Call it the Soviet connection. All three athletes representing Israel at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, which opens this weekend, have roots in the former Soviet Union — and two were actually born there. The ice dancing duo of Galit Chayat, 23, and Sergei Sakanovsky, 22, will join Misha Shmerkin, who participated in… More ▸
To Germany’s Jews, Gretel Bergmann was a symbol of flickering hope on a rapidly darkening landscape. To the Nazis, she was a propaganda tool. Intent on avoiding an international boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Germany coerced Bergmann onto its track and field team and held her up to the world as evidence that it… More ▸
A water ballet that France’s synchronized-swimming team was to perform at the Olympics in Atlanta next month has been canceled after Jewish groups protested its theme – the Holocaust. The controversy broke out after the sports daily L’Equipe revealed that the water balled would feature swimmers goose-stepping into the pool and mimicking the arrival of… More ▸
With the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics less than six weeks away, the controversy over an officially recognized team from “Palestine” has sparked new protests. A delegation of athletes from “Palestine,” as the team is designated in the Atlanta Committee on the Olympics Games’ official publications, is competing in the summer games. The Anti-Defamation… More ▸
Seven relatives of the Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics by Palestinian terrorists have filed suit against the governments of Germany and Bavaria. A Munich court will next month hear the claim, in which the families demand $27.2 million in compensation. In October, the same court threw out of compensation suit from 22… More ▸
On the eve of the signing of the Interim Agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, a monument unveiling halfway around the world served as a reminder of the darkest days of Palestinian terrorism. Near the site of the 1972 massacre that took the lives of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, a monument… More ▸
Israeli and German Jewish officials have dropped their plans to boycott the dedication ceremony of a monument honoring the 11 Israeli athletes killed in a terror attack during the 1972 Munich Olympic games. The officials lifted their boycott of next week’s ceremony after the German Olympic Committee assured them that the plaque on the monument… More ▸
Avital Gur has reason to be proud. Mental retardation and Down’s Syndrome did not stop the determined Israeli athlete from winning one gold and one silver medal in two swimming events at the Ninth Special Olympics World Games. Taking a break from the competition, which concluded here Sunday, the 25-year- old swimmer smiled at the… More ▸
Israelis are walking tall this week, after the country garnered the first Olympic medal in its history. And it won not just one medal, but two. Yael Arad’s silver-medal victory in the judo competition kept Israelis glued to their televisions July 30, leaving movie-theater owners with plenty of empty seats. Arad’s match against the German,… More ▸
The Dutch-born widow of one of the 11 Israeli athletes killed during the Munich Olympic games in 1972 has stated there is evidence that nine of the Israelis were killed by bullets fired by the German security police. Making her accusations during an interview with the Dutch daily Het Parool, Ankie Spitzer-Rechess said that 32… More ▸
