0:00:04 > 0:00:07The Olympic Games come on a grand scale,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10so vast, only the biggest need apply.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14Olympic budgets are calculated by the billion.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17So, too, the television audience.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21This is sport subjected to huge pressures,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24to protest global in size.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29And yet the massive is only a compilation of individuals,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31each with a tale.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34This is the story of a small land
0:00:34 > 0:00:36and our part in the biggest show on earth.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45The Olympics,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49designed as a safe haven for men from the cares of the world.
0:00:49 > 0:00:50It couldn't last.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55This week, the Olympic sport of wrestling with the real world,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59how politics couldn't be kept out of sport.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04You do have this one window of opportunity every four years,
0:01:04 > 0:01:06and to have that snatched away from you
0:01:06 > 0:01:08by politicians seems to me very unfair.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12How women said, "Why should we be kept out of the Games?"
0:01:12 > 0:01:17Nicole Cooke is the Olympic road race champion! The gold medal is hers.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21And the Paralympians - they, too had a point to prove.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24And try stopping our Tanni in full flight.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27No-one had a clue what the Paralympics meant.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28You know, there was no media coverage,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30it was really hard to get into a club
0:01:30 > 0:01:34and most people's attitude towards disabled people doing sport was,
0:01:34 > 0:01:35"Oh, isn't that lovely."
0:01:43 > 0:01:46May I introduce you to Georgia Davis of Swansea,
0:01:46 > 0:01:50who'll be competing at her first Olympic Games in London,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52in the women's 100 metre backstroke.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Georgia is fully funded.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58She can train every day, twice, three times a day.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01And if she wins gold, she'll be the first Welsh swimmer
0:02:01 > 0:02:03to do so in more than 100 years.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07Had Georgia been swimming at the Stockholm Games of 1912,
0:02:07 > 0:02:11she'd have competed in an open-air pool, without lanes.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16She'd have worn this, made of silk and so see-through
0:02:16 > 0:02:20that she'd have needed a chaperone to escort her wherever she went in costume.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27100 years ago, the Suffragettes had a police escort.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30The struggle for women's right to vote,
0:02:30 > 0:02:32the march towards equality had begun
0:02:32 > 0:02:36but the man behind the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39did not approve of women at his Games.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43He said that the inclusion of women would be uninteresting,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46impractical, unaesthetic and incorrect.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Women were considered rather weak and, in those days,
0:02:51 > 0:02:53if a woman ran more than 400 metres,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56she was likely to drop down dead.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00There were all kinds of theories about if women ran more than
0:03:00 > 0:03:02something like 100 metres,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04they would no longer be able to conceive.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Some people believed if they got 200-300 metres,
0:03:08 > 0:03:10they would probably explode.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Given the fact that they really weren't allowed to train very much,
0:03:13 > 0:03:14there wasn't much facility
0:03:14 > 0:03:17to train in the same way the male athletes did,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20it's not really surprising that then they played into the hands
0:03:20 > 0:03:22of these myths about fragile little women
0:03:22 > 0:03:25who needed protecting and shouldn't be seen to sweat in public.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33But women had begun to compete at these manly Olympics.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36There are some kind of significant milestones.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38By the time we get to 1900 in Paris,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41women are allowed to do fairly ladylike sports -
0:03:41 > 0:03:43golf, croquet, lawn tennis.
0:03:43 > 0:03:451912 - they're allowed to swim,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47which must have been quite a breakthrough.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52Irene Steer - Wales's first female gold-medal winner.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Irene was from Cardiff and could use the Corporation baths
0:03:55 > 0:03:59but most of her training was done in Roath Park lake.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02There were precious few facilities for swimming and, of course,
0:04:02 > 0:04:06in Wales, there was very little competition.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09So it was very hard for her and how she managed to achieve
0:04:09 > 0:04:14the levels that she did is beyond my understanding, really.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19In these pioneering days, everything was against Irene, it seemed,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22including her shoe size.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25I remember when we were in Southport for the trials,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28we went to the trials to be picked.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32We were walking along the front, a whole lot of us girls, arm in arm,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and I had very small feet in those days.
0:04:35 > 0:04:36And they said,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40"Oh, well, you don't expect to win anything with those feet, do you?"
0:04:40 > 0:04:42They took one look at her and said,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45"Well, we don't have to worry about her."
0:04:45 > 0:04:48But of course they didn't know Grandma.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Grandma and her small feet were selected for the Stockholm Games...
0:04:56 > 0:04:57..and the team set sail.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01The team, plus the chaperone - the one in the middle.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07She was a pretty severe-looking lady, I think.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10I don't know whether she was there to control them
0:05:10 > 0:05:13through her experience, et cetera or not.
0:05:13 > 0:05:14When you see what they wore
0:05:14 > 0:05:17you realise why they might have needed a bit of protection.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20It's made from pure silk, it's dark navy
0:05:20 > 0:05:22so it was a kind of bra and pants,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26with an over-costume to the elbow and mid-side.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30But it's completely transparent!
0:05:30 > 0:05:34At Stockholm, the women's 4x100 metre freestyle relay was so new
0:05:34 > 0:05:39that the winning British team set the event's first world record.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Irene then swam in the individual 100 metres,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44a freestyle free-for-all.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47In those days, there were no ropes, no lane definition.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50And on the turn, she collides with a German girl.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55The German team make a complaint and Irene is disqualified from the final.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Absolutely devastated, has to sit out and watch the Australian win gold,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02knowing that she would have been among the medals.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Irene nevertheless returned from the 1912 Olympics to great acclaim.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12She'd always enjoyed watching Cardiff City
0:06:12 > 0:06:14and now she married the chairman.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17But it is her swimming that truly sets her apart.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Irene Steer's achievement of being the first woman from Wales
0:06:23 > 0:06:26at the Olympics to win a medal...
0:06:26 > 0:06:29I mean, it's absolutely monumental.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Swimming, as she was,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35against not just her own competitors in the pool,
0:06:35 > 0:06:40but also against a whole tide of male-dominated attitudes.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44You're looking at a period for women where they don't even have the vote.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47It's the Downton Abbey era where women are decorative and,
0:06:47 > 0:06:52you know, the kind of competitive spirit might be seen as aggressive.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56So that's what makes our early Welsh heroines like Irene Steer so remarkable.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Times have changed.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Not every country allows their women to go to the Olympics
0:07:06 > 0:07:09but in Wales they have the chance, and perhaps Welsh women
0:07:09 > 0:07:13are on course to win more medals in London than Welsh men.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15In the women's triathlon, for example,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18where Helen Jenkins is the reigning world champion...
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Jenkins wins in Hyde Park!
0:07:21 > 0:07:24..Victoria Thornley in the women's eight,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28sailor Hannah Mills in the 470 class,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Jade Jones in taekwondo,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35and Nicole Cooke, Britain's first gold medallist in Beijing.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Here's the link.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Everything nowadays is geared towards high performance,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43from training routines to fashion shows.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45The swimwear is by Stella McCartney,
0:07:45 > 0:07:51the fabric is man-made nylon, a blend of polyamides and elastane.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58100 years ago, Irene Steer, under a watchful eye,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02put on her costume of finest natural silk
0:08:02 > 0:08:04and this became pure costume drama.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Let me show you something.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13That is what you'd have been wearing 100 years ago.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15What do you think?
0:08:15 > 0:08:18- Er, looks quite flimsy.- Flimsy.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21- Quite see-through.- Very see-through. - Not much support.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Not so flimsy, because for 96 years,
0:08:25 > 0:08:31until Nicole Cooke won in 2008, no Welsh woman won an Olympic gold.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Irene Steer, heroine of her age, hero of any age.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39I've been doing sport all my life
0:08:39 > 0:08:42and I can't imagine living in a time where I wasn't allowed to compete,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46and then watching men compete. I just find it so unfair
0:08:46 > 0:08:51but definitely all the fighting that the women did back then
0:08:51 > 0:08:56paid off and I'm just glad that I can be taking part now.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00Do you think you'd have been on the militant wing out there?
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Yeah, I think so. I definitely wouldn't be able to sit back
0:09:03 > 0:09:05and just sort of suffer in silence.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Women forced the men of the Olympics to have a rethink.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18Men had to admit their male-only model was wrong and they reacted.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23But sometimes the Olympics can take the initiative.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Without the Olympics, there would be no parallel Olympics -
0:09:26 > 0:09:27the Paralympics.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37In 1948, a wheelchair games was held at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
0:09:37 > 0:09:38in Buckinghamshire,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41mostly for servicemen injured in the Second World War.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The Paralympic take-up was gradual -
0:09:46 > 0:09:49400 competitors in Rome in 1960,
0:09:49 > 0:09:521,500 in Montreal in 1976.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55And then they put these games straight after the Olympics.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58The 1988 Paralympics have opened in Seoul.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04The para-revolution began - the Olympics, then the Paralympics.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09And Wales, for the past two decades, has been churning out the champions.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Oh, what a good swim by Dave Roberts!
0:10:13 > 0:10:14That was some race.
0:10:14 > 0:10:1811 gold medals, equalling the record of this athlete.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Tanni Grey-Thompson does it. Another gold medal for her.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Tanni Grey storms through in the last 50 metres.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35A title to go with the 16 medals, including those 11 golds,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37won at five Games.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39The Paralympics were expanding fast
0:10:39 > 0:10:41and this was the woman in the driving seat.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47In the space of 24 years,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50the Paralympics has gone through as big a growth
0:10:50 > 0:10:53as just about any sport in the world.
0:10:53 > 0:10:54I think in Paralympic terms,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57we've probably squashed 100 years of development
0:10:57 > 0:10:59into a quarter of a century.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03So, Seoul in '88, nobody really came to watch.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Nobody had any idea what the word Paralympic meant.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08I remember competing there
0:11:08 > 0:11:11and various churches were drafted in to support the teams.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15They were obviously given the same tickets for the same seats every day,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18but every day they decided to support different countries.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21So one day it was Britain, the next it was Germany and, you know,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25that was... There wasn't really any atmosphere and no media coverage,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27and it was quite hard on the athletes.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30But in four years to Barcelona '92,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33there was a massive change.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37So, you know, with each four years there's been this massive evolution.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42So by the time it got to Beijing in 2008, then, actually,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46people were coming to watch and I think in London 2012,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49the fact that nearly 1.2 million tickets have been sold
0:11:49 > 0:11:52has taken it to a whole new level. And it can still get better.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55I know that we'll have really made it in Paralympic sport
0:11:55 > 0:11:59not when we have the first athlete with a million-dollar shoe contract,
0:11:59 > 0:12:01but when we have the 10th, the 15th, the 20th athlete with that.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05We're not there yet but we're going to be there really, really soon.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Nathan Stephens of Kenfig Hill.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14When he was nine, he lost his legs after an accident on a railway line.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Nathan relaunched himself into sports,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21throwing in the summer, on ice in the winter,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25as a sledge hockey player, good enough to compete
0:12:25 > 0:12:28at the Turin Winter Paralympics of 2006.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33He competed at the Beijing Games in the discus, shot and javelin.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38From being a non-disabled kid losing my legs
0:12:38 > 0:12:41and seeing what it's done for me over the years,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43it has given me that lease of life
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and I know it's given so many other kids
0:12:46 > 0:12:49that chance to be the best, you know, to push themselves.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55It just opens so many doors. It knocks down so many barriers.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Obviously, me lying in a hospital bed,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00not knowing if I could do sport again,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04and then it just opened this whole new world for me.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Right now, if someone asked me,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10"Right now I could give you your legs back - would you have it?"
0:13:10 > 0:13:12I'd turn round to them and say no because
0:13:12 > 0:13:14the people that I've met,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16the experience that I've gained over the years,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18I've got a beautiful life.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22I'm number one in my sport and I've made a career for myself,
0:13:22 > 0:13:23and made my family proud.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26And I wouldn't give that away for nothing.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Since then, he's become world champion in the javelin.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36From missing out on the bronze medal in Beijing,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38from winning the gold in New Zealand,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40and now to defend my title on home ground,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43yeah, there's added pressure but also that added support.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46My mentality of not giving up
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and going out there to do everybody proud...
0:13:50 > 0:13:53I ain't going to let nobody take that from me on home soil.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Paralympians, women - they could knock on the door of the Olympics
0:13:58 > 0:14:00and be allowed in, for sport.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05The Olympics still wanted to stand apart from real life,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09but protest and politics were coming to the Games.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13MUSIC: "Express Yourself" by Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
0:14:13 > 0:14:15The 1960s - a decade of contrasts.
0:14:15 > 0:14:16Free love
0:14:16 > 0:14:18and social upheaval,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22protests against the Vietnam War,
0:14:22 > 0:14:23student riots...
0:14:25 > 0:14:27..and the black power struggle.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31We're non-violent with people who are non-violent with us.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36The Olympic Games of 1968 went high,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39to 7,000 feet above sea level - Mexico City
0:14:39 > 0:14:43- where protesting students were killed before the Games began.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47Lynn Davies of Wales was defending the long jump title he'd won
0:14:47 > 0:14:49in Tokyo in 1964,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52only for Bob Beamon to sail through the thin air
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and break the world record by more than half a metre.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Even more memorable were the events surrounding the 200 metre final,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05won by Tommy Smith with John Carlos, also of the United States,
0:15:05 > 0:15:06taking the bronze.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09After the race, came the medal ceremony.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13A lot of the black American athletes felt that they were privileged
0:15:13 > 0:15:17in being part of the Olympic Games and had that opportunity.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22But back home they were nothing, unemployed, couldn't get jobs and everything else.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25So we sensed that when Smith and Carlos, who were brilliant athletes,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28said they were going to make some kind of statement,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31we had an indication that it was something about
0:15:31 > 0:15:33the black movement in America.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35MUSIC: "Walk On The Wild Side" by Lou Reed
0:15:39 > 0:15:43It was very quiet and very still and almost very eerie.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48It was a very dignified protest.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51I remember seeing it at the time and being very struck by it.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55I think they had their heads bent down and their arms raised.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58The Mexican crowd didn't really understand
0:15:58 > 0:16:01what these guys were doing because normally,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03if an American wins a gold medal,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07he stands on that rostrum with his hand on his heart,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11looking up at the American flag and singing the American anthem.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Well, these two guys stood on the rostrum
0:16:14 > 0:16:16and denied the flag and the anthem.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20They were making a statement and they were showing great bravery,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24because normally sportsmen and women, Olympic contestants,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29are solely focused on doing the very best that they can,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33in their chosen sport, to the best of their ability.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35They're not thinking about society,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38or the morality, or the issues involved.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41DAVID COLEMAN: Do you think the Olympics are the right place
0:16:41 > 0:16:44to do this, that you ought to use this as a kind of world stage?
0:16:44 > 0:16:46David, since we are athletes,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50although I am a teacher but I'm not a politician,
0:16:50 > 0:16:55we used this so the whole world could see
0:16:55 > 0:16:57the poverty of the black man in America.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04A defiant gesture by Americans aimed at America.
0:17:04 > 0:17:0532 years earlier,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08the Berlin Games were supposed to be a showcase
0:17:08 > 0:17:13for the White Aryan supremacy that underpinned Nazi ideology,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16only for Jesse Owens, born into poverty in Oakville, Alabama,
0:17:16 > 0:17:17to win four gold medals.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25In 1972, the Games were hosted by Munich in West Germany, new Germany.
0:17:25 > 0:17:31These would be the Games free of care, not political but technical.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Germany had the know-how to cover Olympics sport
0:17:34 > 0:17:36as it had never been covered before.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41The world would revel in all seven of Mark Spitz's
0:17:41 > 0:17:42gold medals in the pool.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Wales had the manpower on horseback - David Broome and Richard Meade.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Lynn Davies was GB team captain at his third Games.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Two generations on, the German people wanted to welcome the world
0:17:59 > 0:18:02in a new Germany and the organisation was brilliant.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06The Olympic village was superb, everything was perfect and laid on,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10and we were looking forward to, you know, a brilliant Olympic Games.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Everything changed on September 5th.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15Because these were the carefree Games,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19security around the athletes' village was deliberately light -
0:18:19 > 0:18:23light enough for eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group
0:18:23 > 0:18:24Black September to pass through.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28In the night, what looked like athletes had climbed over the fence,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32dressed in tracksuits, carrying bags with machine guns in them.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34And the guards thought that they were athletes
0:18:34 > 0:18:38coming from a late night party, at two o'clock in the morning.
0:18:39 > 0:18:4211 Israeli athletes and coaches were taken hostage.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Demands were made -
0:18:44 > 0:18:48the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and
0:18:48 > 0:18:53the leaders of the Baader-Meinhof Red Army faction in Germany.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57And then, for 18 hours, the world watched.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03I went out walking around and ended up at the point where
0:19:03 > 0:19:07a whole lot of people were sitting on the bank watching,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12when we actually saw the terrorists with their balaclavas
0:19:12 > 0:19:17in the window of the Israeli flat, where they all were.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25I was walking to breakfast, with Mary Peters from Northern Ireland,
0:19:25 > 0:19:32and we looked up and there was a guy standing up in the balcony with a machine gun and mask over his head.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36Mary said, "Look," and I looked up and, of course,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38I mean, we thought it was a security guard.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47It was an extraordinary situation because there we were,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51sitting, watching something that was
0:19:51 > 0:19:54potentially very dangerous and tragic.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58And yet there was absolutely nothing any of us could do.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06The stand-off ended when a deal was apparently struck.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08A plane would be laid on.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12The terrorists and hostages were taken to Furstenfeldbruck,
0:20:12 > 0:20:14a nearby NATO airbase,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17where the German authorities launched an assault.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Five of the eight terrorists were killed.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It was at first reported that the hostages were safe.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29But then the truth emerged.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35They have now said that there were 11 hostages.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40Two were killed in their rooms this morn... yesterday morning.
0:20:40 > 0:20:46Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50It was too close...
0:20:50 > 0:20:53I mean, you know, that could've been anybody, couldn't it?
0:20:53 > 0:20:56I mean, these are guys who have come to the Olympics to compete
0:20:56 > 0:20:59and for this to happen...
0:20:59 > 0:21:02I mean, you know, it wasn't part of our world or anything
0:21:02 > 0:21:04and we were absolutely shattered about it.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06It did affect everybody.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10It just cast a... Well, you can imagine how we all felt, you know.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13On the one hand, your mind is on...
0:21:13 > 0:21:16running and jumping in the Olympic Stadium.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19On the other hand, you've got these awful mixed feelings
0:21:19 > 0:21:22about this could, you know... Is this the end of the Olympic Games?
0:21:25 > 0:21:29In Munich, a day of mourning was held. Could the Games go on?
0:21:29 > 0:21:33The president of the International Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35gave the answer.
0:21:35 > 0:21:41I am sure the public will agree that we cannot allow
0:21:41 > 0:21:45a handful of terrorists to destroy
0:21:45 > 0:21:50this nucleus of international cooperation and goodwill.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52APPLAUSE
0:21:52 > 0:21:53The Games must go on!
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Were you surprised that the Games carried on at all?
0:21:59 > 0:22:01No, I think it was absolutely right that they did.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05They had the day of mourning and then they carried on,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07and I think it was right.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Do you wish that the Games had ended?
0:22:11 > 0:22:12Yes, I do.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15I wish they would have ended but it's not our decision.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19What we can do is just take the rest of the team and go home.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25The next Olympics and a new kind of trouble.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28These were the Games that bankrupted the host city, Montreal.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31And more trouble - the New Zealand All Blacks
0:22:31 > 0:22:34went on rugby tour to apartheid South Africa.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37New Zealand were not barred from the Games
0:22:37 > 0:22:42so 28 African countries withdrew from the Olympics.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Montreal had some sporting highlights
0:22:44 > 0:22:47but the cost was greater than the reward,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49and the rot hadn't yet stopped.
0:22:51 > 0:22:551980 - another Games, another political storm.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59The limited boycott of '76 threatened to become a no-show,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02with the very survival of the Olympics at stake.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06And in the bitter fallout in Britain from these geopolitical tensions,
0:23:06 > 0:23:08two Welsh voices.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13Lynn Davies, long jump gold medallist in 1964,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17was now team manager for the Moscow Games,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21while Dick Palmer from Pembrokeshire was the chef de mission.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26After the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet forces in December 1979,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31US president Jimmy Carter said that without their withdrawal,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34the Americans would boycott the Moscow Games.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37And in Britain, a similar political squeeze was on.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42The Prime Minister of the day, Margaret Thatcher, put immense pressure on us
0:23:42 > 0:23:46and the British Olympic Association to boycott those Games.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49We know we're asking something very difficult when we say,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52and we're quite clear about this, that it's not in the British interest
0:23:52 > 0:23:55that British athletes should go to Moscow when
0:23:55 > 0:23:58the Soviet Union is still committing aggression against Afghanistan.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03I think Lynn Davies and Dick Palmer were put in a very difficult,
0:24:03 > 0:24:08if not impossible, position, by the government in 1980.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10We were being pilloried in the press.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14The media were on the phone all the time, asking questions,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17"Why doesn't the IOC cancel the Games?
0:24:17 > 0:24:20"Why doesn't it delay it?" and so on.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23But there was such interest in the press and, basically,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26it was interest against us. It was negative.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30The British Olympic Association made a very strong stand
0:24:30 > 0:24:33and defended the Olympic Games saying,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36"This is above politics. This is about sport.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40"Politicians shouldn't interfere with the Olympic Games."
0:24:43 > 0:24:49Sport as a sanctuary free of worldly cares, it could never be,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51not in the Cold War world
0:24:51 > 0:24:54where sport was a symbol of national strength.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56This was political.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58The government's policy on the Moscow Olympics
0:24:58 > 0:25:00is tonight on trial in the House of Commons.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06The US sent a delegation to tighten the squeeze.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11But the beleaguered British Olympic Association did have a defence.
0:25:11 > 0:25:17Why pick on sport when the West was happily carrying on trading with the Soviet Union?
0:25:17 > 0:25:19Accused of hypocrisy,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23the Tory top brass summoned Dick Palmer to Downing Street.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Facing us was Lord Carrington, Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31and Heseltine really ripped into us.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Really was... said we were disloyal,
0:25:34 > 0:25:39we were sending politicians and particularly the Prime Minister
0:25:39 > 0:25:46in an embarrassing situation in the international corridors of power and so on.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49And really was very unpleasant to us.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55British athletes eventually competed in Moscow
0:25:55 > 0:25:58under the banner of the BOA.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01It was decided they should keep their heads down at the opening ceremony,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04leaving one West Walian as a lone flag bearer.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Do you think it was the right decision to go?
0:26:10 > 0:26:12I absolutely think it was the right decision to go
0:26:12 > 0:26:15because basically nothing changed.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20Nothing changed. The only thing that changed was that they wanted to stop the athletes going.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22That was the big gesture.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Now, athletes in America - and I know a number of them
0:26:26 > 0:26:30- are absolutely vitriolic about the fact that they lost their chance
0:26:30 > 0:26:32to compete at the Olympic Games.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34All of us here, first of all, are Americans.
0:26:34 > 0:26:40And you won't find a more patriotic group anywhere.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43We're being sacrificed simply because we're front page news
0:26:43 > 0:26:45and it's an election year. Everyone knows that.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51To be free of politics or to be engaged with the real world?
0:26:51 > 0:26:56It depends on whether you're looking at sport from without or within.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59You do have this one window of opportunity every four years,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02and to have that snatched away from you by politicians
0:27:02 > 0:27:04seems to me very unfair -
0:27:04 > 0:27:06a very unfair decision to have to make.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11I have a lot of sympathy for any sportsman or woman
0:27:11 > 0:27:16who has dedicated their lives and the preceding months and years
0:27:16 > 0:27:18to getting themselves to the peak
0:27:18 > 0:27:20of their potential achievement and fitness.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23But I don't think you can say,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27simply because you happen to be wearing an Olympic vest for one country or another,
0:27:27 > 0:27:30that you are divorced from life. I just think that's wrong.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34Not in a world of its own then.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38But still here, right here, about to begin all over again,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42surviving against all that has been thrown at it
0:27:42 > 0:27:46because the Olympics can still do this.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49There are very few places where you can sit down in a cafeteria
0:27:49 > 0:27:51and have Russians there, and East Germans there,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55and Poles there, and Americans there, in a state of friendship.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00And I think the Olympic Games still have a place,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03in that it can have these Olympic values about friendship,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05about international understanding,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09about young people coming together, taking part in sport.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12And that is the special thing about the Olympic Games.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Next week - converting inspiration into the performance of a lifetime,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24working on the details, the margins, the percentages.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29If you don't do everything you can, then you could lose 1%
0:28:29 > 0:28:31by the time it comes round to the season.
0:28:31 > 0:28:331% in my race is like a few tenths of a second.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35That's something I can't afford to lose.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40How to get your head around the moment, your Olympic moment.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43My heart's going thinking about it.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47It's just, like, you train all year round for one lap.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51And what may happen after your Olympic moment.
0:28:51 > 0:28:57Nicole's become one of these people that most people do in life,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59they don't cope with success.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd