Summer Olympics

ON THE COVER

The Glory, The Pain

Jews' bittersweet Olympic history -
a wealth of knowledge on the Internet.

Mark Mietkiewicz

Special to the Jewish News

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July 31 :08

housands of athletes will

soon be arriving in Beijing to
compete in the 29th Summer
Olympics. Although Jewish athletes
have shared in Olympic glory, for Jews,
the memory of the Olympics also
includes racism, violence and death.
Today, a look at that history.
The Jews in Sports Web site has cre-
ated biographies for 99 Jewish athletes
who have competed in the modern
games. Everybody from Argentina's
Juan Alberto Espil (men's basketball,
Atlanta 1996) to Uzbekistan's Oleg
Veretelnikov (decathlon, Sydney 2000.)
[tinyurl.com/6xmtn2]
One of the stars of the first modern
Games was Alfred Flatow of Germany
who brought home three gold and a
silver for excellence in gymnastics in
1896. Those four medals tied Flatow
with the second most in Athens. The
International Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame lists the medal count for every
Jewish Olympian from Athens 1896 to
Athens 2004. [tinyurl.com/3keu8h]
Two of the best-known Jewish
Olympians competed a half-century
apart. Britain's
Harold Abrahams
won gold in
the 100-metre
final at the 1924
Paris Olympics.
Abrahams' story
is well-known
thanks to the
1981 film Chariots Alfred Flatow
of Fire. [tinyurl.
com/5oag9] The
United States'
Mark Spitz was
the first athlete
to win seven
gold medals in a
single Olympic
Games. [tinyurl.
com/2cmvf2] You Mark Spitz
can watch a short
documentary about Spitz's Munich
gold at the Olympic Games Web site.
[tinyurl.com/6h4crg]
Unfortunately, for Jews the memory
of the Olympics is not always pleasant.

One of the greatest blots on the history
of the Games is the Nazi Germany's
hosting of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
The United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum has a comprehensive site
detailing the Games starting in
1931 with the International Olympic
Committee's awarding of the 11th
Olympiad to Berlin. Although Hitler
was elated with the Games and

Gal Fridman

Germany's athletes captured the most
medals overall, the site points out that
13 Jewish athletes and 10 African-
American competitors (including Jesse
Owens) were medalists at the Games.
[tinyurl.com/6jqstk]
And of course, there was the tragedy
of the 1972 Munich Olympics when
Palestinian terrorists murdered 11
members of the Israeli Olympic del-
egation. The Olympics maintains a
very large Web site; however, I couldn't
find a memorial to the slain athletes
on it. There is one paragraph titled
"The Games Must Go On!" that men-
tions the murders, the temporary sus-
pension of the Games and the resolve
of IOC President Avery Brundage
that the Olympics continue. [tinyurl.
com/3jp98] Fortunately, the Olympic
Committee of Israel maintains an
online memorial. [tinyurl.com/431xfh]
To learn more about the massacre, I
recommend a comprehensive section
put together by Sports Illustrated to
mark the 30th anniversary of the kill-
ings. [tinyurl.com/356mrs]
Israel first sent a delegation to the
Helsinki Olympics in 1952, but it
wasn't until Barcelona in 1992 when