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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 10 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 1972 Munich
Berlin, 1936. The Berlin Games were known as the Nazi Olympics as they were a showcase for Hitler's Reich. The 1972 Munich Games were specifically designed as an antecedent to the '36 Games which helps to account for the lax security that was present. The 1956 Games were held in Melbourne, the first time in Australia. The second would be Sidney in 2000. The 1940 Olympics had been scheduled for Tokyo, but were canceled because of the outbreak of World War II. They would eventually be held in Tokyo in 1964.
Mark Spitz. Spitz's record of 7 Golds stood until broken by Mike Phelps in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Johnny Weismuller was a Gold winning American Olympic swimmer in the 1924 (Paris) and 1928 (Amsterdam) Games. He later played Tarzan in the movies. Michael Burton was also an American Gold winning Olympian. At Munich, he won the 1500 Freestyle as well as being a member of the American Gold winning relay teams.
Basketball. The USA not only lost the Gold Medal in basketball to the USSR, but it's first game in Olympic history in the final controversial seconds of the match. Baseball was not an Olympic sport in 1972. The USA had never won fencing. While the USA had frequent Olympic heavyweight boxing champions, it was Cuban Teofilo Stephenson who brought back the Gold in Munich.
USSR. The USSR won 50 Gold while the USA was second with 33 following by the GDR with 20 and FRG with 13.
Olga Korbut. The pixie like Olga Korbut was an excellent gymnast, but more than that displayed a humanist charm that many were not used to seeing in the disciplined Soviet athletes. Turisheva and Lazakovich were her superb teammates while Karin Janz won two golds, a silver and a bronze for the German Democratic Republic.
Black September. Black September was a militant Palestinian organization whose name commemorated the September 1970 uprising in Jordan. The Irgun was a Jewish para-military off-shoot of the Haganah organization involved in the creation of the state of Israel. The Rotes Armee Faction or Red Army Faction was a West German terrorist organization active in the 1970s.
Radios. The security services known as Ordungsdienst in German, were purposely low key in order to erase the memories of the heavy-handed police of the Berlin Olympics. Thus no weaponry. The security environment changed dramatically after the terrorist attack on the Israelis took place. And of course, cellular phones were still in the future by 1972.
David Wottle. Dave Wottle was famous for wearing a golf hat and barely defeated the second place Soviet finisher. Lasse Viren, "The Flying Finn", won the 5000 and 10,000 meter run. Frank Shorter of the USA won the marathon Gold. Jim Ryun was the long time mile recorder holder, and later U.S. Congressman who nonetheless through two Olympics never one a Gold medal.
| What embarrassing episode occurred at the closing ceremonies of the 1972 Olympics relative to Avery Brundage, President of the International Olympic Committee? | 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich
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His name was misspelled on the scoreboard. This was his last Olympics and the scoreboard said, "Thank you Avery Brandage". A lot of things had gone wrong in these Olympics, and this was the coup de grace.
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