Olympic hopeful Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at a Detroit
ice rink following a practice session two days before the
Olympic trials. A man hit Kerrigan with a club on the back
of her knee, causing the figure skater to cry out in pain and bewilderment. When the full story emerged a week later,
the nation became caught up in a real-life soap opera.

One of Kerrigan’s chief rivals for a place on the U.S. Figure
Skating Team was Tonya Harding. In mid-December 1993,
Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, approached Shawn
Eckardt about somehow eliminating Kerrigan from the
competition. Eckardt set up a meeting with Derrick Smith
and Shane Stant, who agreed to injure Kerrigan for a fee.

Tonya Harding (left) says she was scared for her own       
safety after the infamous 1994 baton attack on her fellow
fellow Olympic figure skater and longtime competitor
Nancy Kerrigan (right).  

        
        

Tonya Maxene Price (54) was born
in Portland, Oregon.

During the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, in the early
morning of September 5, a group of Palestinian terrorists
stormed the Olympic Village apartment of the Israeli athletes,
killing two and taking nine others hostage.

The terrorists were part of a group known as Black September,
in return for the release of the hostages, they demanded that
Israel release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails
and two German terrorists.

In an ensuing shootout at the Munich airport, the nine Israeli
hostages were killed along with five terrorists and one West
German policeman. Olympic competition was suspended for
24 hours to hold memorial services for the slain athletes.

Black September terrorist looks from the balcony of an apartment where Israeli Olympic team members are held hostage.

With terrorists holed up in the Israeli athletes’ quarters,
swarms of German policemen, in uniform and plain
clothes, move in and seal off the area.

A German policeman leans against a wall outside the
apartment.

PARIS (WKRC) – A gold medalist will return home with a little
more than just a fancy necklace after he made history by
becoming his country’s first man to win a gold medal.

Carlos Yulo, 24, became the first male gold medalist from his
home country of the Philippines when he dominated the
competition in the Men’s Floor Exercise. He cemented his
athletic exceptionality by earning a second gold medal the
next day in the Men’s Vault Final.

On August 4, 1936, American Jesse Owens won gold in the long
jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was the
second of four gold medals Owens won in Berlin, as he firmly
dispelled German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s notion of the superiority
of an Aryan “master race,” for all the world to see.

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens
(September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980)

Melvin Emery Patton (November 16, 1924 – May 9, 2014) was an
American sprinter, who set the world record of 9.2 seconds in
the 100 yard dash in 1948. He also set a 220 yd. world record
in 1949 on a straightaway of 20.2, breaking the record held by
Jesse Owens.                                                                                

Patton won two gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He
was ranked first in the world in the 100 m and 200 m events in
1947 and 1949.

Patton was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of
Fame in 1985, and died in Fallbrook, California.