(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Ever since there have been sports, there have been sports tragedies. A tragedy is a rare occurrence in the sports world. For a tragedy to occur something devastating must take place.
On Mar. 1, 2009 the world got a reminder of what a sports tragedy can feel like. Two professional football players, Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, along with two others, were lost at sea.
The men were on a fishing trip that ventured too far off the coast on too small of a boat. The search for the missing boaters was called off after three days of searching.
There have been other sports tragedies that have been much worse than this though. The crash of Southern Airways Flight 932 is another case that can be categorized as a sports tragedy.
On Nov. 14, 1970, 75 members of the University of Marshall football team were on board when it crashed. Football players, coaches, staff, and community members were all on board.
Both incidents will likely go down as two of the more tragic sporting news stories of all time, but both pale in comparison to what happened in the 1972 Summer Olympics.
German President Gustav Heinemann had a vision. He saw a peaceful and smooth-going summer games, but he was sadly mistaken.
The much anticipated event was to be held in Munich, Germany; this was the first chance that Germany had to host the event in 36 years, the last time being 1936.
When the 1936 games were played, Nazism was thriving in Germany with Adolph Hitler at the helm. (www.olympic.org)
Hitler had seen the Olympics as an opportunity to show off how superior his Aryan race was compared to others.
The term “Aryan” was used mostly by white supremacists to describe their race but Hitler used the term to describe “Pure” Germans, those who did not have any Jewish decedents.
While Hitler wanted to use the Olympics as a chance to show off his Aryan race, the games were seen more as a chance for people to try to heal some of the wounds that he had caused so many others.
The 1972 Summer Games offered Germany a chance to showcase their nation as a peaceful representative, unlike the Nazis' hidden agenda over the previous 36 years.
The 1972 games were set to be the largest yet; 121 nations supplied a total of 7,173 athletes, with 152 events to be played.
However, the 1972 Summer Olympics will be remembered for anything but peace, which was unfortunate for those who sought out unity at the '72 games.
In the weeks before the games were set to begin, many of the athletes and trainers became worried about their safety and well-being, mainly because of the host country and Hitler’s connection to the Holocaust.
The Israeli participants were especially concerned about their safety, many of whom had direct connections with the Holocaust. They were either holocaust survivors themselves, or had family members that had survived. (www.Time.com)
On Aug. 26, 1972, the Olympic torch had been lit and the games were ready to begin. For the Israeli people it was a day of relief. All the events went on as scheduled and there were no major setbacks. It wasn’t until early morning on Sept. 5 that the worst thing imaginable happened. (www.cbsnews.com)
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