Here are two great articles on Gal Friedman’s gold medal, Israel’s first ever:
— Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star weaves nicely between Athens ’04 and Munich ’72
— Ian O’Connor of USA Today recognizes the larger implications:
What the Israelis would give to be treated the same. What they would give for Iranian athletes to compete against theirs, fair and square, rather than forfeit as a means of declaring Israel a counterfeit state.
What the Israelis would give to negotiate their compound without the top-secret agents, the extra fencing, the heavier legacy of blood spilled and dreams stolen in the night.
“When you come to the Olympics,” said Zvi Varshaviak, president of Israel’s Olympic Committee, “you remember the 11 that the terrorists killed (in Munich). Now they want to kill us, and we show that we are here, and we have the gold medal.”
UPDATE: Make that three — Selena Roberts in the New York Times outdoes them all.
