Olympic Silence

Forty years after 11 athletes were murdered in Munich, Israel still mourns alone.


I was 11 years old and a fanatical sports fan. I could stay glued to the TV and radio for hours on end, rooting for my hometown teams. The pinnacle sporting event was the Olympics, providing not only a panoply of world-class athletics, but a once-in-four-year opportunity to root for my “special Jewish home team”: Israel.
The 1972 Munich Olympics started with a bang. Mark Spitz, the mustachioed Jewish-American swimmer (who proudly participated in Israel’s Maccabiah Games) entered seven swimming events – and promptly set an incredible seven world records in the course of winning a record seven gold medals.
For American Jews, this was a huge source of pride. The last Olympics  held on German soil – the 1936 Games in Berlin – were exploited as a Nazi showcase festooned with goose-stepping and swastikas. Hitler’s rabid anti-Semitism infected the athletic events as well: Two Jewish-American runners – Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller – were removed from the U.S. lineup at the last second, thus becoming the only members of the U.S. squad to travel to Berlin and not compete. For the racist Nazis, it was enough that a black man – Jesse Owens – had won the prestigious 100-meter dash; Hitler reportedly asked U.S. officials not to embarrass him any further by having two Jews win gold in Berlin.
Hitler’s rabid anti-Semitism directly infected the athletic events.

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