So the Olympics have finally begun. For good reason they call it the greatest show on earth. For four years, the world awaits impatiently for two short weeks of sporting marvels. And in London there will be no lack of wonder athletes locked in fantastic duels. There will be a huge showdown in the pool between US swimmer Michael Phelps and teammate Ryan Lochte. Phelps is the multi-gold medalist aiming to claim the unofficial title of greatest Olympian ever from Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. She got 18 medals. Phelps has 16. Phelps and Lochte will swim against each other two times, one of them today. On the ground there's Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who wants to become a sports legend on a par with Jesse Owens, Pele or Muhammad Ali by retaining his Olympic titles in the 100, 200 and sprint relay. But the World's Fastest Man was not so invincible in warm-ups leading to the Games and faces stiff competition from countryman Yohan Blake and American rivals Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin. Even before the Games began, they had made history. Saudi Arabia is sending two female athletes to London which is the first time that the Kingdom has fielded women in the Olympics, and for the first time, every country competing in an Olympics will be represented by both male and female athletes. There are 204 countries in this Olympics. At the Atlanta Games in 1996, 26 nations sent no female athletes, the figure falling to just three in Beijing in 2008. One piece of history will not be made in London 2012, and that is fortunate. There was no moment of silence during the Games' opening ceremony for the 11 Israeli Olympians killed by Palestinians in an attack at the 1972 Munich Games. The head of the International Olympics Committee Jacques Rogge rejected calls for such a commemoration despite earnest pressure from politicians in Israel, Germany and the United States, including President Obama. If the Olympics is to pay tribute to slain Israelis, then it might want to consider remembering Arabs killed by Israelis. There is the Sabra and Shatila massacre of perhaps 3,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in 1982 in which Israelis were directly or indirectly responsible. Or the incident of Baruch Goldstein, the American-born Jewish Israeli who gunned down 29 Palestinians in prayer in a mosque in Hebron in 1994. Or the 1996 Israeli shelling which killed 106 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in a UN compound in Qana. Or the Israeli 2008–2009 onslaught on Gaza which killed close to 1,500 Palestinians. If the Games are being asked to mark Munich, shouldn't there be a minute of silence for these murdered Arabs? Or are dead Arabs of less importance than dead Israelis? Or must one be killed in an Olympics to be worthy of a moment of silence? Rogge has said the IOC would “be present" at a ceremony on Sept. 5, the actual day of the attack, at the site where the Israelis were killed in Germany. This will suffice. Let the Games of 40 years later begin, let's put the politics aside, and let us enjoy ourselves.
