Politics and sport: Trump fans flames of hate — again

SPORT is political, sometimes deeply so. It is a conduit to our higher ambitions. It gives voice to our better angels and, unless corrupted, can distil principle more powerfully than any policy document drowning in caveats or derogations.

Jesse Owens’ four 1936 medals in Berlin put the idea of a master race in perspective. At the darkest moments of the Second World War, his achievements pointed to the inevitable.

Another gold medalist, Muhammad Ali, attacked racism and war in Vietnam. Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky fought a Cold War proxy battle over a chess board and drew the sting from tense Soviet and American relations.