Social Media Post Draws Extreme Historical Parallels for Shohei Ohtani Amid Recent Controversies

A social media post by user "peepeepoopoo" has ignited discussion by controversially likening baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani to Olympic legend Jesse Owens, and unnamed figures to "modern day Hitlers." The tweet, shared on November 2, 2025, employs highly charged historical comparisons, drawing a parallel between Ohtani's current challenges and Owens's defiance of Nazi ideology at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way player, has recently faced several off-field controversies. In early 2024, his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, pleaded guilty to stealing millions from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts, a scandal in which Ohtani was cleared of wrongdoing. More recently, Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, are involved in a $240 million real estate lawsuit in Hawaii, accused of leveraging their influence to remove a broker and developer from a luxury housing project.

Jesse Owens, an iconic American track and field athlete, famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a propaganda showcase for Nazi Germany's ideology of Aryan supremacy. His victories directly challenged Adolf Hitler's racist narratives, making him a symbol of athletic excellence and resistance against oppression. The tweet's comparison suggests a perception of Ohtani facing significant, perhaps ideologically driven, opposition in his career.

The use of such extreme historical analogies, particularly involving figures like Hitler, is a common but often contentious phenomenon in online discourse. While intended to emphasize perceived injustice or heroism, these comparisons frequently draw criticism for trivializing historical atrocities or for being disproportionate to current events. The tweet reflects a passionate, albeit inflammatory, defense of Ohtani by an individual amid the athlete's recent legal and public relations challenges.