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Where did the 1972 Olympics take place? Sports Russia

121 countries. 7134 athletes (1059 women). 23 sports. Leaders in the unofficial team competition: 1. USSR (50-27-22); 2. USA (33-31-30); 3. GDR (20-23-23)

The first attempts to introduce the concept of “Olympic mascot” into the Olympic movement took place only in 1968. In previous times, the Olympics managed quite well without mascots - official toy characters symbolizing the hospitable host of the Games. Before this, people made do with rings and official emblems that distinguished each Olympics from the previous ones. Historians still cannot figure out who was the first symbol of the Olympics. Some believe that the glorious line of Olympic mascots comes from the funny alpine skier Schuss, who became the symbol of the White Olympics in Grenoble, others - from the jaguar that accompanied the Games in Mexico City. Both agree on one thing: the first official mascot - the multi-colored dachshund Waldi - appeared at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.

The dachshund, or rather dachshund (in German, the word "dachshund" is masculine) was chosen because, according to the International Olympic Committee, it has the qualities of a true athlete: stamina, perseverance and agility. The dachshund wore a colorful T-shirt to emphasize the festive mood of the competition. From this year, new talismans began to be born every year. Images of the mascot became a source of commercial income. Stores offer souvenir T-shirts, baseball caps, posters, key chains, flags, mugs with the image of the mascot, and the show business industry offers funny performances featuring the character.

In the spring of 1966, at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome, members of the International Olympic Committee, who gathered for their regular session, chose the largest city of Germany, Munich, as the venue for the XX Olympic Games in 1972. This is a quiet city - the capital of Bavaria, a city of museums, galleries, book depositories, the cultural center of Germany, which was called the theater and music center of the country. A record number of participants and national teams gathered in Munich.

For the first time, Albania, Upper Volta, Gabon, Dahomey, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (its representatives had previously started at the 1964 and 1972 Winter Olympics), Lesotho, Malawi, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, Somalia and Togo.

An acute situation at these Games arose in connection with the problem of the participation of the Rhodesian team, which persistently asked to be allowed to participate in the Olympics, guaranteeing the participation of black athletes. After discussions and in accordance with the requirements of the Supreme African Sports Union, the IOC decided to allow the Rhodesian national team to participate in the Olympics under unusual conditions: Rhodesia must compete as “Southern Rhodesia”, and its athletes as representatives of Great Britain. It was assumed that the Rhodesian government would not accept these conditions, but it agreed to the demands put forward. But when the Rhodesian team, including 7 black athletes, arrived in Munich, it became clear from their equipment that they intended to compete as the Rhodesian team, and as for the flag and anthem, the team leader said: “We are ready to march under any flag, including the Boy Scouts flag or Moscow."

In response to Rhodesia's actions, Ethiopia and China stated that they would not take part in the Games if Rhodesian athletes were allowed to participate. However, IOC President Avery Brundage and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Games V. Daume spoke out in support of Rhodesia. The situation escalated to the limit when black athletes from the United States declared that if Rhodesia was allowed to compete, they would side with their black brothers from African countries. This statement gave reason to expect any surprises. The International Olympic Committee was forced to discuss this issue at its meeting on August 22: by a vote of 36 to 31, with three abstentions, Rhodesia was suspended from participation in the Olympics. Regarding this incident, Avery Brundage summed up "The political pressure on Olympism is becoming intolerable."

These Games were a farewell to Avery Brundage, a talented man who did a lot for Olympic sports as president of the International Olympic Committee. After the closing ceremony of the Games, the inscription appeared on the scoreboard: “Thank you, Avery Brundage!”

The hosts of the Munich Olympics tried to do everything to outdo their predecessors in the scope and quality of Olympic facilities. Huge amounts of money were invested in the improvement of the city. A metro was built here for the first time, the city center was almost completely reconstructed, the number of hotel beds increased from 16 to 150 thousand, and the access road system was practically re-created.

The new complex of sports facilities included, in particular, the Olympic village for 10-15 thousand inhabitants: huge modern houses of fancy architecture, combined with relatively small cottages, an Olympic stadium for 80 thousand seats, a Sports Palace for 15 thousand people, a swimming pool for 10 thousand seats, a cycling track with 13 thousand seats and other sports halls and grounds. The shooting complex, rowing canal, and hippodrome received good reviews. All Olympic venues in Munich were equipped with fairly advanced media (scoreboards, computers, laser beam measuring instruments, modern duplication technology for press bulletins, etc.). Never before has there been so much cutting-edge equipment installed at the Games in literally all sports arenas as in Munich. Television was widely used, thanks to which more than a billion sports fans on all continents became spectators of the Olympic competitions.

The games in Munich were extremely eventful in terms of sports. They covered 23 sports and 195 types of competitions. Women competed in eight sports. Numerous Olympic and world records were set. Olympic records were updated in all 29 disciplines of sports swimming - 23 world records were set during the competition. There are 25 Olympic records and 12 world records in athletics, 32 Olympic records and 7 world records in weightlifting, 6 Olympic records and 4 world records in shooting, and 2 Olympic records in archery.

Let's start the story about Olympic battles with the queen of sports - athletics.
The hero of the track and field competition was the athlete from the USSR Valery Borzov. In Munich, for the first time in many years, the monopoly of American athletes in the Olympic sprint was broken. This was done by a graduate student from Kyiv Valery Borzov. Two gold medals at the fastest running distances - 100 and 200 meters - are convincing proof of this. The famous French sports newspaper "Equip" has written about Borzov many times. Here are just two quotes. One regarding Borzov’s next victory in 1970: “This is a victory of high intelligence. Borzov comprehends running, he knows how to control speed within ten seconds so that he is able to change his tactics several times during this time. He opened a new era in sprinting.” .

But Valery himself was ready for a stubborn fight. In the semi-finals, he showed the best result in the 100 meters - 10.07 seconds. During the final, the Olympic Stadium, which seats 80 thousand people, was overcrowded. In addition to Borzov and another of our sprinters, Alexander Kornelyuk, the American R. Taylor, L. Miller and M. Frey from Jamaica, D. Hirscht from Germany, the Pole 3. Nowosh and G. Crawford from Trinidad took to the start. The starting pistol fired, and the runners were blown off the blocks as if by the wind. Literally in one breath, Borzov flew these hundred meters and finished first. He was so confident in his victory that almost at the finish line he allowed himself to turn around and throw both arms up. So he ended this victorious run. He was the first Soviet sprinter to receive an Olympic gold medal.

Before the 200m final the stadium was packed to capacity. People sat in the aisles and on the staircase steps. Everyone came to see the fastest man on the planet, Valery Borzov. In those days in Munich, where every day a new hero was born, Borzov was one of the most popular champions, he was, so to speak, the hero of heroes. Every day, both morning and evening newspapers wrote about him, a photograph of his magnificent finish in the 100-meter race went around almost all the newspapers and magazines in the world, his smiling face looked out from all the stands in the Olympic village and from many shop windows in the city. Before the start of the 200-meter race, specialists were animatedly discussing the lists of the best runners for the season. First on these lists was American Larry Black - 20.0 seconds. Borzov was eighteenth - 20.7 seconds.

The final brought together all the real contenders for victory. Three Americans fled with Borzov - L. Black, L. Barton and N. Smith - and the Italian P. Mennea. When the announcer announced that Valery Borzov would start in lane 5, the stadium erupted in a storm of applause. Before entering the straight, everyone was running almost side by side, but suddenly, as if switching gears, Borzov quickly rushed towards the quickly approaching finish. All rivals were left behind. Valery won his second gold medal and set a new European record - 20.0 seconds.

For a long, long time the ovation at the Olympic Stadium did not stop. Published an hour after the final 200-meter race, the Abend Zeitung newspaper wrote on the front page: “Valery Borzov confirmed the class of the best sprinter in the world for the second time. In 20 seconds at a distance of 200 meters, the Russian won his second gold medal. Larry Black, who took second place ", tried to save the honor of the American sprinters, who had no chance in the 100-meter dash against the elegantly running Borzov."

In addition to Borzov, seven more Soviet athletes became winners of the XX Olympics. Viktor Saneev won the second gold medal in the triple jump. Yuri Tarmak, a student of the Faculty of Economics at Leningrad State University, won the high jump.

For many, his victory was unexpected. After the qualifying competitions, nineteen athletes made it to the finals, among them three Soviet ones - the national champion K. Shapka, A. Akhmetov and Y. Tarmak; two Hungarians - A. Szepesy and I. Major; two-meter tall S. Junge from the GDR; American D. Stones. Only the Japanese X. Temizawa stopped at a height of 205 centimeters. Four more left after 210 centimeters. And fourteen reached the 215 mark! It seemed that such a massive event could become a prelude to a record. But only five did not knock down the bar at an altitude of 218. For X. Magerla from Germany and A. Sepesi it was the last. Junge and Stones rose another three centimeters, and only the Leningrader reached the height of 223 centimeters.

No less impressive was the performance of athlete from the USSR team Nikolai Avilov, who won the decathlon with a huge advantage and a new world record - 8454 points. The victory in the hammer throw of Anatoly Bondarchuk, who set a new Olympic record, was convincing.

The athlete from Krasnodar Lyudmila Bragina started at the Games in Munich three times at a distance of 1500 meters and improved the world record all three times. During the Olympics, Lyudmila increased the record by 5.5 seconds. During the press conference, she was asked if women would be able to run longer distances. “In my opinion, it was not difficult to notice,” answered Lyudmila, “that despite the high results, the participants in the 1500-meter race did not look exhausted at all. It seems to me that the 3000-meter distance for women also has a right to exist.”

The best in the shot put was the Russian athlete from Leningrad, Nadezhda Chizhova, and in the discus throw, the Muscovite Faina Melnik.

Dramatic events took place in the javelin throwing sector. The 1968 Olympic champion Janis Lusis, on the eve of the Stockholm Olympics, set a world record in the javelin throw, throwing a projectile of 93 m 80 cm. However, at the Munich Olympics, he lost 2 cm to the West German athlete Klaus Wolfmann in a dramatic duel, who the following year took it from the Latvian athlete and a world record.

Two medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters went to the Finnish runner, a policeman from the small town of Myrskyla, Lasse Viren, the heir to the great Finnish stayers.

For the first time in more than 70 years, an African athlete excelled in the 400-meter hurdles. Ugandan athlete John Akii-Bua performed brilliantly. He won the competition with a new world record of 47.8 seconds, improving his personal best by 1.2 seconds. The 3000-meter steeplechase was won by another African athlete - the champion of the 19th Olympics, Kipchogo Keino from Kenya. The Kenyan received another medal, but a silver one, at a distance of 1500 meters.

The golden double in the women's sprint was achieved by the athlete from the GDR, Renate Stecher. On the last day of the Olympics, she added a silver medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay.

When another German athlete, Ulrike Meifarch, was 16 years old, she was third in the pre-Olympic high jump qualifying competition for the West German team. In Munich, she beat her best result by seven centimeters, repeating the world record, and won the gold medal. That day she was the youngest participant to win the athletics competition. In 1976, Ulrika, unfortunately, did not make it to the finals, and in 1980, Germany boycotted the Moscow Olympics. However, she did return to the Olympics in 1984 and jumped 2.02m to earn her second gold medal, becoming the second athlete to win a gold medal 12 years later.

The sensation of the boxing tournament was the performance of the Cuban masters, who were prepared for the Olympics by Soviet coach Andrei Chervonenko. Three athletes took the top step of the podium, and heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson, along with the champion's gold medal, received a challenge prize established for the best boxer of the Olympics - the Val Barker Cup. Since then, any tournament with Stevenson's participation has invariably attracted many spectators. This boxer impresses everyone with his elegant fighting style. Physically very gifted, Teofilo resembles the young Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) - the absolute world champion among professionals. The same ease of movement in the ring, the same speed in strikes.

Stevenson prefers distance combat, but can vary his tactics. This is what happened in the Munich ring in the fight with the American Duan Bobik. Many believed that in Munich the American heavyweight would rise to the highest step of the podium. The draw brought the boxers together in the semi-finals. And when everyone, including Bobik himself, was sure that Stevenson would prefer to work at a long distance, Teofilo suddenly switched to close combat and seized the initiative. In the third round, due to Teofilo's clear advantage, the fight was stopped.

Soviet boxers also created worthy competition for the Cubans. They won two gold medals. The champions of the Munich Olympics were: Vyacheslav Lemeshev from Moscow and Boris Kuznetsov from Astrakhan. Three of Lemeshev's four opponents collapsed under a lightning-fast, barely perceptible right counter blow, and only one, Brauske from the GDR, managed to hold out until the end of all three rounds. Kuznetsov had five fights in the Munich ring. The fifth, final, was the most difficult. The best amateur boxer in the world, winner of the Val Barker Cup, the famous “black dynamite” from Kenya, Philip Waruingi, competed against him. The Kenyan jumped into the ring, raising his hands high, as if rehearsing the end of the upcoming fight. Kuznetsov silently crawled under the ropes and bowed to the judges and spectators. The battle began abruptly, with almost no reconnaissance. It was truly beautiful boxing. Twelve minutes later, the referee in the ring raised Kuznetsov's hand. Victory!

On September 5, 1972, the Munich Olympics was suspended by terrorists from the Arab extremist organization “Black September,” who at 4:30 a.m. entered pavilion No. 31 of the Olympic village, took several members of the Israeli delegation hostage and killed 11 hostages. For the first time, the blood shed at the Olympics shocked the whole world. As an act of retaliation, the Israeli air force raided 10 terrorist bases in Arab countries. The climate of hostility, war and terror that existed between Arabs and Jews since the formation of the State of Israel was carried over to the Olympic Games.

In those tragic hours, the Olympics stopped its rapid progress. Some have spoken of temporarily stopping the Games due to the incident. But these proposals were decisively rejected by the IOC at an emergency session. This was announced at the Olympic Stadium by German President Gustav Heinemann and IOC President Avery Brundage, who said: “We cannot allow the Olympics to become a place of trade, political actions or criminal acts, we cannot allow a handful of terrorists to ruin one of the main channels of international cooperation." A day later the competition continued. However, a number of delegations - Egypt, Kuwait and Syria - left Munich, fearing reprisals.

Rostov student Lyudmila Turishcheva became the absolute champion of the Games in gymnastics. And yet... Each Olympics has its own heroes. Sports fortune chooses them from among the winners. The Hero of the Olympics is a very special, almost legendary personality. Firstly, because at each Olympics there are no more than three or four such heroes, and secondly, because most often their appearance is unexpected: just recently, on the eve of the starts, one name was suggested, and suddenly someone, before almost unmentioned, became the object of universal sympathy and admiration. It is almost impossible to predict the appearance of a hero or heroine; no knowledge of sports will help here. And this is understandable: in addition to purely athletic phenomenality, the hero is also required to have such valuable human qualities as charm and bright personality. Can you guess who will meet all the requirements! But it is precisely this surprise that is one of the secrets of the attractiveness of big-time sports.

Who, for example, could have guessed that one of the most beloved heroines of the Munich Olympics would be determined in the very first days of the Games, in the midst of gymnastics competitions, and it would not be the world champion Lyudmila Turishcheva, not the athlete from the GDR Karin Janz, not the American Katie Rigby, already won the “Most Charming Participant” prize, and tiny, funny and spontaneous Olga Korbut! True, back in Moscow, discussing who should represent the national team, our coaches said: “Olya will do her somersault and conquer everyone at once!” However, these were still more dreams than strict certainty. Although Olya Korbut had already performed successfully in international competitions, no one could determine the degree of effect of her Olympic debut.

The day after Olya demonstrated her extraordinary uneven bars combination to the breathless Sporthalle, the Munich newspapers opened the competition with admiration for the Soviet athlete. As soon as they didn’t call Olya! And “the darling of the Olympics”, and “the chicken of the Soviet team, with his somersault jumping straight into the heart of the public”, and “the child prodigy”... Each of her new appearances on the platform was met with ovation. And then, when the gymnastics competitions had long since ended and new events seemed to have to supplant the impressions of the first Olympic days, Olya Korbut did not disappear from television screens for a long time.

Olga took the lead on the second day - after a free program on the carpet. The audience applauded her for a long time. She took to the bars together with Lazakovich and Zuchold. Her rivals did not frighten her, because the uneven bars were her favorite apparatus, and it was here that, with coach Ronald Ivanovich Knysh, they “created something.” But something irreparable and terrible happened, as it seemed to many. Two points deducted by the judges for the uneven bars exercises, like a tsunami, smashed the plans of Knysh and Korbut to smithereens. This is what it seemed to those who had even the slightest connection to Korbut’s performance. Knysh sat down in his chair, and his face became even more inscrutable. Erica Zuchold, Olga, a friend from the GDR team, burst into tears. It was as if the national team coach Polina Astakhova had been petrified; she immediately remembered her own fall in the now distant Olympic Rome, and she shuddered at the thought of what a childish ordeal befell the soul of the young gymnast. The hall fell silent in confusion. And only the cameraman - a bearded giant in a black leather jacket - rolled the camera at Olga Korbut, trying to look into the girl’s face in order to mercilessly show the world in close-up every tear, wrinkle, grimace of pain and resentment, internal discord. She needed to go to the log, and she pulled away from Erica Zuchold and, looking straight ahead, ran up the steps to the platform and froze at the projectile. In the all-around, Korbut became only fifth.

But on the last day of the competition, Korbut established herself in world gymnastics as a star of the first magnitude. Olga, on the same uneven bars that brought her so much grief yesterday, coped with her task superbly and lost only to Karin Janz. But she got the hang of it on the beam and floor exercises and was first. Everyone was especially amazed by her floor exercises. Olya surpassed both European champions here - Lazakovich, who was called the most graceful gymnast of the Games, and Turishcheva, whose floor is her favorite type of program.

Of course, three Olympic gold medals - for the team championship and for victories on individual apparatus - is an unprecedented success for an Olympic debutante, needless to say, and Olga left the Olympics happy! If we take the general opinion of the audience, then the heroine among gymnasts in those days was a schoolgirl from Grodno, Olga Korbut. It was she who managed to completely capture the attention of the audience, make them fall silent, and then, after jumping off, explode the hall in a long and noisy ovation.

But there was another athlete at the Olympics who overshadowed the glory of our gymnast. American swimmer Mark Spitz was recognized as the hero of the Munich Games. Mark Spitz is the only person to win seven gold medals at one Olympics. He won the 100 and 200 meter freestyle, 100 and 200 meter butterfly and three relay races: 4x100 meters and 4x200 meter freestyle and the 4x100 meter medley.

Spitz managed to block the success of his compatriots at the previous Olympics - Don Schollander and Johnny Weissmuller. In addition, he set seven world records. Almost every start of his ended with a world record. Newspapers wrote a lot about the “super swimmer”, television and radio correspondents interviewed him, autograph lovers and newsreels hunted for him. He was one of the most popular figures at the Olympics.

Back in 1968, Spitz boldly predicted that he would win six gold medals in Mexico City. Although he brought home two gold medals from the relays, he performed worse in the individual events. Spitz was third in the 100-meter freestyle, second in the 100-meter butterfly, and last in the 200-meter butterfly final. In Munich, Mark tried his hand again. And his triumph exceeded all expectations. In eight days, Spitz participated in seven types of program, won all seven and set a world record in each of them!
Unfortunately, after the Games this talented athlete ended his sports career. However, as his coach, the internationally recognized authority in the field of swimming D. Councilman, asserted not without reason, if Spitz had remained in the sport, he would have had no equal for several more years. Interestingly, already at the age of 40, Spitz began to train hard and made an unsuccessful attempt to return to Olympic sports.

There were other phenomenal athletes in swimming. Australian Shayne Gould was a swimmer of enormous talent who became the first woman to hold world records in freestyle in all distances from 100 meters to 1500 meters. She achieved this remarkable success in December 1971, three weeks after her fifteenth birthday. During her short career, she set and repeated world records 11 times and became Australian champion 14 times.

Shane Gould was such an undisputed leader at the Munich Olympics that even American swimmers wore a T-shirt with a motto recognizing her leadership. In Munich she received 3 gold, silver and bronze medals. Shane won the 200m and 400m freestyle and the 200m medley, setting a new world record each time. She also received a silver medal at a distance of 800 meters and a bronze medal at a distance of 100 meters freestyle.

In 1973, at the age of 16, she retired from the sport, but during her short career she managed to become a legend. At the opening of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, she was one of several Australian athletes to carry the Olympic torch.

All but one medal in kayaking and canoeing for both men and women went to Soviet rowers. In men's single kayak rowing, Alexander Shaparenko from the Ukrainian city of Sumy became the champion; among women, nurse from Odessa Yulia Ryabchinskaya became the champion. Nikolai Gorbachev from the city of Rogachev and Viktor Kratasyuk from the Georgian city of Poti won the double kayak rowing. For women, Lyudmila Pinaeva and Kharkov resident Ekaterina Kuryshko won this distance. The best were the Soviet four-man kayak and two-man canoe crew: Vladas Chesyunas from Vilnius and Yuri Lobanov from Dushanbe. 4 out of 7 gold medals in rowing went to GDR athletes.

Italian Klaus Dibiasi won a silver medal in diving back in 1964, and then at three Olympics in a row (1968, 1972, 1976) he won gold medals in these competitions. In total, he won five Olympic medals.

Klaus was born in Austria into an Italian family. When he was a child, his parents returned to Italy. Klaus was trained by his father, a former Italian champion (1933-1936), and a participant in the 1936 Olympics. Klaus Dibiasi later coached the Italian team.

Typically, representatives of Olympic sports prepare for the next games for four years. However, the judokas had twice as much time this time. The fact is that judo, which was first included in the Olympic program in 1964 in Tokyo, was not represented in Mexico City. World Championships 1965, 1967, 1969 and 1971 clearly defined the table of ranks in judo. There was no doubt that the Japanese were still the strongest. And in Munich, the Japanese suffered their first major defeat. They were only able to win 3 gold medals. Dutchman Billem Ryska, undoubtedly the strongest judoka in the world, managed, with the help of his European colleagues, to take away 2 gold medals from the Japanese - in the heavy weight category and the absolute category. The Japanese lost another gold medal in the light heavyweight division, where Soviet wrestler Shota Chochishvili emerged victorious.

USSR athletes had an overwhelming advantage in freestyle and classical wrestling, managing to win 9 gold medals. However, among these achievements, especially noteworthy is the success of three-time world champion Anatoly Roshchin, who at the age of 40 managed to win Olympic gold among heavyweights in classical wrestling and a convincing victory won by Alexander Medved.

Soviet freestyle wrestler Alexander Medved is a three-time Olympic champion and seven-time world champion. The hero of Tokyo and Mexico City in Munich won his third medal in the heaviest weight category. Alexander is outwardly a completely ordinary person. Yes, tall, yes, it is clear that he is strong. But not a superman, as many super heavyweight wrestlers seem to be. And when Alexander Medved sealed such a miracle hero to the carpet, the delight and admiration of the public knew no bounds. Rarely has a wrestler managed to captivate the audience like this. Alexander, with his honest and uncompromising struggle, invariably aroused the sympathy of even the most biased public.

In Munich, the tournament began with a difficult fight for Bear. Against him was the Olympic record holder for his own weight, American Chris Taylor - 187 kilograms. Before Munich, Alexander met him three times: he won two fights, and one was a draw. The Olympic bout was especially difficult. The bear won it. After that, Alexander won against his old rivals - the Turk G. Yilmaz and V. Dietrich from Germany. The last meeting was with an old friend and rival, Bulgarian Osman Duraliev. Even a draw suited the bear. But this is the last fight. And only victory should be the final chord of his magnificent sports biography. And until the last moment the Bear remained true to himself - he boldly fought a sharp duel, replete with attacks, and won a convincing victory.

Under the thunder of applause, which shook the arches of the Ring Hall, mortally tired (Alexander was struggling with a serious shoulder injury, which he received in a meeting with Taylor), the wrestler knelt down and kissed the carpet. The three-time Olympic champion and seven-time world champion said goodbye to big sport.

Another Russian wrestler Ivan Yarygin was also remembered for his excellent performance at the Olympics. He also competed in freestyle wrestling - in the light heavyweight division. Ivan's performances in Munich can be included in the Guinness Book of Records. Yarygin won clear victories in all seven bouts, that is, he crushed his opponents on the Olympic carpet. On the way to the Olympic peak, Ivan Yarygin set a kind of record - he spent less time on all fights than the duration of one fight.

In freestyle wrestling, wrestlers from only 3 countries received champion titles: the USSR (5), the USA (3) and Japan (2). In philately, the success of the Japanese wrestler Hideaki Yanagida (weight category up to 57 kg) was noted.

Once again, as at the three previous Olympics, the Russian weightlifter won the title of the strongest man. This time Vasily Alekseev. Having lifted a total of 640 kilograms in triathlon and setting a new Olympic record, he became unattainable for his rivals. The only person in the world who managed to defeat Alekseev twice before the Olympics was the twenty-year-old fair-haired strongman from the German team, Rudolf Mang. He performed at home, and many believed that Mang would beat Alekseev this time too.

But Alekseev himself, naturally, had a different opinion. The fight was fierce, but after the second movement it became clear that no one would be able to catch up with Alekseev. An attempt to explain Alekseev’s success was made by Fritz Heymann, a columnist for the West German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Now everything is decided by the level of training and readiness of the weightlifter. And of course, his character, the ability to maintain a charge of optimism when working with huge weights. This is exactly the character of the Soviet athlete.” Alekseev stood and smiled. And calmness was reflected on his face. Especially when 230 kilograms were hanging on the barbell. He smiled and then, friendly and welcoming, to the pale, nervous Mang..." And the newspaper "Stuttgarter Zeitung" wrote: "How do the strong smile? This is possible "It was possible to see weightlifters on Wednesday evening on the memorable holiday. This is how the Russian Vasily Alekseev, the strongest and kindest man, smiled."

In equestrian sport, the hero was the English rider Richard Mead at Lauriston. He received 2 gold medals, winning both individual and team eventing.

The Olympics in Munich and Kiel were record-breaking in terms of the number of countries (121), participants (7134), disciplines in which medals were awarded (195), television viewers (a billion!), record achievements (swimmers updated Olympic records in all numbers of the program, technical excellence of measuring and information technology.

But there were also huge losses! Everything, especially ambitious sports facilities, would have to be paid for by taxpayers for a long time. Politics began to interfere more and more often in the international Olympic movement. Big business suffered a painful defeat. And therefore, at the end of the winter and summer Olympic battles, in which the USSR regained the title of absolute leader, a frontal attack began on the IOC in order to force it to change the rules of the “game” in favor of the losing politicians and businessmen.

The press began to exaggerate the problem of amateurism, which at the beginning of the century Coubertin called “a constantly resurrected mummy.” Lord Killanin, whose first 100 days as president had just begun, barely fended off his interviewers! Irritated no less than their owners, the journalists directly asked the new president whether he would allow professionals to perform in Montreal in four years? The answer was not given, but a little later the era of rather illusory amateurism in sports ended.

From August 26 to September 10, 1972, the Games of the XX Olympiad were held in Munich, Germany. The Olympic Games competitions were held at a high level. During the Games, 94 Olympic and 46 world records were set. The Soviet delegation consisted of 373 people.

Unfortunately, this Olympic holiday was overshadowed by tragedy - on September 5, members of the Palestinian terrorist organization “Black September” took athletes from Israel hostage. During an attempt to free them at the airport, 11 athletes and coaches were killed. At an emergency meeting of the IOC at the Games, mourning was declared, but it was decided to continue the Games.

A distinctive feature of the Games in Munich was the widespread use of the latest developments in technology. All Olympic venues in Munich were equipped with the latest media (scoreboards, electronic computers, laser beam measuring instruments, modern duplication technology for press bulletins, etc.). Television was widely used, thanks to which more than a billion sports fans on all continents became spectators of the Olympic competitions.

The Soviet Union team performed successfully, winning 50 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze medals. Athletes of the USSR national team won awards in 21 sports. 9 golds were won in athletics and wrestling, 6 each in artistic gymnastics and kayaking and canoeing, 3 golds in weightlifting. Gold medals were also won in rowing, sailing, equestrianism, cycling, boxing, fencing, modern pentathlon, and shooting.

In our team, Olga Korbut and Lyudmila Turishcheva (gymnastics), Valery Borzov (athletics), Vasily Alekseev (weightlifting), Lyudmila Bragina and Faina Melnik (athletics), Alexander Medved (freestyle wrestling) distinguished themselves.

A sensation at the Games was the defeat of the American team in basketball - 3 seconds before the end of the match, A. Belov threw the decisive ball into the opponents' basket, which brought victory to the USSR team. The Olympic swimming record was set by American swimmer Mark Spitz - 7 gold medals. For the first time, Cuban Teofilo Stevenson entered the boxing ring, becoming an Olympic champion at the next two Olympics.

September 5, 2017 marks the 45th anniversary of the tragedy, the likes of which the Olympic movement has never known in its entire history.
We are talking about the terrorist attack at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.

For those who don’t know, I’ll tell you, and for those who have forgotten, I’ll remind you.
September 5, 1972 in the Olympic village, terrorists (members of the terrorist Palestinian organization "Black September") 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were captured.
The operation to free them was carried out unprofessionally and in the end all the hostages died.

Here are their faces and names. Let's stand and be silent for a minute.

From left to right, top to bottom:

1. Moshe Weinberg, wrestling coach;
2. Yosef Romano, weightlifter;
3. Yosef Gutfreund, Greco-Roman wrestling judge;
4. David Berger, weightlifter;
5. Mark Slavin, wrestler;
6. Yaakov Springer, weightlifting judge;
7. Zeev Friedman, weightlifter;
8. Amitsur Shapira, athletics coach;
9. Eliezer Halfin, wrestler;
10. Kehat Shor, shooting coach;
11. Andre Spitzer, fencing coach.

Sorry guys. Eternal memory to them. Or is it not a pity?

So this is what these Jews need!?

Scary headline, right? But he was not born without reason.

While preparing the article, I studied a lot of material, visited many forums, and read an endless number of comments. There were (and, unfortunately, a sufficient number) among them those whose essence is reflected in the title. Like this:

Well, that's right. That's how it should be. I'll say even more.

• March 20, 1995. In the Tokyo subway, followers of the AUM Shinrikyo sect sprayed sarin, mustard gas, and cyanide. 3,796 people were injured, 12 people died. So with this Japanese and it is necessary!
• July 25, 1995. Explosion in the Paris metro. 8 people were killed, 100 were injured. So with this French and it is necessary!
• September 11, 2001. Terrorist attack in New York. 2977 people died. So with this Americans and it is necessary!
• September 1, 2004. Hostage taking in Beslan. 335 people died, including 186 children. So with this Ossetians and it is necessary!
• March 11, 2004. Terrorist attack in Madrid (4 explosions in commuter trains). 191 people were killed, 1050 were injured. So with this Spaniards and it is necessary!
• October 23, 2002. Terrorist attack on Dubrovka (“Nord-Ost”) Moscow. 174 people died. So with this Russians and it is necessary!
• April 11, 2011. Terrorist attack in the Minsk metro. 15 people died. So with this Belarusians and it is necessary!

You can continue for a long time. But the conclusion suggests itself:

Is that what we all need!? To all humanity. YES?

Or is it still NO? Maybe we will come to our senses someday?

What are we trying to achieve? Fear? But fear comes first. Then - hatred and an eye for an eye.

Well, I’ve splashed it out, and now let’s go back to Munich -72.

The Olympic Games in the lair of fascism. "Games of Peace and Joy"

The significance of the 1972 Olympics in Munich for Germany is difficult to overestimate. You understand. The memory of the 1936 Berlin Olympics and what followed is very strong.

Therefore, all the propaganda forces of Germany were aimed at making the whole world understand:

Germany is different. Kind and peaceful. And these games are “Games of Peace and Joy” for everyone.

Not only in word, but also in deed.

The scope and quality of the Olympic facilities at the Munich Olympics could not be compared with previous ones. Huge money was invested in the improvement of the city itself. The metro was built, the city center was completely transformed, hotels were built and a new and convenient system of access roads was created.

A modern Olympic village for 15 thousand people, an Olympic stadium for 70 thousand people, a Sports Palace for 15 thousand, a swimming pool….

In general, everything to make athletes and spectators feel cozy and comfortable.

Comfort - YES, but safety, unfortunately - NO!

• There were practically no armed guards
• All law enforcement forces were aimed at fighting drunks and stowaways
• The access regime to the Olympic Village was rather formal. If you are in sports uniform, you can easily enter the territory without a pass.

The Israeli Olympians walked through with their heads held high, but Palestine was not allowed in...

The Games started on August 26, 1972 and became a record for the number of participating countries. There are 121 countries in total. Among them is the still very young state of Israel.

One can only guess what each of the 42 members of the Israeli delegation felt and thought about when they were given the opportunity to march under their flag on German soil.

As for Palestine, the IOC rejected it due to the de jure absence of such a State.

For reference:

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA)/partially recognized State of Palestine team first competed in the Olympics in 1996. Since then she has competed in every Summer Olympics.

It was this refusal that became reason for militants to appear at the Olympics in Munich not as athletes….

I specifically highlighted "reason", because the reasons, as you understand, are completely different.

I will not discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict now. One post here will not do, and, frankly speaking, there is not enough knowledge. No, of course they exist, but they are not enough.

Capture and "liberation"

Everything is in order.

1. On the evening of September 4, the Israeli delegation went to the theater - they were showing “Fiddler on the Roof”. At the same time, in a restaurant at the railway station, Abu Daoud, one of the leaders of Fatah and the ideological inspirer of the future terrorist attack, instructed eight direct participants, members of the Black September group.
2. The Olympic Village was surrounded by a chain-link fence. Many athletes admitted that they were too lazy to go around the fence to enter the territory through the gate, and they simply climbed over it. This is what the terrorists did at four in the morning on the night of September 5th. At the fence they met a group of people returning from a party. Canadians, Americans and terrorists helped each other climb over the fence (the athletes mistook the eight strangers for fellow athletes from eastern countries). A group of German postmen passed by, later remembering how the terrorists entered the territory. But at that moment everything looked quite harmless, and no one paid any attention to the terrorists.
3. Two of the group of terrorists had previously scouted the area (according to some sources, they worked in the Olympic Village as auxiliary workers). Anyway, they knew where to go and led the others to the building where the Israelis were housed in five apartments.
4. The front door was not locked. First, the terrorists broke down the door to the first apartment where the coaches lived. One of them, the coach of the fighting team Moshe Weinberg, tried to resist; he was shot in the cheek and forced to escort the invaders to the rest of the Israelis. Weinberg convinced the terrorists that one of the rooms (where the Israeli track and field athletes actually were) was occupied by a team from another country, and took them to where the wrestlers and weightlifters lived, hoping that they could cope with the Palestinians. But the Israelis were taken by surprise - it was night and the athletes were sleeping.
5. At first, the terrorists took 12 people hostage, but when the athletes were taken to the floor below to unite with the coaches, one of the wrestlers, Gadi Tsabari, was able to escape. He was helped by the wounded Weinsberg, who distracted the terrorists and paid for it with his life. His body was thrown onto the street at the entrance to the building - to intimidate and confirm the seriousness of his intentions.
6. The rest were taken to one of the bedrooms, where weightlifter (and Six Day War veteran) Yosef Romano attempted to attack one of the terrorists. He was shot and left to bleed on the floor. There are nine hostages left.



Golda Meir

At the beginning of six in the morning, the terrorists conveyed their demands to the police: release 234 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, as well as two German radicals - Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhoff.
The deadline was set for 9 am, after which the terrorists promised to shoot one hostage every hour.
Golda Meir, the then Prime Minister of Israel, took a firm position - the country would not enter into negotiations with terrorists.

“If we give in, no Israeli anywhere in the world will be able to feel safe,” she said.

7. At that moment, the German police did not have any anti-terrorism unit at all, and the military could not take part in operations on the country's territory in peacetime without violating the post-war Constitution.
   Therefore, the fate of the hostages was in the hands of local authorities. Negotiations on the German side were led by the Bavarian Minister of the Interior Bruno Merck, his federal counterpart Hans-Dietrich Genscher and the head of the Munich police Manfred Schreiber.

   There were no psychologists or professional negotiators.

8. At six in the morning the tragedy was reported to IOC President Avery Brundage. He ordered Games don't stop; The first event on September 5 started at 8:15 am exactly as scheduled.
   

   “The games must continue at all costs,” he declared.

   And I don’t know what he was guided by when he made such a decision. It wasn't the fans who fought!
   As a result, of course, the competition had to be stopped, but this happened only at 15:50, 10 hours after the management received news of the hostage taking.

9. The negotiators offered the terrorists, sequentially and in parallel, several options for exiting the conflict - first, an unlimited amount of money, then - to replace the Israelis with themselves.
   The Palestinians refused, but moved the terrible deadline several times - first to 12:00, then to 13:00, 15:00 and finally to 17:00.
   
   
   
   Meanwhile, several plans for the release of hostages, hastily developed by the anti-crisis committee, crashed into reality.
   • The idea of ​​releasing gas through the air conditioning system, which would make the terrorists and hostages lose consciousness, had to be abandoned because the gas could not be found.
   • The idea of ​​sending armed special forces into the building, disguised as cooks with food, failed when the terrorists said that they would bring the food into the entrance themselves.
   • And the idea to storm the apartment failed because of the journalists. They filmed the police preparations and broadcast them live, while the terrorists watched TV in the apartment.
10. Soon the terrorists put forward a new demand - they wanted to go to Cairo by plane with the hostages. The Egyptian government refused to accept the plane, but the German authorities decided to tell the terrorists that everything had been settled - in order to lure them out of the building and free the hostages at the airfield.
    The terrorists allowed the negotiators to enter the apartment so that they could make sure that the Israelis were alive and ready to fly to Egypt. They mistakenly counted 4-5 Palestinians in the team - and the anti-crisis headquarters proceeded precisely from this data when preparing the operation to free the hostages.
    It’s strange that no one thought to interview, for example, the same journalists and look at the films and recordings, but when eight terrorists came out of the seized building, it turned out to be a surprise for the committee.
11. A Lufthansa Boeing was brought to the airfield with 12 armed police officers who represented the crew. However, when the police saw two helicopters with terrorists and counted not 4-5, but as many as 8 opponents, they left their post on the plane without permission. None of them were punished for this.
    In addition to these people, several German “snipers” took part in the operation to free the hostages - more precisely, they were police officers who loved to organize shooting competitions.
    They had no walkie-talkies, no helmets, no body armor, and their weapon, the Heckler & Koch G3, was not equipped with telescopic or infrared sights and was no better suited to the task than they were.
12. The terrorists, who arrived at the airfield along with hostages in two helicopters, checked the plane standing on the airfield, saw that there was no crew in it, and realized that it was a trap.
    The “snipers” opened fire, but were only able to hit two terrorists.
    A shootout began in which a German policeman was killed. Shortly after midnight, the terrorists shot the bound hostages in both helicopters and threw a grenade at each of them. It was all over.
    
    The police opened fire, accidentally hitting one of the helicopter pilots and seriously wounding the sniper. As a result of the shootout, three terrorists were killed and three more survived.
13. Armored vehicles that were supposed to arrive at the airport to support the police were stuck in a traffic jam. The Bavarian authorities could not explain why they were not driven to the airport in advance.
14. Shortly after midnight, journalists in Munich were told that
    

    The operation was successful: the terrorists were shot, the hostages were freed.

15. The same was conveyed to the Israeli authorities, the families of the hostages, and the 56 members of the IOC (who dissolved the anti-crisis committee and went to bed). An hour later, a representative of the Olympics administration admitted that “the information transmitted earlier turned out to be overly optimistic". By three o'clock in the morning the truth became known.
    The next morning, Schreider stated at a press conference:

    “The terrorists were too professional, too smart. The hostages were doomed to die unless we forced the terrorists to make a mistake. We did our best, but they weren't new."

16. A funeral ceremony was held at the Olympic Stadium, where there were 80,000 people and 3,000 athletes. The USSR national team did not appear at the ceremony (by decision of Moscow), and representatives of 10 Arab countries refused to lower their national flags in memory of the Israelis killed.
17. On September 6, 1972, when Olympic competitions resumed after a 24-hour break (the only one in the history of the Olympic Games), a group of spectators unfurled a banner on the podium with the inscription
    

    “Are the 17 dead already forgotten?”

    Within a few seconds, security took away the banner and kicked these people out of the stadium.

What happened next?

And then Israel took retribution into its own hands. Operations “Spring of Youth” and “Wrath of God” were designed to hunt down and destroy everyone who was involved in the preparation of this and other terrorist attacks. One of the “Spring” operations involved the future Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, the future commander of the Northern Military District Amiram Levin and Yoni Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dear readers. I did not set myself the task of thoroughly covering this topic, and anyway it would not have worked out (there are too many questions, the answers to which are still stored in the secret archives of Germany, Israel and ...... the KGB of Russia).

Therefore, I deliberately did not waste my time and energy on this. And I decided to end it mid-sentence like this.

However, what I wanted to say, I have already said. You, if you want, can speculate about the role of the special services of the GDR and the USSR, that, according to some sources, the hostages died from police bullets and why schools are named after terrorists...

That's all. Thank you for reading to the end

For those who care. Support the project

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who at the end of the 19th century revived the traditions of the Greek Olympics, hoped that they would serve the cause of peace and the unification of different peoples.

However, by the middle of the 20th century it became obvious that sport in general, and the Olympic Games in particular, had become a political instrument.

“But at least there is no bloodshed at the Olympics,” said enthusiasts.

Banner of the XX Summer Olympic Games. Opening ceremony of the 1972 Olympics at the stadium in Munich. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yuri Somov

On September 5, 1972, the last illusions melted away like smoke - for the first time in history, a terrorist attack occurred in the capital of the Olympics, right in the Olympic village.

The plan to carry out a terrorist attack at the Olympics came from the leaders of the Palestinian organization “Black September,” a radical group that united people from larger Palestinian formations, such as Fatah and the PFLP.

The organization took its name in memory of the events of 1970 in Jordan, when Palestinian forces entered into battle with the royal army. As a result of these events, known as “Black September,” between 3 and 10 thousand militants and Palestinian civilians were killed and about 150 thousand were expelled from Jordan.

The Black September group, whose founder is considered Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the heads of intelligence of the Palestine Liberation Organization, began active activity in November 1971, when the Prime Minister of Jordan was assassinated by her militants at the entrance to the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo. Wasfi Tel. In May 1972, Black September carried out its first action against Israeli citizens. Four militants hijacked a plane with more than 100 passengers and, threatening to blow it up, demanded the release of 315 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons at the time. As a result of the hijacking of a passenger plane by Israeli special forces, the hostages were released; one passenger and two of the terrorists were killed.

Terror and good intentions

The idea of ​​a terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich arose among the leaders of Black September after the International Olympic Committee refused to allow Palestinian representatives to participate in the Games.

Eight Black September militants, armed with automatic weapons and grenades, were tasked with capturing members of the Israeli delegation in the Olympic Village, who were then planned to be exchanged for imprisoned Palestinian militants.

The situation in Munich also contributed to the implementation of the terrorists’ plans. The Olympic organizers tried to minimize the presence of police and intelligence agents at the Games venues and in the Olympic Village. For Munich it was extremely important to demonstrate peacefulness - after all, the gloomy status of the “cradle of Nazism” hung over the city. And West Germany as a whole tried to use the Games to demonstrate openness and good intentions, with which strict security measures did not fit in any way.

The situation in which almost anyone could get into the Olympic Village worried Israeli representatives. However, they received assurances of complete safety from the organizers. Apparently, the German authorities focused on preventing neo-Nazi actions, not paying attention to warnings about the possibility of terrorist attacks by Palestinian groups that came from agents in the Middle East.

Attack at dawn

At 4:30 a.m. on September 5, eight Black September militants, carrying bags of weapons, easily overcame the fence of the Olympic Village and found themselves on its territory. The atmosphere was so serene that several athletes who saw people climbing over the fence helped them drag their luggage.

A few minutes later, the militants entered the house at 31 Connolly Strasse, where Israeli representatives lived in several apartments. The terrorists had previously stolen apartment keys at their disposal.

The first person the terrorists encountered was a wrestling tournament referee. Yosef Gutfreund. He raised the alarm, waking up his comrades, and tried to prevent the militants from entering the apartment. The judge rushed to his aid Moshe Weinberg, who was wounded in a clash with terrorists. Weinberg was forced at gunpoint to show other apartments where Israelis lived. Weinberg used a trick, taking the militants to where Israeli wrestlers and weightlifters lived. He hoped that they would be able to resist the terrorists, but the athletes were caught sleeping.

The courageous Weinberg, despite being wounded, made another attempt to resist, but was killed in a battle with terrorists. The weightlifter who resisted also died. Joseph Romano.

As a result, nine people were taken hostage by the Black September militants: a shooting trainer Kehat Shor, athletics coach Amitsur Shapiro, fencing coach Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Jacob Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin And Mark Slavin, weightlifters David Berger And Zeev Friedman, as well as the previously mentioned Yosef Gutfreund.

Negotiation

The terrorists took up defensive positions in the captured building and put forward conditions for the release of the hostages: by 12:00 on September 5, release and ensure safe passage to Egypt for 234 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel and two German radicals held in West German prisons: Andres Baader And Ulrika Mainhov(leaders of the ultra-left terrorist group "Red Army Faction"), as well as 16 prisoners held in prisons in Western Europe. If the demands are not met, the terrorists promised to kill one athlete every hour.

The fact that the terrorists’ conditions would not be fulfilled in full became obvious almost immediately: the Israeli government, which had fundamentally refused any negotiations with terrorists, announced that it would not change its position this time either. In exchange, the Israelis offered Germany the help of their special forces in conducting an operation to free the hostages.

The German government refused the offer, trying to resolve the situation through negotiations. The militants were offered high-ranking German hostages in exchange for the Israelis, but were refused. The German authorities were ready to do a lot just to prevent the death of Jews on their land - the parallels with the Second World War, from which the FRG was desperately trying to get rid of, were painfully obvious.

German negotiators managed to push back the deadline for fulfilling the demands by several hours. At 18:00 the terrorists changed their intentions, demanding a plane to fly with hostages to Cairo. The German authorities agreed to provide the plane, although it was initially a trap - the Egyptian government did not agree to accept the terrorists. German authorities planned to neutralize the militants at the NATO air base in Fürstenfeldbruck, from where the plane was supposed to take off. Iroquois military helicopters were supposed to deliver the terrorists with the hostages to the base.

Complete failure

However, the operation to free the hostages was not prepared. In Germany at that time there were no special units to combat terrorists. Five snipers, who had not undergone special training to act in such circumstances, as well as ordinary police units, were used as forces to neutralize the militants.

On the Boeing 727 plane, prepared for terrorists, police officers dressed as pilots were waiting for them. However, a few minutes before the helicopters with militants and hostages appeared, for some reason they left him.

Another fatal circumstance was that during the negotiations the German authorities failed to establish how many terrorists were holding hostages. The crisis headquarters assumed that there were no more than five of them.

The terrorists, who had in their hands not only the Israelis, but also four helicopter pilots, arrived at the base and found that the plane was empty. Realizing that they were trapped, the terrorists entered into battle with the police forces. The snipers were unable to immediately destroy all the militants - their shots killed two terrorists and injured two more. One of the German policemen was killed in return fire.

Armored personnel carriers were called in to assist the police. Upon their arrival, the militants panicked, opening fire on the hostages and then blowing up the helicopters with grenades.

Of the eight terrorists, five died, three were captured alive. None of the Israeli hostages survived.

Israel took revenge, Andropov drew conclusions

After the death of Israeli athletes, the Olympics were interrupted for a day, but the proposal to stop it did not find any support.

Already at the end of November 1972, the three surviving terrorists were released by the German authorities at the request of the militants who hijacked a plane of the German company Lufthansa. However, they failed to avoid responsibility - over the next 20 years, Israeli intelligence services carried out a whole series of special operations, destroying most of the organizers and perpetrators of the terrorist attack in Munich.

Among the dead Israelis were two former Soviet athletes. A 24-year-old native of Riga, Eliezer Halfin, was engaged in freestyle wrestling from the age of 10, and reached fourth place at the USSR Junior Championships. He emigrated to Israel in 1969, continued his sports career and won the right to compete at the 1972 Olympics.

A native of Minsk, Mark Slavin was only 18 years old. In 1971, he became the USSR champion among juniors in Greco-Roman wrestling and was considered one of the most promising young athletes. Mark emigrated to Israel with his family in the spring of 1972 and immediately received a place on the Olympic team of his new homeland. However, the athlete’s bright future was dashed by a terrorist’s shot.

The terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics once and for all changed the attitude towards ensuring the safety of athletes during major competitions. Now the organizers are allocating huge amounts of money for security measures; thousands of security officers are involved in protecting the venues; the latest equipment is being used, including air defense systems.

After the tragedy in Munich, the creation of special anti-terrorism units began all over the world. In July 1974, in preparation for the Olympics in Moscow, the head of the KGB of the USSR Yuri Andropov gave the order to create a special unit within the structure of the State Security Committee for carrying out law enforcement operations - the legendary Alpha group.

German President Heinemann speaks at a funeral meeting dedicated to the memory of Israeli athletes. Photo: wikipedia.org / Ludwig Wegmann

Since its inception, the goal of the Olympic Games has always been peace; even wars stopped during the competition. This was the case for a long time, until in the middle of the twentieth century they began to mix politics into sporting competitions, and then they decided to use the resonance that has always accompanied the Olympics for terror and bloodshed.

On September 5, 1972, for the first time in history, a terrorist attack occurred in the capital of the Olympics, right in the Olympic village.

The Black September group, whose founder is Ali Hassan Salameh, decided in this way to achieve, in their opinion, the good goals that they set for themselves.

With good intentions...

The idea of ​​a terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich arose among the leaders of “Black September” after the International Olympic Committee refused to allow Palestinian representatives to participate in the Games, writes Arguments and Facts.

Eight Black September militants, armed with automatic weapons and grenades, were tasked with capturing members of the Israeli delegation in the Olympic Village, who were then planned to be exchanged for imprisoned Palestinian militants. The action was aimed at drawing attention to the state of Palestine.

The situation in Munich also contributed to the implementation of the terrorists’ plans. The Olympic organizers tried to minimize the presence of police and intelligence agents at the Games venues and in the Olympic Village. For Munich it was extremely important to demonstrate peacefulness - after all, the gloomy status of the “cradle of Nazism” hung over the city. Another good intention that played a cruel joke.

They knew about the terrorist attack in advance

The situation in which almost anyone could get into the Olympic Village worried Israeli representatives. However, they received assurances of complete safety from the organizers. Apparently, the German authorities focused on preventing neo-Nazi actions, not paying attention to warnings about the possibility of terrorist attacks by Palestinian groups that came from agents in the Middle East, but Germany ignored these signals.

And declassified documents from the Israeli intelligence services indicate that the Israeli government knew in advance about the impending terrorist attacks, writes the BBC.

From the reports of the head of the General Security Service (Shin Bet), declassified at the end of August 2012, it follows that in the period from June to September 1972, then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir received daily detailed information about the intentions of activists of the Black September organization to attack Israeli objects abroad.

Some warnings specifically concerned West Germany.

Attack at dawn

At 4:30 am on September 5, 8 Black September militants, carrying bags of weapons with them, easily overcame the fence of the Olympic Village, ending up on its territory. The atmosphere was so serene that several athletes who saw people climbing over the fence helped them drag their luggage.

Two of the group of terrorists had previously scouted the area (according to some sources, they worked in the Olympic Village as auxiliary workers). In general, they knew where to go and led the others to the building where the Israelis were housed in five apartments, writes Booknik.

The first person the terrorists encountered was wrestling tournament referee Joseph Gutfreund. He raised the alarm, waking up his comrades, and tried to prevent the militants from entering the apartment. Judge Moshe Weinberg, who was wounded in a skirmish with terrorists, rushed to his aid. At gunpoint, Weinberg was forced to show other apartments where Israelis lived. Weinberg used a trick, taking the militants to where Israeli wrestlers and weightlifters lived. He hoped that they would be able to resist the terrorists, but the athletes were caught sleeping.

At first, the terrorists took 12 people hostage, but when the athletes were taken to the floor below to unite with the coaches, one of the wrestlers, Gadi Tsabari, was able to escape. He was helped by the wounded Weinsberg, who distracted the terrorists and paid for it with his life. His body was thrown onto the street at the entrance to the building - to intimidate and confirm the seriousness of his intentions.

The rest were taken to one of the bedrooms, where weightlifter (and Six Day War veteran) Yosef Romano attempted to attack one of the terrorists. He was shot and left to bleed on the floor. As a result, 9 people were taken hostage by the Black September militants: shooting coach Kehat Shor, athletics coach Amitsur Shapiro, fencing coach Andre Spitzer, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, weightlifters David Berger and Zeev Friedman, as well as the previously mentioned Yosef Gutfreund.

Negotiation

The terrorists put forward conditions for the release of the hostages: by 12:00 on September 5, release and ensure safe passage to Egypt 234 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, two German radicals held in West German prisons, as well as 16 prisoners held in prisons in Western Europe. If the demands are not met, the terrorists promised to kill one athlete every hour.

The fact that the terrorists’ conditions could not be fulfilled in full became obvious almost immediately: the Israeli government, which had fundamentally refused any negotiations with terrorists, announced that it would not change its position this time either. In exchange, the Israelis offered Germany the help of their special forces in conducting an operation to free the hostages.

The German government refused the offer, trying to resolve the situation through negotiations. The militants were offered high-ranking German hostages in exchange for the Israelis, but were refused. German negotiators managed to push back the deadline for fulfilling the demands by several hours. At 18:00 the terrorists changed their intentions, demanding a plane to fly with hostages to Cairo. The German authorities agreed to provide the plane, although this was initially a trap - the Egyptian government did not agree to accept the terrorists. German authorities planned to neutralize the militants at the NATO air base in Fürstenfeldbruck, from where the plane was supposed to take off. Iroquois military helicopters were supposed to deliver the terrorists with the hostages to the base.

Operation failure

However, the operation to free the hostages was not prepared. In Germany at that time there were no special units to combat terrorists. Five snipers who had not undergone special training to act in such circumstances, as well as ordinary police units, were used as forces to neutralize the militants.

“Snipers” were police officers who loved to organize shooting competitions. They had no walkie-talkies, no helmets, no body armor, and their weapon, the Heckler & Koch G3, was not equipped with telescopic or infrared sights and was no better suited to the task than they were.

On the Boeing 727 plane, prepared for terrorists, police officers dressed as pilots were waiting for them. However, a few minutes before the helicopters with militants and hostages appeared, for some reason they left him.

Another fatal circumstance was that during the negotiations the German authorities failed to establish how many terrorists were holding hostages. The crisis headquarters assumed that there were no more than 5 of them.

The terrorists, who had in their hands not only the Israelis, but also 4 helicopter pilots, arrived at the base and found that the plane was empty. Realizing that they were trapped, the terrorists entered into battle with the police forces. The snipers failed to immediately destroy all the militants - their shots killed 2 terrorists and injured 2 more. One of the German policemen was killed in return fire.

“It seemed that the German side simply could not stand their nerves, that they wanted to end this whole story as soon as possible. They didn't do the minimum to save people's lives. Even when the shooting started, no one moved anywhere, but simply sat in cover and shot. It was real chaos,” said Zvi Zamir, the then head of the Mossad, who flew to Munich.

According to him, this was the only chance; the German side did not even offer an alternative plan. The head of Mossad immediately added that he had seen with his own eyes the stupor in which, in his words, the German security services found themselves.

Armored personnel carriers were called in to assist the police. Upon their arrival, the militants panicked, opening fire on the hostages and then blowing up the helicopters with grenades.

Of the 8 terrorists, 5 died, three were captured alive. None of the Israeli hostages survived.

Short memory

After the death of Israeli athletes, the Olympics were interrupted for a day, but the proposal to stop it did not find any support.

A funeral ceremony was held at the Olympic Stadium, where there were 80,000 people and 3,000 athletes. The USSR national team did not appear at the ceremony (by decision of Moscow), and representatives of 10 Arab countries refused to lower their national flags as a sign of memory of the fallen Israelis. Among those present at the ceremony was the cousin of the shot Moshe Weinberg, Carmel Eliash - he had a heart attack right at the stadium and died.

Among the dead Israelis were 2 former Soviet athletes. A 24-year-old native of Riga, Eliezer Halfin, was engaged in freestyle wrestling from the age of 10, and reached 4th place at the USSR Junior Championships. He emigrated to Israel in 1969, continued his sports career and won the right to compete at the 1972 Olympics.

A native of Minsk, Mark Slavin was only 18 years old. In 1971, he became the USSR champion among juniors in Greco-Roman wrestling and was considered one of the most promising young athletes. Mark emigrated to Israel with his family in the spring of 1972 and immediately received a place on the Olympic team of his new homeland. However, the athlete’s bright future was dashed by a terrorist’s shot.

On September 6, 1972, when Olympic competitions resumed after a 24-hour break (the only one in the history of the Olympic Games), a group of spectators unfurled a banner on the podium with the inscription “Are the 17 dead already forgotten?”

Within a few seconds, security took away the banner and kicked these people out of the stadium.

Diplomacy

On September 6, 1972, at 3:10 a.m. local time, a diplomatic telegram arrived in Israel: “All hostages are dead.”

A day later, at an emergency government meeting with the participation of Zvi Zamir, it was decided to create a special commission that would investigate the reasons for the failure to ensure the safety of Israeli athletes.

Golda Meir also asked the ministers not to shift all responsibility onto the German side, so as not to aggravate the already negative emotions that reigned in Israeli society at that time.

A special resolution of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, also declassified among numerous documents, spoke of the need to maintain extremely correct behavior towards West Germany.

A few weeks later, Golda Meir was presented with a detailed report from a special commission led by Pinchas Kopel. The key recommendation is that in the future you should never rely on the security measures of the host party, no matter how convincing they may be.

Retribution

Already at the end of November 1972, the three surviving terrorists were released by the German authorities at the request of the militants who hijacked a plane of the German company Lufthansa.

When Germany released the surviving terrorists, Israel took retribution into its own hands. Operations “Spring of Youth” and “Wrath of God” were designed to hunt down and destroy everyone who was involved in the preparation of this and other terrorist attacks. One of the “Spring” operations involved the future Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak (disguised as a brunette), the future commander of the Northern Military District Amiram Levin (disguised as a blonde) and Yoni Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother (not disguised).

According to the head of Black September, Abu Iyad, it was on the night when Operation Spring of Youth was carried out that he and Yasser Arafat were going to visit the head of Fatah military intelligence, Muhammad Yousef Najaf (who was killed in his own home) and miraculously escaped death.

During Operation Wrath of God, several civilians not related to terrorism were killed. This caused a storm of criticism against Israel. The death of waiter Ahmed Buchiki in Norway was especially often recalled - agents confused him with one of the leaders of Black September, Ali Hassan Salame.

For 20 years after the attack, German authorities refused to release any official information about the tragedy. After the widow of deceased athlete Andre Spitzer appeared on television in 1992 and demanded at least some information about the circumstances of her husband’s death, an anonymous German source contacted her and handed over about 4,000 different papers related to the terrorist attack at the Olympics. The families of the hostages again sued Germany and, after a series of ups and downs, received compensation in the amount of 3 million euros. However, the country's Minister of Internal Affairs did not fail to add that this is “not an admission of guilt, but only a humanitarian gesture.”