When a loud knocking jerked Esther Roth-Shachamorov out of her sleep at the Olympic Village in Munich in the early hours of a September morning 40 years ago, the Israeli sprinter was afraid. Afraid she was late for her race, that is.
At that point, she had no way of knowing that two members of the Israeli delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympics were already dead, and that nine more — including her coach Amitzur Shapira — were being held hostage. “I put on my running gear and opened the door,” said Roth-Shachamorov, who was scheduled to run in the semi-finals of the 100 metre hurdles the next day. She was surprised to see the woman in charge of the corridor and a female Israeli swimmer from the room next door. “They had knocked on my door to tell me that terrorists had infiltrated the men’s quarters,” she told AFP.
“I couldn’t understand — what did they mean by terrorists? We’re at the Olympics. “It was a very frightening situation,” she said. It was September 5, 1972, the day a group of gunmen from the militant Palestinian group “Black September” broke into the quarters of the Israeli men’s team at the Olympic Village, killing an athlete and a coach, taking nine others hostage, and demanding the release of 232 prisoners. At the time, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was endorsing and carrying out spectacular guerrilla attacks in order to force the Palestinian cause onto the international agenda. Roth-Shachamorov, who was 20 at the time, was Israel’s last hope for a medal at the Munich Games which was already drawing to a close after 11 days of world class sport. She had already run in the 100 metres, and although she failed to qualify for the finals by a photo-finish, the young Israeli was confident she would be among the fastest women in the 100 metre hurdles.
