Lest we forget...

This time tomorrow, we'll be watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. But we doubt that the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Olympics' darkest day will rate even a mention.

It's almost 40 years since Palestinian Black September terrorists broke into the Olympic Village in Munich and took Israeli athletes and officials hostage. The terrorists were seeking the release of more than 200 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and they chose their target with devastating effect.

However the IOC remains reluctant to revisit history and remember the eleven sportsmen who were slaughtered. We shared the image above on Facebook earlier in the week, and we encourage those of our readers with Facebook accounts and a sense of justice to do likewise.

We hate it when politics and sport collide. The attack on the Olympic Village was a particular affront, and the world held its breath as the situation developed and escalated. With the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre, it would have been fitting for the IOC to allow people to pause for a moment during their flagship event and reflect on lives lost in the pursuit of sport.

We realise that many of our younger readers will have only a limited knowledge of the events of September 1972. Take some time out of your day to watch this documentary, with interviews of those who were close to the drama, and with news footage from the time. The footage may be grainy and ill-defined by modern standards, but the outrage is still very real.

As a new breed of athletes celebrates the start of the 2012 London Olympics, join us in sparing a thought or a prayer for the athletes and officials above, killed because of accident of birth. We will remember them.