The Munich Village in 1972 as seen from above.
The Israeli Delegation entering the Opening Ceremonies of Munich.
Before the Summer Games of 1972 had even begun the Israeli government had already been raising questions within the International Olympic Committee over the safety of the Israeli athletes. Their previous concerns being over the athletes safety in the Olympic Village and the isolated area that they were located in. The German authorities reassured them the athletes would be under extra security.
According to Sapir von Abel, the curator of education at the Jewish Museum of Munich,
"Munich´s Jewish Community in the 1970s was a community of Shoah Survivors, many of them came to Munich through the Displaced Persons Camps. But they were not living an open Jewish life, it was still very much marginalised and separated from the german society. In 1970 an arson attack took place at the building of the Jewish community. The target of the arsonists was the Jewish retirement home on February 13th 1970. The arson attack has not been solved to this day, and it is still unclear who were the perpetrators. Crucial evidence has been destroyed by the Bavarian police".
In 2012, a German newspaper, Der Speigel, published the first reports revealing that a Palestinian informant based in Beirut warned the German State Police who passed this information off to the Bavarian State Police about a possible incident being planned at the Munich Games. This came with over three weeks until the opening events of the Olympic games, enough time for authorities to act but nothing happened. Both moments set up the Bavarian State Police as unreliable to the jewish community.
Across the 21 different sports and 195 events-
The Israeli Delegation entered fifteen athletes across seven events, 11 of these members of the men's team including coaches and referees would be dead by the nightfall of September 6th
Three athletes, Gad Tsobari, Eliezer Halfin, and Mark Slavin participated in the wrestling events at the Summer Games. Slavin however never reached his event, being taken hostage just a day before.
David Berger, Ze'ev Freidman, and Yossef Romano were on the weightlifting team with Freidman coming in 12th and Romano retiring due to an injury.
The two men competing in fencing for were Dan Alon and Yehuda Weissenstein. There are no official results for the athletes because they withdrew from the competition after the tragedy.
Shaul Ladanay and Esther Shahamorov competed in the mens 50 km walk and the womans 100 meter hurdles. Shahamorov finished fifth in the semifinals before withdrawing and Ladanay placed 19th and was unable to compete in his second event.
The only Israeli athlete entered into a swimming event was Shlomit Nir, who competed in the womans 100m breaststroke and the 200m breaststroke finishing 6th and 8th respectively.
Zelig Shtroch and Henry Hershkowitz were the two shooters, placing 23rd and 57th in the mens 30 meter rifle prone event.
In the mens flying dutchman event, Yair Michaeli and Itzhak Nir competed but did not finish the competition when the delegation withdrew.