Video is courtesy of HBO.
Few swimmers alive today saw or can understand how dramatic it was when Mark Spitz won seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Spitz, who is Jewish, became the greatest athlete on earth less than 30 years after World War II, after Nazi Germany fell. The Israeli Hostage Tragedy (Munich Massacre) that occurred at the Games, especially after Spitz’s monumental feat, was unthinkable.
The HBO documentary Sport in America: Our Defining Stories, the film is currently airing on HBO. If you can take the opportunity, it is well worth it to watch.
Many thanks to Zaq Harrison for sharing this video.
Via Youtube / Zaq Harrison:
Two years ago Zaq wrote “They’re all gone” for the HBO Documentary film Sport in America: Our Defining Stories. “They’re all gone” is the true story of an eight year old boy and the promise he makes after watching the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games unfold on live TV. The program “Olympic Choices” was created to keep that promise and over the last eighteen months Zaq has been speaking to groups all over the country.