50 Years Since Esther Roth-Shahamorov's Historic Race: "It Rehabilitated My Life"

July 29, 1976. Today, exactly 50 years ago. On the starting line at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal stand eight runners dreaming of the podium. The 100m hurdles race: two Soviets, two East Germans, a Pole, a Romanian, an Italian, and Esther Roth-Shahamorov, the first Israeli athlete to reach a final in the Olympic Games.

"What more can be said about that race?" recalls Esther at her home in Ramat HaSharon, in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. "The most important thing to ask is, 'What, 50 years have already passed?' What can be concluded is that this race rehabilitated my life. I was after the trauma of Munich 1972, where my coach Amitsur Shapira (of blessed memory) was murdered alongside ten other athletes in the terrible massacre, and I was really in doubt if I could ever return to compete. Many did not believe I could. The final in Montreal is the greatest thing that happened in my personal life."

We are marking a sporting jubilee of one of the most moving Olympic stories ever written. Around the world, people were not indifferent, and newspaper headlines screamed "Revenge!" on the eve of the final. Esther, who lost her coach, the one who due to the murder of the eleven missed the semi-final in Munich, and the one who in the time-out after the disaster married her late husband Peter Roth and brought her son Yaron into the world — did not let the tragedy defeat her.

"This race has importance beyond the sporting," she says, "but also sporting, because I went to compete and not for someone to pity me because of what happened."

Between East and West

12.77 seconds from the moment of the start, Johanna Schaller from East Germany crossed the finish line first. After her came four more runners from the Eastern Bloc. In a wonderful sixth place, Esther, 13.04 seconds, was the fastest woman in the Western world. She says unequivocally: "My rivals used drugs and I did not."

Roth-Shahamorov adds: "In the past, a director produced a film about the five athletes who preceded me and about me. He asked Johanna Schaller what she thought about the accusations that she won unfairly. Instead of answering him, she took out a page from the stationery she had at her home, wrote on it: 'Esther my friend' and signed the content-less letter."

When asked what she understood from this act, Esther replies: "That she prefers not to argue with me about the Olympics. After all, they received drugs systematically."

Justice or Whitewash

Esther was the one who carried the Israeli flag at the opening ceremony of the Games in Montreal, along with the pictures of the eleven who were murdered. The Israeli delegation of 26 athletes proudly represented the country and did not let terror win.

Rafael Naeh (of blessed memory) wrote then to Yedioth Ahronoth after Esther's final, in an article titled "Without a medal, but with a lot of glory": "Esther gave the Israelis in the stands a feeling of respect, satisfaction, and pride. Journalists from all over the world surrounded Esther at the end of the race, she gave more interviews than the winner."

In the years that followed, Esther's friend, Yoram Domb, a member of the Israeli Anti-Doping Tribunal, tried to act on the matter of unfair competition before the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Sebastian Coe, but all the answers he received were in the nature of a "whitewash." Coe did not want to open a Pandora's box full of dubious Olympic medals before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Back to the Gym

The 74-year-old Esther provided a happy update regarding her health. After undergoing two kidney transplants, in the last year she dealt with two tumors discovered in her brain:

"Today I feel much better. The treatments succeeded. For example, I am already training in the gym like in the good old days, and that says a lot. It is much more important than this or that achievement. But don't think I forgot — I am still angry today that I didn't manage to win an Olympic medal."