1972 Munich Games officially known as XX olympiad was the first olympics held in Post war Germany. Earliar it was held in Hitler’s Germany. They have every reason to celebrate. But their happiness was short lived. Ten days after the start of the games Eleven Isreali atheletes were abducted and held as hostages by Palestinian terrorists. They put forth an impossible demand for release  of 200 palestinian prisioners held in Isreal and 2 German prisionars. Their demand was rejected. Germany offered  any amount of money for their release. The terrorists not to be yielded. In a botched attempt by the incompetent German Police the recue operation was miscerably failed resulting in the killing of all the hostages. The event was came to be known as Munich massacre. Instead of canceling the Games Avery Brundge the International Olympic committee President decided that “the Games must go on”.

The story did not end there. In an operation called The Wrath of God Isreal Mossad launched a global manhunt and killed many key members of the Black September including two key members of the Terrorists that were involved in the massacre. Stephen Spielberg gave an intense film based on this tragedy called Munich . It is a brilliant movie and he didn’t take sides and gave a true account.

Mark Spitz The swimmer from U.S.,Olga Korbut the Russian nGymnast and the long distance runner Lessie Viren from Finland stole the limelight. Mark Spitz won seven golds in swimming setting a world record in the Olympics. Being a jew he was sent off to U.S. immediately after the Munich massacare fearing for his life.

Olga Korbut become the media star after winng the gold in gymnastic championship. Her acrobatics and open display of emotion caught the attention of every one in the Olympics. Till then the gymnastic event was unnoticed in every olympics. But after her debut the event become popular with a huge followers. A host of other stars followed in subsquent olympics.

Lasse viren a runner from Finland ran his heart out and won both 5000 and 10000 meters like the Legentry Emile Zatopek and Vladimir Kuts who won thegold in bothe events in 1952 and 1956 olympics. In the 10000 maters he had a fall; yet he won the gold.

Valeri Borzov of  Soviet Union won the 100 meters and 200 meters in a surprise turn of events. The American atheletes failed to reach the stadium in time.

In hockey West Germany won the gold defeating Pakistan in the final. India took the bronze.

The first three places in the medal count.

”I'm proud of what I did at Munich because it helped the Palestinian cause enormously. Before Munich, the world had no idea about our struggle, but on that day, the name of Palestine was repeated all around the world.“
-- last remaining Munich terrorist Jamal Al-Gashay

“No. We were not engaged in vengeance. We are accused of having been guided by a desire for vengeance. That is nonsense. What we did was to concretely prevent in the future. We acted against those who thought that they would continue to perpetrate acts of terror. I am not saying that those who were involved in Munich were not marked for death. They definitely deserved to die. But we were not dealing with the past; we concentrated on the future”.

(In a February 2006 interview, former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir is answering a direct question)