Bronze reason to celebrate

ATHENS — Only hours after celebrating one his nation’s few proud international sporting moments, Ariel Zeevi and the rest of his countrymen formally acknowledged Israel’s darkest Olympic period.

On the Hebrew calendar, Thursday marked 22 years to the day when five Arab terrorists broke into a poorly guarded athlete’s village in Munich, Germany and eventually killed 11 members of Israel’s national team at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

“When I enter the Olympic village, you can see there is a lot of security. You always remember what happened (in Munich),” said Zeevi, 27, who by winning a bronze medal in the 100-kilogram class in judo became just the fifth medalist in Israel’s history. “Now, terrorism is not only Israel’s problem. It’s all the world’s problem.”

At a private memorial service at night in Athens, Zeevi was scheduled to be joined by other members of the Israeli national team, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, current IOC president Jacques Rogge, along with the living family members of the Israeli athletes who were killed in Munich.

“Terrorist acts will always happen, unfortunately,” Zeevi said. “But sports should be pure.”

For a country whose Olympic history is more tragic than historic, Zeevi’s accomplishments thrilled a nation.

“If he wasn’t so popular, I would never have come down here,” said 25-year-old Israeli Doron Elmekiesse, who made the two-hour flight from Israel to Athens specifically to watch Zeevi. “This is a very important day for us in Israel, and what he is doing is very important.”

Although there were hopes Zeevi would become his nation’s first gold medal winner, the more than 500 Israelis in attendance celebrated as if he had won gold. Shortly after the medal ceremony, the Israeli’s in attendance spontaneously sang their national anthem.

Throughout the competition, Israeli flags were omnipresent, banners in Hebrew were displayed and chants of “Zeevi!” rained.

Zeevi earned the competition’s second bronze. In Olympic judo, a second bronze medal is awarded to the fourth-place finisher.