The moment of silence for the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Olympics wasn’t just a painful reminder of the past. Forty-nine years later, the International Olympics Committee has finally taken responsibility

TOKYO – Even before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics got underway, Israel achieved a symbolic victory on Friday’s opening ceremony which included, for the first time, an official, prominent and clear commemoration of the 11 athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

For 49 years, Ilana Romano and Anki Spitzer, two widows of athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics, doggedly waged a battle with one goal in mind: to defeat the Olympic indifference to the darkest chapter in the history of the games.