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Olympic Games - 1972 Munich

Olympic Games - 1972 Munich

These games have been for ever tainted by the massacre of Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists.  I pray that such an atrocity will never mar the games again.  At the time and since, I marvel at the dignified behaviour of the Israelis.  No-one really knew whether the games should continue.  Perhaps the deciding logic was that those who died would have wished the Olympics to carry on rather than be aborted.

On a brighter note Olga Korbut entranced us by her gymnastic interpretations.  Perhaps there have been better pure gymnastics, but she was a breath of fresh air and captured our hearts.  There is often a saying that such and such cricket or baseball star could clear a bar and make everyone go out and watch, well Olga Korbut had that star quality, you wanted to see her even if you were not a regular fan of gymnastics.

Another star to immerge from the water was Mark Spitz.  Perhaps the greatest testament to his ability is that every new great swimmer is touted as the new Mark Spitz, but as far as I know none else has ever won 7 gold medals at one Olympic games.

Apart from Mark Spitz, the American invincibility was shattered.  It reminded my of a gambler's loosing streak when you cannot find a winner no matter what you do, flat horses fall in the straight, stewards disqualify your winners, your horse turns out to have been doped; American athletes found these and even more bizarre ways of losing.

Firstly two American's mistake the time of the 2nd round heat so miss the race and are out of the competition.  The pole vaulters suffer because of a rule change in the specification of their poles.  Jim Ryan the great hope for the 1500M fell.  But the biggest fiasco was the American Basketball that somehow lost to the USSR by a miracle basket in the last second.  While the legality of that last basket is challenged to this day, if you look in the results sheet, the USSR still have the gold medals.