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30
FRIDAY, SEPT. 4, 1987
1936 Berlin Olympics
WE'RE FIGHTING FOR
YOUR LIFE
in the 100-meter dash, the closest any
Israeli athlete has come to an Olympic
medal.
Today, the trim, fit mother-of-two
(13-year-old Yaron, a keen surfer, and five-
year-old Michal) has retired from com-
petitive sport.
Instead she teaches a new generation
at a school in Ra'anana, near Tel Aviv and
does not dwell on Munich.
But she does not forget. And neither do
her old teammates. This month they will
gather at the Wingate Institute to honor
the memory of the dead athletes, while
Shlomit Nir, Esther's one-time roommate,
will make the journey back to Munich to
represent the Israel Olympic Committee at
a special memorial ceremony.
The Munich massacre still reverberates
in Israel's bruised national memory. The
loss of so many of the country's top athletes
and coaches was also a brutal blow to the
nascent sporting life of a young country.
But, ironically, Munich was also a
turning point: the determination to carry
on — and to improve — not only won the
admiration of the Israeli public but also
catalyzed the small community of sports-
men and sportswomen in Israel.
Israel's Olympic Committee devised an
intensive training and development pro-
gram to systematically select and groom
young athletes who display outstanding
natural talent.
The program is directed by one of
Israel's leading sports administrators, Uri
Afek, a former Israel soccer star who
received his masters degree in physical
education from California State Universi-
ty. Thomas Lampart, a German Jew and
former coach of the West German national
track team, was brought in to provide ad-
vanced guidelines for selection and train-
ing procedures.
Israel sent 40 athletes to the 1984 Los
Angeles Games and expects to send some
35 to the Seoul Olympics next year. It still
has not won an Olympic medal and has
slender hopes of bringing one home from
Seoul. "We have a few athletes who might
make it into the first 15 places in their
events," Israel Olympic Committee Presi-
dent Yitzhak Ofek told The Jewish News
"but that will be the best we can hope for."
The fact remains, however, that Israel
today is far more sports-conscious than it
was before Munich. "There has been an ex-
plosion of public interest in sports since
then," says sports writer Philip Gillon, of
The Jerusalem Post. "Before that, Israel
was largely going through the motions.
There was no real sports culture in Israeli
society. "Today, Israeli attitudes to sports
are very close to those of Americans and
Europeans. One example of this is the
massive coverage given to sports by teleVi-
sion and by the major Hebrew-language
newspapers."
Lagging behind, however, is the kind of
financial backing and infrastructure that
would help young Israeli athletes reach top
international standards.
Uri Afek reckons that most nations
spend about $2 million per Olympic medal.
The entire budget for Israel's Olympic pro-
gram is $1 million a year.
Says Philip Gillon: "Apart from profes-
sional soccer, tennis and basketball, Israeli
sportsmen are genuine amateurs. And in
the incredibly competitive and professional
world of international sports, we can't hope
to produce medal-winners with such a hit-
and-miss dilettante approach."
Esther Roth takes a philosophical at-
titude: "Israelis," she shrugs, "are in-
terested in sports, but not that interested.
We have other problems to worry about."
For Yitzhak Ofek, the important thing is
that Israel continues to "show the flag" in
international competition. "We do it to
show we are here, to show that we are part
of the Olympic family, to show our enemies
that we have triumphed. And we do it to
remember Munich. The Olympics are
Israel's memorial to our dead athletes."
❑