Effect on the Games
In the wake of the hostage-taking, competition was suspended for the first time in modern Olympic history. On 6 September, a memorial service attended by 80,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes was held in the Olympic Stadium. IOC President
Avery Brundage made little reference to the murdered athletes during a speech praising the strength of the Olympic movement and equating the attack on the Israeli sportsmen with the recent arguments about encroaching professionalism and disallowing
Rhodesia's participation in the Games, which outraged many listeners.
[26] The victims' families were represented by Andre Spitzer's widow Ankie, Moshe Weinberg's mother, and a cousin of Weinberg, Carmel Eliash. During the memorial service, Eliash collapsed and died of a heart attack.
[38]
Many of the 80,000 people who filled the Olympic Stadium for
West Germany's
football match with
Hungary carried noisemakers and waved flags, but when several spectators unfurled a banner reading “17 dead, already forgotten?” security officers removed the sign and expelled those responsible from the grounds.
[39] During the memorial service, the
Olympic Flag was flown at
half-mast, along with the flags of most of the other competing nations at the request of
Willy Brandt. Ten
Arab nations objected to their flags being lowered to honor murdered Israelis; their flags were restored to the tops of their flagpoles almost immediately.
[40]
Willi Daume, president of the
Munich organizing committee, initially sought to cancel the remainder of the Games, but in the afternoon Brundage and others who wished to continue the Games prevailed, stating that they could not let the incident halt the Games.
[39] Brundage stated "The games must go on, and we must ... and we must continue our efforts to keep them clean, pure and honest."
[41] The decision was endorsed by the Israeli government and Israeli Olympic team chef de mission Shmuel Lalkin.
[42]
On 6 September, after the memorial service, the remaining members of the Israeli team withdrew from the Games and left Munich. All Jewish sportsmen were placed under guard.
Mark Spitz, the American swimming star who had already completed his competitions, left Munich during the hostage crisis (it was feared that as a prominent Jew, Spitz might now be a kidnapping target). The
Egyptian team left the Games on 7 September, stating they feared reprisals.
[43] The
Philippine and
Algerian teams also left the Games, as did some members of the Dutch and Norwegian teams. American
marathon runner
Kenny Moore, who wrote about the incident for
Sports Illustrated, quoted Dutch distance runner
Jos Hermens as saying "It's quite simple. We were invited to a party, and if someone comes to the party and shoots people, how can you stay?"
[44] Many athletes, dazed by the tragedy, similarly felt that their desire to compete had been destroyed, although they stayed at the Games.