The Boston Marathon: Security since the Boston Bombing

By: Nora Kapoor

On April 15th, 2013, thousands of runners got ready at the starting line for the Boston Marathon. Towards the finish, tragedy struck, and two bombs exploded, killing three people and injuring 264. Six years later, in 2019, runners arrived safely at the finish line. So what changed?

The security for the Boston Marathon has definitely changed since the Boston bombing. Before the bombing, the security of the Boston Marathon was quick. Just walk through, and you were there. But since then, the security has become tighter, and there are cameras everywhere. Jonathan Schechner, a previous Boston Marathon runner stated, “I wasn’t scared, and it was good to know they were concerned for the runners. All streets were closed, except for the route.” Schechner also said, “You had to have a certain tag to enter the race, and the police officers would have to check and verify it.” This all started since the first marathon after the Boston bombing, which had increased the security measures. Asma Khalid from NPR news reported, “Last year, the marathon was run under extremely tight security because of the bombings. It was unclear if those new rules were here to stay, but as we approach another marathon Monday, it seems they've become the new normal. Like last year, runners have to pass through a security bag check before they can pick up their numbers.”

Additionally after the bombing, a search was taken in find of the suspects who set the bombs, and the suspect was later found as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother. Tsarnaev in the end admitted he was guilty but his brother had died from several wounds they did not receive any information from him.

Though the Boston bombing has affected many people, the security has changed immensely, making the Boston Marathon a once again welcoming race for many determined runners.

Five cheating scandals in the Olympics

By: Asha David

Cheating is a common thing people do in life, thinking it will help them succeed. In fact, one of the most worldwide known events holds a lot of cheating. The Olympics. While the Olympics might have traditions, could cheating be one of them? Here are the top five cheating scandals in the Olympics.

The first big cheating scandal in the Olympics

The marathon course at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, was called “The most difficult a human being was ever asked to run over.” with steep hills, traffic, and roaming wild dogs, the runners had to deal with rising temperatures and humidity. American runner Fred Lorz decided to rest after completing 9 miles, and hitched a ride for the next 11. When the car broke down, Lorz started running again and won the event. However, his cheating was quickly discovered, and Thomas Hicks was declared the winner.

1976

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics games, Ukrainian athlete Boris Onishchenko was believed to win a medal in the pentathlon. As a skilled fencer, he was not expected to have any difficulty in the fencing part of the event. However, the British team noticed that he got a point even though he didn’t touch his opponent. (The swords were electric and programmed to count a point when the opponent was hit.) They eventually discovered that his épée had been changed, allowing Onishchenko to press a button to falsely give him a point. Since he cheated he was disqualified from the games.

For most of the 1970s and ’80s, East German women swimmers dominated their opponents, especially at the 1976 Games in Montreal, when they won 10 out of the 13 events and set 8 world records. But at the last game they won no gold medals. Steroid use became common, but none of the swimmers tested positive. Though in 1991, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, they found out that East Germany had run a state operated drug program for its athletes, but most swimmers were unaware of the fact that they were being given banned substances.

1988

The 100-meter event at the 1988 Seoul Games has been called the “dirtiest race” because of drug use by the competitors. Although Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson technically won, his medal got taken away, after testing positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. Johnson later said that it wasn’t really cheating if everyone else was using drugs. Johnson had a point, but his gold medal was still given to second-place finisher Carl Lewis, an American who had tested positive for banned stimulants during the U.S. Olympic trials that year but did not receive a suspension. Linford Christie from Britian, who was placed to the silver, tested positive for pseudoephedrine (a drug used to relieve colds, allergies, etc.) but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later cleared him, after he blamed the results on ginseng tea (a tea used to help strengthen the immune system)

2012

At the 2012 olympics in London, a new format was introduced in badminton. With bad results, four women teams, two from china, one from Korea and one from Indonesia were kicked out of the game for match fixing. “After lackluster play that drew boos from spectators, the teams were accused of purposely trying to lose their matches in order to improve their draw in the next round.” Amy Tikkanen quotes from Encyclopedia Britannica. They were disqualified for “not using one’s best efforts to win.”

Although these cheating scandals had a negative effect on the Olympics, it has taught the athletes that cheating isn’t a strategy for winning, while also improving the rules and guidelines for the games.

Why did the U.S. almost not attend the Olympics during World War ll?

By: Emmy Jones

When the Olympics were hosted in Berlin in 1936 during world war 2, the U.S. started a boycott. Many Jewish athletes did not want to attend and some were benched right before the event. The question is, why?

In 1936 the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) considered not to attend the Olympics that were hosted in Berlin. Jeremiah Mahoney, the president of the AAU remarked “ The AAU voted in 1933 to accept an invitation to compete at Berlin in 1936 provided Germany pledged that there would be no discrimination against Jewish athletes. If the pledge is not kept, I personally do not see why we should compete.”

Mahoney pointed out that Germany had broken Olympic rules, in the past. The U.S. knew that if they didn’t participate in the olympics that year, many other countries wouldn’t attend as well. The AAU voted and they ended up going to the Olympics, even though, many Jewish athletes from all different countries made the decision not to attend. Avery Brundage (The President of the American Olympic Committee) stated after looking at German sports facilities that “Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the Games should go on, as planned.” Many anti-nazi groups and newspaper editors, led by Mahoney didn’t believe that the German Jewish athletes were being treated equally, but Brundage was able to take a vote, in order to send an American team to Berlin.

The Decision

The Berlin Olympic boycott came to and end and the U.S. team ended up attending. But many Jewish athletes didn’t attend, including two american athletes, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller who were both Jewish were benched right before the event and were replaced by two non Jewish athletes.