It has long been regarded as the greatest sporting snub in history -
when Adolf Hitler stormed out of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin because
Germany had been humiliated by a black man.

The moment was 1936 and an incredible American athlete called Jesse
Owens had just run his way to the first of four gold medals in the 100
metres.

Hitler, who had shaken hands the previous day with all the German
Olympic winners, left the stadium furious that his Ayran supermen had
been beaten by their supposed racial inferior.

Or so the story goes.

But now a veteran sports reporter in Germany has come forward to claim
that, though Hitler did indeed leave the stadium after the race, it
was not before shaking Owens' hand.

Siegfried Mischner, 83, claims that Owens carried around a photograph
in his wallet of the Fuehrer doing just that.

Owens, who felt the newspapers of the day reported 'unfairly' on
Hitler's attitude towards him, tried to get Mischner and his
journalist colleagues to change the accepted version of history in the
1960s.

Mischner claimed Owens showed him the photograph and told him: 'That
was one of my most beautiful moments.'

Mischner said: 'It was taken behind the honour stand and so not
captured by the world's press. But I saw it, I saw him shaking
Hitler's hand.

'The predominating opinion in post-war Germany was that Hitler had
ignored Owens.

'We therefore decided not to report on the photo. The consensus was
that Hitler had to continue to be painted in a bad light in relation
to Owens.'

Mischner, who went on to write a book about the 1936 Olympics, said
other journalists were with him on the day that Owens produced the
photo and they too did not report on it.

'Owens was disappointed,' he said. 'He shook his head disapprovingly.
The press then was very obedient. I can make no excuses, but no one
wanted to be the one to make Hitler the monster look good.