SportsKenya: Road to Olympics - 1972 Munich Games

Friday 30 March 2012

Road to Olympics - 1972 Munich Games - A Bow before the Lull...

Munich '72
After enjoying a great showing at the Mexico Games 4 years earlier, the expectations from Olympic Games fans were high. But before we get to the actual Games, a brief reminiscence of the year 1972. The world was generally polarised by various political, economic and religious issues.
With the major powers slowly advancing with their Cold War, others busy engaging East Asia tigers which were quickly industrialising. Africa too was now taking a place in the world map as many independent states started encountering upheavals, dictatorships and overthrows. S.Americans too had similar challenges coupled with climatic changes. The Middle East would be thrust into the spotlight for both good and bad reasons relating to the oil crisis, monopolising of the same, terrorism and relentless battles within.

Munich Olympic Stadium - www.ballparks.com

Back to matters sport, Germany had recovered from the World Wars challenges and now becoming a major industrial power thanks to its ingenious enterprising and technical manpower. The city of Munich hosted one of the most memorable Games, both tragic and heroic in equal measure. Here's a look at a few of the highlights;

Interesting Facts:

Mark Spitz " 7-star hero" - this was because of his phenomenal performance in the pool tallying a total of 7 gold medals, along with 7 swimming world records. He had done 2 gold in Mexico and thus this was always coming from this human phenomenon. He's one of the most famous and recognizable Olympians ever.

7-Star Hero - Mark Spitz
USSR 'beats' USA - In one of the most controversial moments of the Olympic Games, the former Soviet Union 'beat' US of A in the basketball final game. After leading 50-49, some flawed timing and calls were made & the Soviets quickly made a basket, before the final horn. The USA team refused to recognise the result and consequently avoided the medal award ceremony for their silver. It has never been awarded to this day.
2 more bans-for-life - As if to spite their fellow Americans, two athletes of African origin were banned for life after taking the awards ceremony 'too casually'...twirling with their medals and not facing the flag as their national anthem was played. Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett are the culprits!
Munich massacre - one of the most infamous incidences to ever occur during the Olympics took place at the Olympic Village where Palestine guerillas attacked the Israeli camp and took hostage of some of their athletes. Eventually 11 Israeli hostages were killed while the Palestinian attackers lost all but 3 of their own.
Future Olympians Kenya's Catherine Ndereba, the late Richard Chelimo and Mozambique's Maria Mutola were born this year.
This would also mark the last Olympics before Kenya took an 8 years hiatus from the Games thanks to the Cold War freeze and boycotts to the Montreal Games in 1976 and the Moscow Games in 1980. This also affected the future performances in the sporting disciplines.

Philip Waruinge - www.life.com

Key Figures & Results:

7113 participants took part representing a rise by 28% of total participation;
121 countries were represented
193 competitions were held in 23 sporting disciplines
Kenya took part in 4 disciplines same as 1968 - Athletics, Boxing, Hockey & Shooting
Kenya won 2 Gold - Kip Keino (3000m steeplechase) & 4 x 400m men's relay; 3 Silver - Philip Waruinge (Featherweight), Ben Jipcho (3000m steeplechase) and Kip Keino 1500m and finally 4 Bronze medals; Julius Sang 400m flat, Mike Boit 800m and Richard 'Dick' Murunga in boxing's welterweight.
The Gold in 3000m Men's Steeplechase would mark the start of a winning tradition for Kenya in all Olympic Games it participated in going forward. This would be replicated in major athletic meets such as the World Athletics championships and All-Africa Games among others
It would also be the last time Kenya took part in the next 8 years; boycotting Montreal in 1976 and Moscow in 1980 - thanks to the political tensions and the Cold War increasingly maligning developing countries versus their more developed counterparts.

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Profile of a Kenyan Sports Personality

This is a look at a Kenyan personality who may have influenced and continues to affect sports in Kenya and inspires all and sundry in sports. It is our hope that you shall reflect on this, take a moment to appreciate the sacrifices and efforts these heroes made. We do take a bow and wave our hats as we cheer true Kenyan patriots in sport!

This one takes a different twist. Having seen individuals grace this column, we have sought to recognize a team of individuals who did some exemplary work and set what has been an unbeatable national and indeed continental effort.

Kenya has never been a major power in shorter races 400m downwards. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was a different script especially with the more exciting relay races. It is in 1968 when Kenya’s dominance came into play and with it a retinue of athletes who would become legends of their era.

The 4x400m races are usually the climax in the athletics calendar of events and in Mexico ’68, Kenya’s team including Charles Asati, Naftali Bon, Munyoro Nyamau and Daniel Rudisha ( the latter being the father to David Rudisha - current World and African champion in 800m) had other ideas coming 2^nd to USA.

In 1972, the 4 x 400m team was tweaked a bit and the final race was run by Charles Asati, Munyoro Nyamau, Robert Ouko and Julius Sang blazing the track to come up with the only other Gold medal from the Munich Games. But for this unprecedented move and none that has been done before by any other African nation, we salute our compatriots making them the Kenyan sprint legends!

Know your Sport

Swimming

Recently at some social setting we were engaged in a club quiz and one of the questions was about swimming. This sought to know which stroke was not among the competitive ones till 1956. One of our team-mates (we were 6 said that it was back-stroke while I argued it was butterfly, and the majority thought the former ….guess we should have stuck with my answer though!)

All the same, this sport has become one of the most competitive sports in any major sporting extravaganza in the form of the All-Africa Games, Commonwealth or indeed the Olympic Games. Kenya has lately featured in this very involving and energy-sapping sport. Thanks to the exploits of the Dunford brothers who have shone the spotlight on the country away from traditional sports in athletics, football, boxing and rugby. But what do you understand from the sport? Here’s a brief of it from different sources;

According to Wikipedia, swimming is based on the human act of swimming, that is, locomotion in water by self propulsion, with the goal of completing a given distance in the shortest amount of time. Swimming is distinguished from other aquatic sports (such as diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo) that involve swimming but the goal is neither speed nor endurance.

Competitive swimming consists of four strokes: butterfly, breaststroke, freestyle (or front crawl), and backstroke. When all four strokes are done during a race, it is called medley swimming (otherwise known as the individual medley, or I.M.). It is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA).

The goal of competitive swimming is usually to have the fastest time to complete a given distance. Competitive swimming became popular in the nineteenth century. Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete in 13 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50 meter pool (long course).

There are 36 officially recognized individual swimming events – 18 male events and 18 female events; however the International Olympic Committee only recognizes 34 of them – 17 male and 17 female. Most swimming sport events are held in special competition swimming pools, which are either long course pools such as those used in the Olympic Games (50 m) or short course pools such as those used in the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) (25 yards or 25 m). Competition pools have starting blocks from which the competitor can dive in, and possibly also touch-sensitive pads to electronically record the swimming time of each competitor.

In most competitions, the competitors are required to wear swimwear/swimsuits to adequately cover their bodies for the dip. However some suits have created controversies which have seen FINA coming up with standards to adhere to ensure competitors do not have undue advantage over each other.

The sport can also be pursued for personal fitness and is considered by fitness enthusiasts as one of the few that does an all-round job body of keeping the body in shape. It also requires healthy diets and rehydration (yes even if your body’s dipped in water)! Famous names in the sport include Mark Spitz – 7-gold medals winner 1972 Olympics and Michael Phelps – 8 gold medals - Beijing 2008.
For more info, check www.fina.org

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Friday 30 March 2012

Road to Olympics - 1972 Munich Games - A Bow before the Lull...

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