Was this seen as a form of respecting the host country? Was there official state instructions on whether athletes were allowed to perform the Hitler salute or not? Here is the video I'm referring too, taken from Riefenstahl's 1938 Olympia.
That's just the olympic salute. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-olympic-salute-we-dont-use-anymore-because-it-looked-too-much-like-heiling-hitler-19789031/