Disqualified : Eddie Hart, Munich 1972, and the voices of the most tragic Olympics / Eddie Hart with Dave Newhouse ; foreword by Dr. Cornel West.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hart, Eddie, 1949- author.

Newhouse, Dave, 1938-2026, author.

Contributor:

West, Cornel, writer of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hart, Eddie, 1949-.

Hart, Eddie.

Olympic Games--(20th : 1972 : Munich, Germany).

Olympic Games.

Track and field athletes--United States--Biography.

Track and field athletes.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 207 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Eddie Hart, Munich 1972, and the voices of the most tragic Olympics

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : Black Squirrel Books, a trade imprint of Kent State University Press, [2017]

Summary:

"Having previously tied the world record, Eddie Hart was a strong favorite to win the 100-meter dash at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. Then the inexplicable happened: he was disqualified after arriving seconds late for a quarterfinal heat. Ten years of training to become the 'World's fastest human,' the title attached to an Olympic 100-meter champion, was lost in a heartbeat. But who was to blame? Hart's disappointment, though excruciating, was just one of many subplots to the most tragic of Olympic Games, at which eight Arab terrorists assassinated eleven Israeli athletes and coaches as the world watched in horror. Five terrorists were killed, but three escaped to their homeland as heroes and were never brought to trial. Swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals but was rushed out of Germany afterward because he was Jewish. Other American athletes, besides Hart, seemed jinxed in Munich. The USA men's basketball team thought it had earned the gold medal, but the Russians received it instead through an unprecedented technicality. Bob Seagren, the defending pole vault champion, was barred from using his poles and forced to compete with unfamiliar poles. And swimmer Rick DeMont lost one gold medal and the possibility of winning a second because of an allergy drug that had passed U.S. Olympic Committee specifications but was disallowed by the International Olympic Committee. It was that kind of Olympics, confusing to some, fatal to others. Hart traveled back to Munich forty-three years later to relive his utter disappointment. He returned to the same stadium where he did earn a gold medal in the 400-meter relay. In Disqualified, his interesting life story, told with author Dave Newhouse, sheds entirely new light on what really happened at Munich"--Publisher's website.

Contents:

1 Tunnel Vision 6

2 A Massacre Made Easy 18

3 Death Lights Up the Sky 30

4 Gold Medal for Corruption 42

5 School Days 55

6 The Bavarian Perspective 62

7 Learning to Sprint 70

8 Black and White 74

9 The Eagle Flies 82

10 Post-Olympic Stress Factor 92

11 The Turning Point 100

12 I Love Paris 110

13 The Fog 120

14 View from Olympus 126

15 The Berkeley Man 134

16 Cat on the Prowl 147

17 The Road to Munich 153

18 Blamed, but Blameless 170

19 Last Leg of the Journey 185.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 199) and index.

ISBN:

9781606353127

1606353128

OCLC:

966715517