The Olympic Channel is gearing up for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang with a new Foul Play documentary that details a rarely-explored story of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
Foul Play: The Margaret Lambert Story tells the story of a German world-class high-jumper who was set to compete for the Nazis in Berlin. Born Margarethe Bergman, the Jewish track and field star was a world-class Olympian who at the time was living in England.
The politically-charged Olympic games were a huge point of emphasis for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and Lambert was forced to return to Berlin to compete. But just days before the Games, she was mysteriously replaced on the team by another competitor.
The Margaret Lambert Story is the first of three Foul Play documentaries airing on the Olympic Channel online in the coming months. The series highlights an important moment in the history of the Olympic Games.
Fearing further punishment because of her heritage, Lambert fled to the United States to start a new life. Her Olympic dreams may have been ruined, but the amazing story of her life was just getting started. Lambert’s interviews for the documentary are recorded while she’s 102 years old, and shortly before her death this past July.
Other documentaries for the Foul Play series plan to tackle religion, race and gender in the Olympic movement.
