you know what this means: for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, the whole world had to hear ... the wrong national anthem. The organizers of the Games could not find "Hemecht", the national anthem of Luxembourg. They hardly found the right national flag. This anthem never sounded at the Olympics. ”
Both publications were critically met in the Luxembourg press. The largest newspaper Luxemburger Wort Name The story of the New York Times set forth in the article, which, according to their information, is not true. The video from the IOC got even stronger: at the beginning of the video, its authors showed the historical shots of the duchy, on one of which the Luxemburger Wort did not miss the Luxemburger Wort on one of which the Luxemburger Wort was captured. To criticize The creators of the video for such a mistake. “Of course, the joke could also not be forgotten,” the author of the note summed up, commenting on the story about the episode with Bartel in Helsinki.
Other Luxembourg media, which repeatedly wrote about Bartel, do not directly call the story with the anthem of the “joke”, but they completely ignore it. Examples can be found in publications Tageblatt In 2012, Revue In 2018 and RTL In 2020. It is amazing that the Luxembourgers themselves do not pay any attention to the episode, supposedly overshadowing the moment of the main triumph in the history of Luxembourg sports. It is not said about him and on the IOC website in publicationsdedicated to the victory of Bartel in the Olympic race.
It is significant that until the beginning of the 21st century, the press and popular science literature of the embarrassment with the Luxembourg anthem is practically not mentioned. For example, you can turn to news notes published in July 1952 immediately after Bartel’s victory. These texts describe in detail the forecasts before the competition and the course of the race, but nothing is said about problems with the implementation of the national anthem. Examples can be found in archival publications The New York Times, The Washington Post, Evening Star and other newspapers.
However, relying only on news notes would be naive - the vast majority of journalists probably did not know how the Luxembourg anthem actually sounds, and they could easily not notice anything strange. However, it is suspicious why this story did not become known even a year later, when the US National Olympic Committee Published The traditional release of its Olympic Book, dedicated to Gelsinki games in 1952. There is a photograph of Bartel and his rivals on the pedestal, often accompanying the “joke” about embarrassment in social networks. The signature for the photo reads: “Champion in running for 1,500 m Bartel Turned out by the sound of the national anthem his native Luxembourg. "
Similar descriptions of what happened can be found in later texts about the history of the Olympic Games. So, before the 1984 games in Los Angeles, Associated Press and Grolier Enterprises published the book “Personal for Perfection: Olympic History”. In it about the events of July 1952 reported: “When Bartel stood on a pedestal and listened to how The Olympic Orchestra performs the national anthem of his country, tears flowing down his face. ” In 1985, Kordner Nelson and Roberto Kercetani in his book about the runners at average distances They wrote: “Bartel celebrated the victory, Listening to the national anthem of his 300,000th country, and pouring tears of joy. " Even after more than three decades after Bartel’s victory, no one reported that during the award ceremony he played a “wrong” anthem.
Then, at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, some researchers began to write that there were still problems with the performance of the anthem, but not as dramatic as the media and users of social networks would be told after half a century. IOC President in 1972-1980 Michael Morris, the Third Baron Killanin, together with historian John Maternity Wrote A series of books on the history of the Olympic Games. In two of them, published in Games of 1980 in Moscow and Lake Plesid and K Games of 1984 In Los Angeles and Sarayev, there is one and the same fragment: “Bartel with tears currently in the face, standing on the pedestal and listening to the national anthem - after the orchestra found music, “It has become one of the most memorable moments of those games.” Judging by this description, before or during the ceremony there really was a hitch, but the anthem was still performed correctly.
The later authors wrote about the delay. For example, Bob Fulton in the book “Summer Olympiads: Treasury of Legends and Knowledge” (1996) Reported: “Tears flowed according to him (Bartel. - Approx. Ed.) Cheeks while The national anthem of Luxembourg played for the first time in history-after the head of the orchestra still found music". Maurice Crowe and Juliet Morris in the work published by the 2012 Games in London, They say: “Luxembourger Josie Bartel upset the forecasters, winning at a distance of 1,500 m - so unexpectedly that The award ceremony was postponed until the orchestra found the notes of the national anthem". Similarly Describes Events and former main sports correspondent The Times David Miller, published Several of their works together with the IOC.
The version of the "wrong" anthem became popular already in the 2010s. The author of one of the popular publications on Reddit, dedicated to the alleged inconsistent, as a source of information calls The book "Strange Moments of the Olympic Games" (2008) Jeff Tibbolz. For different British This author prepared dozens of books that became bestsellers with “interesting facts” and “funny stories” from various fields. Judging by profile Tibbolza on Linkedin, he does not have a historical, but generally university education, but before the writer's career in 1989, he did not work as a sports journalist.
Although we cannot unequivocally argue that the story about the “sprayed” anthem of Luxembourg became popular precisely because of the book of Tibbolz, already in the early 2010s this “fact” was mentioned in the publications of non-authoritative publications. It is not surprising that on the eve of the Olympic Games in London in 2012, British tabloids like Mirror. Then the story I got it And in a selection from the Indian English -language publication Bangalore Mirror.
We were not able to find a single interview or publication of a different format in which Josie Bartel himself talked about problems with the performance of the Luxembourg antimony at the Helsinki stadium. It can be assumed that the athlete was the only listener who noticed something was amiss, but subsequently not raising this topic for some personal motives. An important detail that makes us doubt it is the personality of a person who handed a gold medal standing on a pedestal Bartel. Them became None other than the heir to the Luxembourg throne Jean, since 1946, the former representative Duchy in the IOC. On the website of the government of Luxembourg even Published Corresponding photo. It is extremely unlikely that the execution of the “wrong” anthem in the presence of the august person did not grow into a diplomatic scandal and completely escaped the attention of the press.
A probable explanation of where the story came from about the “wrong” anthem at all, can be found in the article by Pierre Grisius, published In 2017, in the journal of the International Society of Olympic Games. The next year, Grisius, Luxembourg sports journalist and historian, introduced The book about Josie Barter is apparently the most complete study about the life of one of the main athletes of the duchy. In an article dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the athlete, the author also spoke about some of his findings discovered in the preparation of the book. Grisius writes: “After his victory, Josie Bartel burst into tears as a child. <...> Bartel later told his friends about a dream in which he won the race, but then woke up, because he was afraid that the orchestra could not perform the anthem of Luxembourg. When the dream came true, the orchestra coped with playing the anthem. ”
Thus, with a high degree of confidence, we can say: the story of the orchestra that has not prepared for the anthem and the failure of the organizers at the Helsinki Olympiad is not true. For decades, various authors, if reported problems at the award ceremony, then only about the delay in its beginning, but not about the “wrong” anthem of Luxembourg. A selection of 2017 in The New York Times, which is often referred to in recent years, including article About Bartel in the Russian -speaking “Wikipedia”, written by the author who specializes On a socio-political topic and does not lead in his text links to the source. The media in Luxembourg, where Bartel, without exaggeration, is considered a national hero, or does not mention such an episode in the athlete’s biography, or directly call him a “joke”. Finally, the athlete cried not at all because of the drilling of the anthem of his country-as Reported The reporters, after his victory, Bartel was so sympathetic that the silver and bronze medalists had to help the Luxembourger get to the locker room.
Photo on the cover: International Olympic Committee
Not true
- P. Gricius. When Tears Write History: Josy Barthel, Luxembourg’s Only Olympic Champion, Was Born 90 Years Ago
- La84 Foundation. 1952 United States Olympic Book
- Is it true that in 1952 a separate Olympic village was built for the Soviet delegation?
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