LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Winter Olympic Games: Athletes
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The Olympic Games in Salt Lake City were ... the first Olympics since September 11, 2001, which meant Olympic games since then required a higher level of security to avoid any terrorist attack. During the opening ceremonies, Dr. Jacques Rogge, presiding over his first Olympics as IOC president, told the athletes of the host country that their nation was overcoming the "horrific tragedy" of that day and the IOC stands united with them in promoting the committee's ideals.[9]
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As caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad continued to spark violent protests throughout the world, a local Muslim leader was calling for peace on the eve of the Winter Olympic Games. Abder Rahman Bouriqi urged local Muslims against any plan to disrupt the games or target Danish athletes for retaliation.
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Terrorism has ... become a recent threat to the Olympic Games. In 1972, when the Summer Games were held in Munich, West Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September in what is known as the Munich massacre. A bungled liberation attempt led to the deaths of the nine abducted athletes who had not been killed prior to the rescue as well as that of a policeman, with five of the terrorists also being killed.[32]
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Opening ceremonies have been held outdoors, usually on the main athletics stadium, but those for the 2010 Winter Olympics will be the first to be held indoors, at the BC Place Stadium. [27]
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Various traditional elements ... frame the closing ceremonies of an Olympic Games, which take place after all of the events have concluded. Flag bearers from each participating delegation enter the stadium in single file, but behind them march all of the athletes without any distinction or grouping of nationality – a tradition that began at the 1956 Summer Olympics at the suggestion of Melbourne schoolboy John Ian Wing, who thought it would be a way of bringing the athletes of the world together as "one nation".[41] (In 2006, the athletes marched in with their countrymen, then dispersed and mingled as the ceremonies went on).
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Friday night, the usual will occur at the Opening Ceremonies of the 20th Winter Olympic Games. Songs will be sung, athletes will march in, the flame will enter the stadium (probably with a few protesters in hot pursuit for one last publicity stunt) and, once again, the IOC will ignore the single greatest tragedy in Olympic history.
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