American swimmer Mark Spitz gained gold on the 1972 Munich Olympic Video games, an occasion eternally marked by tragedy when terrorists killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympics crew.
Spitz can be Jewish.
"I do not suppose there was a lot dialog about being a Jewish athlete earlier than the Olympics began. There definitely wasn't any discuss the truth that Dachau, a focus camp, was only a few miles away from the swim corridor and the observe stadium," mentioned Spitz forward of Monday's fiftieth anniversary of the assaults.
"I believe this was a giant popping out of the fashionable age on the time, to point out, you realize, (...) that is the brand new Olympics, that is the place the world is at present. Little did anyone know, every week into the Olympic Video games, this was going to occur."
The American athlete additionally felt that it fell on him to speak concerning the tragic occasions that passed off in the course of the video games.
"So, I used to be thrust into a novel state of affairs. In a single sense, was I a spokesperson? For who? You recognize, to be a Jew, nicely, that is sort of an attention-grabbing place to place some stress on someone who's 22 years previous, I wasn't a rabbi. I wasn't concerned with an professional set of instruments and data about quite a lot of issues that principally reply questions in a method which will have been anticipated of me. I did the perfect that I may on the time," he mentioned.
"At this time it is nonetheless the identical reply, which is, it was a horrible tragedy for not solely these athletes, however for the Olympic motion and for the households particularly and we're nonetheless speaking about it at present."
Spitz later went on to win seven Olympic gold medals on the Munich video games, exhibiting his athletic agility and power regardless of the fear assault.
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