This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta Georgia, where the 1996 Summer Olympics were being held from July 19 to August 4.
Over 10,000 athletes from 197 nations participated in the games, and several new sports were introduced, including softball and beach volleyball. It was also the first time Atlanta had hosted the Olympics, beating out Athens and several other cities. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy (a native of Georgia) even poked fun at the fact that Atlanta had been chosen.
The games went well. The United States won the most medals, including a gold medal in men’s basketball, where the Dream Team dominated the court just as they did in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
But then terror struck. On July 27, a pipe bomb exploded in the Centennial Olympic Park, killing one individual and wounding 111 others, as well as causing another individual to suffer a fatal heart attack.
This would be the second time a terrorist attack took place at the Olympics- the first time being the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, when the terrorist group Black September killed 11 members of the Israeli delegation, as well as a West German police officer.
Prior to the bombing, a 9-1-1 call had been placed, saying a bomb would go off in the vicinity of the park. Soon afterward, a security guard named Richard Jewell found a bag containing the bomb under a bench and alerted the authorities. An evacuation took place, but two to three minutes later the bomb exploded, resulting in the casualties previously mentioned.
Despite Jewell being a hero for his actions, he soon became a person of interest. He was never arrested, but was investigated. Meanwhile, the media exaggerated his role as a suspect. Jewell was eventually exonerated, and sued several media entities for ruining his reputation. The lawsuits were later settled out of court.
The investigation into the bombing made little headway until the following year when two additional bombings in Atlanta took place- at an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub, as well as the bombing of an abortion in Birmingham, Alabama. The investigation of these bombings resulted in the discovery of a partial license plate. This discovery, along with other clues, led authorities to Eric Robert Rudolph, a carpenter and handyman. Despite the search efforts, Rudolph managed to eluded authorities until May 31, 2003, when he was arrested in Murphy, North Carolina on suspicion of burglary. He confessed and pled guilty for his crimes, and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Rudolph’s motive for the Olympic Park Bombing was his view of the Olympics being a celebration of global socialism. He had anti-government views, including what he saw as the government condoning abortion throughout the world.
Of course, the Olympics are not held to promote socialism. And Rudolph’s hope that the games would be cancelled never occurred- the games would go on, just like they did in 1972.
These are prime examples of not giving in to terrorism.
