Has anyone else been glued to the television watching the Olympics these past 2 weeks? I swear I must have lost weight and voice with the straining, pushing and yelling as I urged the athletes on and I wasn't partial to any team. Well, okay, I'm fibbing. I cheered for the USA, Team GB (what a horrible name) and of course for Israel.
Taking Israel first. Mazel Tov to Shahar Zubari for winning Israel's only medal at this Olympics.
We still have today and tomorrow for the Games so I am sure that many more medals will be won by the USA and Team GB.
And hasn't the British team done well this time? So far they have won 18 Gold, 13 Silver and 13 Bronze.
Rebecca Adlington clinched her second gold medal of the Beijing Games in the 800m freestyle. I do hope that someone in power does recognize her with an award, OBE sounds nice. The cyclists Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, and Rebecca Romero have done well also.
Sailor Ben Aislie did so well on the water.
It came as a surprise that Christine Ohuruogu win the Gold for the 400 meter. She has caused so much controversy with her lifetime Olympic ban for missing 3 drug tests. Should she have taken part? I think not.
Jamaica has been fantastic with Usain Bolt and the 3 women who won the 100 meter race Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart. Veronica Campbell-Brown won the 200.
Oops, excuse me for yelling but I had to yell for the USA team in the Women's 4 x 400 Meter Relay. Sandra Richards really had to work for it but she did beat the Russian. *happy dance*
So Michael Phelps beat Mark Spitz's record. *sigh* Congratulations to Michael, well done.
I remember 1972 and being glued to the tv then too. I had just come back from a year at Tel Aviv University. Cheering Mark on, well he is a nice Jewish boy, and then watching the horrible events of what was happening inside and outside of the Athlete's Village.
So in writing this article about the Olympics I have to mention what happened in Munich.
On the morning of September 5, with six days left in the Games, the worst tragedy in Olympic history hit. Eight Arab terrorists stormed into the Olympic village and raided the apartment building that housed the Israeli contingent. Two Israeli athletes were killed and nine more were seized as hostages. They demanded the release of over 200 Palestinians serving time in Israeli jails, along with two renowned German terrorists.
After a day of unsuccessful negotiations, the terrorists collected the hostages and headed for the military airport in Munich for a flight back to the Middle East. At the airport, German sharpshooters opened fire, killing three of the Palestinians. A horrifying gun battle ensued, claiming the lives of all nine of the hostages, along with one policeman and two terrorists.
The first 2 Israelis murdered were Joseph Romano and Moshe Weinberg.
Hostages killed at the airport
(middle row, L-R) wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, age 40; American-born weightlifter David Berger, 28; wrestler Mark Slavin, 18; and weightlifting judge Yacov Springer, 51.
(bottom row, L-R) weightlifter Ze'ev Friedman, 28; track coach Amitzur Shapira, 40; wrestler Eliezer Halfin, 24; shooting coach Kehat Shorr, 53; and fencing coach Andre Spitzer, 27.
At 3 a.m., a drawn and teary-eyed Jim McKay, who had been reporting the drama throughout the day as part of ABC's Olympic coverage, announced: “They're all gone.”
Five of the terrorists were killed along with one policeman, and three were captured. A little over a month later, on Oct. 29, a Lufthansa jet was hijacked by terrorists demanding that the Munich killers be released.
The Germans capitulated and the terrorists were let go, but an Israeli assassination squad was assigned to track them down along with those responsible for planning the massacre. According to George Jonas in Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, eight of the 11 men targeted for death were killed. Of the remaining three, one died of natural causes and the other two were assassinated, but it is not known for sure if they were killed by Israeli agents.
Typical that the Germans let the murderers of Jews free. Even more disgusting was the fact that the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes was not considered sufficiently serious to merit canceling or postponing the Olympics. “Incredibly, they're going on with it,” Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote at the time. “It's almost like having a dance at Dachau.”
Would the Olympics have been canceled if another country's athletes been horribly murdered? I believe it would have. It's a shame that the German government has never outgrown it's 'It's only Jews' mentality.
A memorial ceremony was held the first Monday in Beijing to honor the 11 Israeli athletes.
The ceremony was organized by the Israeli embassy in the city and the Israel Olympic Committee at the Hilton hotel.
Hundreds attended the event, including representatives of Israel's athletic delegations, and Science, Culture and Sport Minister Raleb Majadele.
A significant number of foreign delegates, military attaches and Olympic officials were in attendance as well. Among the guests of honor was Juan Antonio Samaranch, International Olympic Committee president from 1980 to 2001, and Alex Giladi, Israel's delegate to the IOC.
For the past 36 years, the IOC has denied any culpability in the athletes' deaths. ON Monday Samaranch gave a heartfelt speech about keeping the slain sportsmen's memories alive, describing the massacre as the "blackest moment in the history of the Olympic movement."
While in office, neither Samaranch nor his successor, Jacques Rogge, made even the slightest effort to commemorate the victims. Those most hurt by the committee's inaction were the families of the slain athletes.
Since Munich, widows Anki Spitzer and Ilana Romano have tried to persuade IOC officials to erect a monument to the slain athletes in the city's Olympic Village.
On Monday, Romano pleaded with Giladi, who was present at the 1972 Games as a broadcaster, that the "next ceremony be held under the Olympics' five-ring banner."
Spitzer spoke in English about the families' desire not for vengeance, but for peace of mind, and of the difficulties the widows have faced in raising 14 children between them as orphans.
She also leveled damning accusations at Rogge and his predecessors.
"The sons, husbands and fathers who were murdered weren't tourists or bystanders, but part of the Olympic family. But the Olympic family doesn't recognize them," she said, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
Despite the emotional pleas, the ceremony will likely remain an Israeli-organized event at the London Games in 2012, and indeed for the foreseeable future.
So now the Olympics will come to London in the year 2012. It should be interesting to see how this develops. I do want to go and watch some of the events in London. Apparently my town is applying to be one of the places where the athletes can practice before the Games.
