This year the Olympic Games will be hosted by London. Let us go back to 1972 Olympic Games, exactly 40 years and 10 Olympic Games ago. But we will soon return to this years IOC dealings....
Olympic Games in 1972 were held in Munich, West Germany and German authorities at the time made a big effort to suppress any obvious comparitions with unfamous 1936 Berlin Olympic Games used by Hitler for propaganda and to try and create relaxed, friendly and unobtrusive atmosphere (a challange in itself considering it was the middle of Cold War). They mostly succeeded with those goals but the price to be paid was horrendous.
On the 4th of September 1972 8 members of terrorist organisation Black September entered not particularly guarded (to put it mildly) Olympic Village disguised as sportsmen - they were even - innocently and without slightest intention of harm to anybody - helped by the members of Canadian team also going over the fence. They entered the appartment occupied by Israeli sportsmen and after overpowering Yossef Gutfreund - wrestling referee - who by his brave opposition gave a chance of escape to Tuvia Sokolovsky - and wounding Moshe Weinberg, wrestling couch, the intruders forced tha latter to show them another appartment occupied by Israelis. Shot in the cheek Weinberg persuaded them that appartment no 2 was not taken by Israelis and led them to appartment no 3 - maybe in hope that more sportsmen staying there will have better chance to stand their ground, but they have been surprised in their sleep. By sheer luck Israeli head delegation refused his 13-year-old son permission to spend a night in this appartmen with sportsmen possibly saving his life.
The irony of the story is that the arrangments with regards to security of Israeli sportsmen have been questioned twice - once by Mr. Lalkin, head of Israeli Olympic delegation and second time by German psycholgist and profiler asked during preparations for the Games to create most likely to happen dangerous scenarios. The profiler in one of 26 created situations pointed into loose security together with a plan to put Israeli team in relatively isolated building standing close to the gate. Both suggestions have been ignored (Mr. Lalkin was informed special security measures will be put in place but that was not to happen).
In total 11 hostages were taken by 8 terrorists. 2 of the hostages who fought back, already wounded Weinberg and weightlifter Yossi Romano, were shot dead. Terrorists demanded freeing terrorists kept in Israeli and German prisons (the two German prisoners were leftists cooperating with the USSR and also linked to Palestinian terrorist organisations). German authorities were badly coping with the situation despite undenible efforts (the offer of unlimited money supplies as well as exchanging hostages for Germans were made and rejected).
There were no proffesional negotiators and once the illusion that the demands will be satisfied was created and terrorists with hostages transferred to airport at Fürstenfeldbruck to try and free them the action proved to be disastrous. German army could not (due to constitution) be used inside Germany during peace time and apparently the transfer of sharpshooters from the army to police force didn't work. Thus there were only 5 police sharpshooters with inadequate guns for the distance put on the airport (it is customary in these type of situations to put at least 2 sharpshooters for every suspected terrorist; German authorities new about 5 terrorists and put only 5 sharpshooters, at least half an hour before the action it was known that there were 8 terrorist yet the number of sharpshooters, helplessly inadequate, was not increased). There was no radio communication among sharpshooters or between them and authorities, the police officers disguised as plane's crew to be waiting for terrorist voted to abandon action and did so without acknowledgment to police (!!!!) - they were NOT subsequently in any way prosecuted or reprimended (!), the copters landed not sideway to sharpshooters but with their fronts facing them. All those evident mistakes and unpreperadness caused chaotic gunfire allowing terrorist to kill their victims while still tied inside the copters. All 11 hostages perished.
Olympic Games were suspended for a while (but only 12 hours into the situation) and than continued. Few teams (Israeli one included) and more players from other teams left Games - a Dutch distance runner Jos Hermens is remembered saying, “You give a party, and someone is killed at the party, you don't continue the party. I'm going home.”Yet, during the memorial service 10 Arab nations rejected the idea of their flags being - as the rest - lower to half-staff and they were flying on the top poles.
The bodies of killed terrorists were flown to Libya (I admit not having idea who allowed for it) and buried with full military honors (!!!).
So much for history. Now, exactly 40 years later, 10 Olympic Games later, again in European country, there is a movement - started long ago, right after the murders, to commemorate murdered athlets (it is quite customary for IOG committee to honour in this way fallen olympic players who were killed e.g. in an accident).The petition has been created and despite signing it by over 72.000 people (at the time I am writing it) the IOC doesn't intend to comply.
Link to petition
What's more the Committee publicly stated that it regards commemoration of terror victims as political act (!) and doesn't want to offend those who don't like Israel (!) - does it mean that any countries in dispute may now object to any commemoration? Apparently it is all right with IOC however ridiculous in light of what Olympic Games are intended to be and what they used to be in ancient world (Greek polis were usually fighting though allies were changing yet for the time of olympic games fighting was suspended, everybody entitled to participate and that was exactly the purpose of organising them).
If in olympic sport (no, I am not delusional, I know it is corrupted, political, with big money involved, yet we all would like to see it more genuine and more peacful and closer to long forgotten ideal) there is no place for 1 minute of silance to commemorate sportsmen murdered during such games maybe it is time to abandon all talk about sport ideals and just face it that it is about hate, politics, money, pharmacuticals and so on. But if we would like to leave a slight chance for the revival of long forgotten ideals we sometimes long for it is high time to start.
And what better way to start than with commemorating those 11 murdered sportsmen?
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