Ray Roseman provides a disturbing insight into the massacre of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in his book "Dream to Reality", an account of his athletic career and successful quest to become the first ever Jewish sub-four-minute miler. Roseman was a friend of several of the Israeli athletes, and visited them the day before the start of the outrage. Tellingly, no one challenged him as he walked into their team quarters, and this was the first of several security lapses and anomalies he saw.
Roseman's close association with Israel and its athletes was born in happier circumstances nine years previously when he spent three months training in Israel. The Israeli press regularly reported his exploits and he found himself a universally recognized superstar, receiving rounds of applause on buses. Roseman went on to win four Maccabiah Games gold medals and there was also a Jewish flavour to his breaking the four-minute barrier. At the advanced age of 30, and contemplating retirement, he achieved his lifetime's goal through the inspirational coaching of Alf Wilkins, the JC's athletics correspondent at the time.
Copies of Roseman's book "Dream to Reality" can be obtained by emailing him at rayroseman@yahoo.co.uk
