Horse & Hound

Terrorism at the Games

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At the 1972 Olympics, eight Palestinia­n terrorists broke into the Olympic Village on 5 September, killing two Israeli athletes and taking nine others hostage (pictured, right). In a battle at Munich airport that evening, all the hostages, five terrorists and a West German policeman were killed.

Competitio­n was suspended for 24 hours, including the dressage, and memorial services held.

“Everybody was just sad,” recalled US eventing coach Jack Le Goff, who died in 2009, in an interview for Jennifer O Bryant’s Olympic history book. “It was just terrible.”

Jack added that the event had an impact on the following Games in Montreal too: “You had the feeling you were entering an army camp there. There were police and machine guns everywhere.”

One person was killed in a bomb attack at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, while a cameraman died of a heart attack as he rushed to the scene.

The Spanish reserve dressage rider Luis Lucio, whose horse Fortuin was stabled three hours from the equestrian venue, was nominated as the guinea pig the night before the competitio­n. But the disruption resulting from the terrorist attack meant Fortuin became stuck in traffic and the competitio­n was delayed. Eventually, Luis rode the test and beat his personal best by two marks.

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