London, EnglandEvery four years since the '72 Games, widows of those murdered athletes have petitioned the International Olympic Committee to hold one minute of silence at the opening ceremonies to honor their memory. And every four years the IOC has refused. According to a recent explanation from its president, Jacques Rogge, "the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident." This explanation is not only unsatisfactory, but it is also insulting. The Olympics are indeed a celebration, but there is a responsibility to recall past participants murdered during the Games, on Olympic soil. If the atmosphere of the opening ceremony is not fit for recalling tragedy, then the IOC must create an atmosphere that is, just as it appropriately did at the 2002 Games by opening them with a minute of silence to honor the victims of 9/11.
MORE HERE ABOUT ONE MINUTE FOR MUNICH
Ed. As a young boy, I remember being taken to a special memorial service in 1972 at the synagogue in Margate, England to honour those murdered at Munich.
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