Sport, Politics, and the Olympics

1972 Munich Germany Olympic Games and the Israeli Hostage Situation

During the 1972 Olympic Games that were held in Munich Germany, a group of 11 Israeli olympic athletes were kidnapped and held hostage by a 9 members of a  Palestinian terrorist group called Black September. These terrorist groups broke into the Olympic Village where the athletes were sleeping and took members of the Israel olympic team hostage. They demanded for release of prisoners who were held in Israeli jails along with the release of two German terrorists that were held in German prisons. Two of the hostages were killed within minutes of being captured after trying to injure the attackers and the other nine were killed at the airport during a failed rescue attempt when being transferred by the attackers to a helicopter. In addition, five of the terrorists were also killed. After the events that took place the IOC decided that the games must go on saying that he didn't want the incident to halt the games. There was a memorial service where many countries flew their flags at half staff with the exception of Arab countries who flew their flags high to honor the Palestinian terrorist group. Even though the games continued many athletes left the game saying that the spirit of the games were gone and it was too hard to compete after what had just happened.

Using the five political uses of sport in the reading by Eitzen & Sage, I would say that this event falls under sport as a vehicle of change. In this event members of the Black September used the Olympic games as their opportunity to capture people they saw as enemies and used them to try and fill their demands. After this event security measures and the way the protect these athletes has changed and increased drastically in future games. I don't think that sports is "pure and devoid of political interference" at all. Many sports events have been used to make subtle political statements like when the African American athletes on the US team put up a black power salute during a time when there was severe segregation and violence in America. Also, today football games fly military jets before the games and even though it is important to give thanks and appreciation, the NFL constantly has military appreciation days during the games. In addition, many athletes use their time in the spotlight to show their stance on issues, like Tim Tebow making public his stance on abortion. In the same way we say there should be a separation of church and state but they are usually intertwined, we say there should be a separation of sport and politics but there seldom is one.

References:
Eitzen D.S & Sage G.H. (2009). Sociology of North American Sport. Boulder, Paradigm Publishers: chapter 9:206
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Summer_Olympics