Avery Brundage - Legacy

Legacy

Retrospective news coverage has sometimes judged Brundage harshly: in May 2012, The Independent dubbed him "The ancient IOC emperor, anti-Semite and Nazi sympathiser bent on insulating the Games from the meddlesome tentacles of the real world." The Orange County Register stated that Brundage's "racism and anti-Semitism are well documented", and the New York Daily News averred that Brundage "admired Hitler and infamously replaced two Jewish sprinters on the 4-by-100 relay team because it could have further embarrassed Hitler if they won".

Brundage leaves an uncertain legacy. On the question of amateurism, Maraniss suggests that Brundage was "caught in a vise" between communist and capitalist states pursuing dissimilar goals; nations following either system were not willing to accept Brundage's vision of pure amateurism, and broke those rules, each system in its own way. Guttmann notes that in the 1960s, Brundage may have been better-known as an art collector than for his sports activities, and "there are those who maintain that he will be remembered not for his career in sports but for his jades and bronzes." Dick Pound believes Brundage to have been one of the IOC's great presidents, along with de Coubertin and Samaranch, but concedes that by the end of his term, Brundage was out of touch with the world of sports. While Pound credits Brundage with holding the Olympic movement together in a period when it was beset by many challenges, he notes that this might not be fully appreciated by those who remember Brundage for the final years of his term, and for Munich.

Senn suggests that Brundage remained too long as IOC president:

After Munich, Brundage departed the Games, which had grown beyond his comprehension and his capacity to adjust. The NOCs and the were revolting against his arbitrary administration; violence had invaded his holy mountain and was giving every indication of returning; despite all his efforts to reach out to the world through athletics, he stood accused of bigotry and both race and class prejudice, not to mention the denunciations proclaiming him politically naive ... Few mourned his departure from the Olympic scene, and the International Olympic Committee turned to his successor, who, its members hoped, would be better suited to handle the new items on its agenda.