Terrorism and Security in the Olympics
Security is a fundamental notion in sports. Nowadays athletes are viewed often through the media, therefore they are recognizable. In the Olympics security measures must be taken to protect the athletes. There are many different nationalities involved therefore security has to be taken in order to ensure that there aren’t conflicting views that could possibly be damaging towards another team. But quite often it cannot be prevented.
On the morning of September 5, 1972, the members of the Israeli delegation awoke in their quarters in the Olympic village to the desperate cries of wrestling referee Joseph Gottfreund. Eight Arab commandos (from the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September) broke into the Olympic compound in Munich. In an attempt to create time for an escape, Joseph Gottfreund tried to block off the door to the quarters in order to stall the intruders. He told his colleagues to leave the premises. The terrorist shot and killed him immediately along with Yaakov Springer, the weightlifting referee. Those in the adjoining apartments who were not woken by the muffled cries were woken from the sounds of machine guns. The commandos then took nine others of the eighteen-member Israeli Olympic team hostage. They then settled into the compound for a siege. The terrorists imprisoned and tied up the athletes and their coaches inside the apartments. They were moved into one of the delegates’ room where they were guarded by eight of the terrorists. Their weapons included sub-machine guns, pistols and grenades. Moshe Weinberg, a wrestling referee, and Joseph Romano, a weightlifter, were killed during an effort to free themselves from the terrorists.
Their reasons for holding the Israelis hostage were that they wanted to persuade the release of two hundred Arab guerrillas that were being held in Israel. The terrorists demanded that the prisoners be flown from Israel to an Arab country, allowing them free passage. West German officials negotiated with the Arab commandos with the help of the Tunisian Ambassador and the representative of the Arab League from Bonn. But unfortunately, this has no effect on what the commandos were trying to accomplish. Their demands were unreasonable, and the Israeli side would not budge from its views. In an attempt to save some of the Israeli hostages, two West German ministers of...
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...t thousands of innocent persons gathered at the Olympic Park,” said the director of the FBI. Once again, another Olympics are squandered in the shadow of terrorism.
The bombing at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta was not the first time an Olympic Games had been disrupted by terrorism. The Munich disaster had happened in 1972. The lasting images of those Olympic Games are that of a terrorist in a ski mask, and not an athlete in triumph. In contrast to the Atlanta blast, the bomb was placed in an unsecured public area while the Munich attack involved penetrated security and was aimed at the athletes themselves and the nation they represented.
Munich’s attack though has prevented other similar situations from happening. Since 1972, the general public has submitted to security searches in airports, arenas and other public events. Living with the possibility of terrorism has made everyone just a little bit more aware of what could happen. With a society as violent as the one existing now, the Olympics are fortunate that they have only been threatened with terrorism twice. But if society keeps progressing the way it is right now, terrorism in more sporting events will be inevitable
The rules that govern Olympic Games clearly indicate that no political propaganda and their demonstrations are not allowed in the Games. However, Olympics Games have faced political wars over the years. Governments fight one another for a chance to host the games. Some governments have used their chance to host to Olympic Games to advance their political and sometimes personal agendas. Hosting the Games should benefit the citizens and athletes economically. However, not all governments are concerned with benefits to their nationals when fighting for their chance to host the games. The games have become a stage for nations to prove their might and stability to other nations at the expense of their citizens. This
...en were left with nine hostages. They were, in addition to Gutfreund, sharpshooting coach Kehat Shorr, track and field coach Amitzur Shapira, fencing master Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, and weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman. David Berger was an expatriate American with dual citizenship and Mark Slavin, the youngest of the hostages, had only arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union a few months before the Olympic Games began. Gutfreund, physically the largest of the hostages, was bound to a chair whilst the rest were lined up on the two beds in Springer and Shapira's room, and bound at the wrists and ankles and then to each other. Romano's bullet-riddled body was left at his bound teammates’ feet as a warning, to show what would happen if any of them attempted to escape as their friends had.
The controversy in the Munich Olympic games was that there was a terrorist attack.During the Munich Games,security guards ignored what they thought were maintance works, but the eight men in warm-up suits were members of Black September, a terrorist group linked to the Palestine Liberation Organization. They entered the suite of the Israeli quarters in the Olympic Village and killed a coach and weight lifter and then took nine other Israelis hostage.The terrorists demanded the release of 200 Arabs from Israeli prisons and a
a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices – secretaries, businessman and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet unyielding anger.
“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas” (Advertising, Demonstrations, Propaganda* 98). This rule shows just what the Germans were hoping for, a peaceful, passive, war-free environment in which countries can get together and compete. Although we all know that quite the antithesis was upon the 1972 Olympics in Munich between September the fifth and September the sixth. The Munich Massacre, one of the worst massacres of all time, was driven by the vengefulness of the Palestinian group known as Black September, towards the people of Israel, or more relevantly, towards their Olympic team (Rosenberg). Since this confrontation between Palestine and Israel has been going on for such a long time, the conflict was ultimately inevitable. Or was it? The tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics stunned the world by the murders of the Israeli Olympic team, but the fact that it could have been prevented is completely unacceptable.
ABSTRACT: The purity of the Olympics has been smeared by scandal, corruption, boycotts, political disputes and even acts of terrorism. Sadly, politics have taken control of the Olympics and turned it into a political and money-making extravaganza. Olympic boycotts became a way for countries to protest each other. Hitler tried to use the Games to prove his belief of racial superiority. Wars interfered with the Olympics. Bloodshed even covered the Olympics, in the 1972 Munich Games where terrorists killed eleven Israeli Olympic members. Unfortunately, throughout Olympic history, politics have overshadowed the true focus of the Games. They were "intended to unite the countries of the world through friendly competition" not segregate them through politics (Siggers 1).
It was said by The New York Times that the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis ruined the spirit of the Olympic Games forever. However, "The Blood of Israel" does not portray the crisis as a spoiler for the Games. Serge Groussard captured the spirit of the Olympic Games in describing the last moments of the captured Israelis' lives. Groussard explains how they fought until their deaths like true competitors, true Olympians. Both sources acknowledge the bad that came out of that day, but only "The Blood of Israel" mentions the good.
Theme: Many events of The Nazi Olympics surround this sporting festival to make it one of the controversial events in sport history. Not only does Mandell cover the 1936 Olympic Games themselves but he gives insight to the history of the modern games, participation by the United States, the role of the games in the Nazi propaganda efforts and portrays heroes and key figures. Mandell wrote about the intersection of sport and politics and how world leaders set the agenda, not the athletes. The Nazi’s used the 1936 Olympic Games as a way to reinforce their political and racial goals. Although they were founded as part of a vision of world peace, the 1936 games became a stage for political disputes. The Nazi Olympics takes an in depth look at the efforts the Germans made to show the rest of the world that they had again become a powerful nation under the leader of Adolf Hitler. The events that followed the games in Germany, mainly the Holocaust and World War II overshadowed the Berlin games. However, it is very important to note that a world gathering like the Olympics took place in a country that was in the process of eliminating an entire race of people. The games were a huge success in regards to the Nazi regime, they were able to fool the world and prove to Germany that they were a peaceful and stable nation.
...organized retaliation with Operation Wrath of God. This operation systematically killed the remaining members of Black September and since then Palestinians and Israelis were at each other’s throat to defend what they each thought was rightfully theirs. The athletes that were murdered could have lived completely different lives if they had not met death so suddenly. Their death was caused by a trickle effect from the Cold War, if the Balfour Declaration didn’t happen then Jews wouldn’t have a homeland, which would lessen the tension between Israelis and Palestinians, which ultimately would mean that Black September would have no need to take Israeli athlete hostages that fateful morning and these athletes could have lived through the Olympics and gone home safe to their families. In the end global tensions are to be blamed for the massacre that occurred in Munich.
The Munich Massacre (5th – 6th September 1972), a planned terrorist attack happening against the backdrop of the Summer Olympics, was a key statement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that carries on to this day. The attack began when eight Palestinian terrorists killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team before taking a further nine hostage. All of the captives were killed along with five Black September members during a large fire fight. Following the massacre, the Israeli government organized retaliation, codename: Operation Wrath of God. The legacy is reflected by the large number of retaliatory deaths, overall effect upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the significant development of Counter terrorist agencies around the world.
In Hitler’s Nazi-state Jewish athletes and other raced athletes were banned from German sports club, and they instead had to flock to separate Jewish associations. These associations weren’t nice inside or adequate for the amount of people in them, compared for the well-funded German associations. With all the hostility and judgement passed Mayer and Owens, they still were able to prove that sports and the idea of right and wrong do occasionally mix. These athletes proved Hitler and all of the Nazi-supporters wrong, and that the Olympic Flag stood for sport sport alone, clear of political obstacles, and without distinction with regard to the color, race, or creed.(Kieran)
The Olympics are supposed to be a time of peace and a time where countries could come together and be free from politics. The Olympics are also a time where nations should put away their differences and celebrate the reason why they came to participate in the games, which was to play sports. Throughout history, many of the Olympics have lived up to this expectation. At the same time, there have also been some Olympics that have not lived up to this expectation because they have been experienced boycotts, political protests, and even violence. The politics in the Olympics need to be kept out because it there is no place for it. The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow is an example of one Olympics that was not free from politics because of the boycott started by the U.S.
The 2016 Rio olympics game has been a hot topic around the world recently. On the swimmers’ end Ryan Lochte’s case is the biggest topic other than Michael Phelps taking 23 gold medals and breaking the record that lasted for 2000 years. Ryan Lochte claimed that he was robbed by armed men who identified themselves as police officers that a gas station is Rio de Janeiro on August 14th, 2016. Later, the Rio official addresses that the “robbery” never occurred, in contrast. Ryan Lochte and other these swimmers damaged public properties at the gas station which caused the security guards to present his gun. Due to the incidence, Ryan Lochte could be identified as a modern tragic hero since he fulfill the three characteristics of a tragic hero: high status, a tragic flaw ,and downfall.
The biggest boycott controversy came from the United Stated at that time. Many people in the United States feared that if they boycotted that they may start a backlash in the United States and Germany. “The Olympics were intended to be an exercise in goodwill among all nations emphasizing racial equality in the area of sports competition” (The Berlin Olympics). The Nazi’s attitude toward the Olympics made many countries want to move the Games to another country. Germany’s racial policies led to the international debates to boycott the games, but the International Olympic Committee pressured the German government into saying that they would follow the rules (Berlin 1936 Olympic Games). “Responding to the mounting international pressure, the Nazis made a token gesture by allowing a part-Jewish athlete, Helene Mayer, back on their Olympic team” (The Berlin Olympics). The United States decided to trust the Nazi people in what they said. Since the United States rejected boycotting they missed the opportunity to go against