The 1972 Games begin, but 44 athletes are not allowed to take part: Because African countries are protesting, the International Olympic Committee excludes Rhodesia’s athletes at short notice – and right in the middle of it all is a man from the Allgäu.
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Jacob Wetzel
Günter Döbler had not expected that. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, the Allgäu native was “Chef de Mission”, i.e. head of the sporting delegation of the West African state of Dahomey, now Benin. He was looking forward to two weeks in the Olympic Village, access to all competitions and the promised “cheerful Games”. But then he unexpectedly found himself in a conference room with dozens of African officials. “Qu’est-ce que fait ce blanc la?” – “What is the white man doing there?” he heard one of them ask suspiciously. And then suddenly he was to decide whether he and Dahomey’s games should end before they even started. As well as for 39 other African countries.