Atlanta Olympic Bombing

On October fourteenth, two thousand and three, Eric Robert Rudolph was officially charged for the crimes he committed, which included the bombing of the Centennial Olympic Park, killing one in injuring over one hundred people, changing how the world viewed sporting events safety and changing how sporting events are tended to this day. And we're going to dive into what happened and what's changed since this tragic moment in sports history. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is in what state was the Centennial Olympic bomber captured? Now, the nineteen ninety six Olympics were held in Atlanta, Georgia, and it was a great for the United States as we hadn't held an Olympics since nineteen eighty four, which was just twelve years earlier. But they beat out Japan, Greece, Australia and Canada all to get this election. And part of the reason why they were given it was the success they had in nineteen eighty four, as it was one of the first Olympics to be financially successful for a country, and so they wanted to continue that success in giving Atlanta that opportunity in Atlanta was not just sitting by on what they already had. They had estimated that they were going to need to spend one point seven billion dollars to upgrade venues and have private and get the games ready for the city. Included making Centennial Park, which was a twenty two acre public park located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, and it cost twenty eight million dollars to put together to get ready for the event. You know, the Centennial Park became known as kind of a town hall or a meeting place for all the kind of events that were going around that were bringing people together for these festivities that weren't just sports. And on July twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six, they held a concert there where the band Jack Mack and the Heart Attack played, who were a popular band who even was the house band for The Lake Show with Joan Rivers back in the eighties. And they had a big crowd come just to see the festivities when sometime after midnight, Eric Robert Rudolph planted a green US military style pack containing three pipe bombs filled with a smokeless powder and three inch nails. In eighteen minutes before the bomb actually went off, there was a call to nine one one saying there was a bomb that was going to go off in the park within thirty minutes, but it was an anonymous call. But while at the park, a security guard, Richard Jool, discovered the bag underneath a bench. An alerted Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who sent out the bomb squad to check on this, and while they were waiting on the bomb squad, Jewel and other security guards began to clear the immediate area of the bomb, which was placed next to a forty foot sound tower. Now as they were evacuating, about two or three minutes into the evacuation, the bomb was detonated and that was before all the spectators could leave the area. And Alice Hawthorne, who lived nearby in Albany, Georgia, was killed from the explosion when she was riddled with shrapnel from the bomb and likely saved her fourteen year old daughter's life, who was standing next to her, and a cameraman for Turkish Radio and Television Corporation actually suffered a heart attack while running away from the scene. That ended up being fatal, and the bomb ended up wounding over one hundred people. And this was a terrible moment, not only for America, it was a war world event. The Olympics is viewed as a piece event, and it just caused turmoil throughout It caused turmoil throughout the world, and President Bill Clinton denounced the explosion as an evil act of terror and vowed to do everything possible to track down and punish whoever was responsible or involved. And unfortunately, Richard Jewel, who saw the bomb and likely saved hundreds of lives starting the evacuation before it was detonated, was a main person of interest and drugged through the mud by the press and the police force as everyone accused him and thought he was the one guilty of this crime when all he did was be vigilant and did whatever he could to help. And he later brought a defamation lawsuit versus that lasted all the way passed when Richard dule passed away in two thousands seve but in twenty nineteen his story came back to life when Clint Eastwood directed a movie based off Richard Jewele's experiences with the bombing. So after that whole Jewel faiasco. The investigation into who did this bombing had little progress until early nineteen ninety seven, when there was two more bombings that were eerily similar in where the bombings were created at an abortion clinic in a lesbian nightclub. Then another bombing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed a police officer working as a security guard and injured a nurse, gave FBI the crucial clues as witnesses saw a man walking away from the blast instead of running, and witnesses got a partial license plate which helped FBI identify Eric Robert Rudolph, who was a carpenter and handyman. But even though they identified him, he was able to evade authorities as he lived in the Appleation Mountains, even though he was one of FBI's ten most wanted fusionists and had a one million dollar reward for information leading to his arrest in October fourteenth, nineteen ninety eight. He was formerly named as a suspect in all four bombings, including the Olympic bombings in nineteen ninety six, and after five years on the run, they finally arrested him on May thirty, first two thousand and three, almost seven years after he set off that first bomb at the Olympic Park, and he was just found by a police officer doing his regular patrol seeing trying to get into a dumpster in the back of the Sebalat in North Carolina. And on April two thousand and five, the government announced that Rudolph was pleading guilty to all four bombings and would serve four life terms without the possibility of parole now. Rudolph later gave his explanation of why he bombed the Olympics as millions were giving into the idea of global socialism and promoting this throughout the world, and he thought that if he did this, the games would be canceled and it would empty the streets, eating into all the money that was invested into these socialist sports. But what he did won't change the lives he took, but it did change how we view sporting events, as security is one of the top priorities now in sporting events. It's hard for us to go to any sporting event now where you're not walking through a metal detector, you're not getting bags checked, you're limited on what you can bring in to the event. And their stricter background checks, their contingency plans in plays for security threats now for all the Olympic events. These are plans that now have to be put in place because you never know when something like this could happen. It doesn't just have to be a random person. It could be an athlete, It could be a family member that could be upset by something that happened at the events. So you have to plan for everything, change how the events are put together. Millions of dollars have been put now into security for hosting Olympic events and major sporting events across the world. We want to have these events, we want to be safe at these events. We've covered other tragic events where people have died at sporting events and it's a terrible thing. And even though this was a terrible act, at least we are doing what we can to make the sports that we love safe to attend, because attending a sporting event in person is just a great feeling, especially when it's something like the Olympics, where you're supporting your country and you're supporting world peace. It's a great opportunity and we don't want something like this to end the great camaraderie the Olympics has given us to this day. And if you want to learn more about the Olympics, check out Inside the Rings, a show that dives into the Olympic history throughout the years that let us to the sport that we love and looking back at these iconic moments. And we'll put a link in the description below for you to check out Inside the Rings show. And if you enjoyed this episode of Daily Sports History, please share it with a friend. Hit that little triangle button wherever you're listening and share it, send it in a text, in a direct message, shout it out to your socials. Hey, check out Daily Sports History so that we can continue to grow and give you more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's question? In what state was Eric Robert Rudolph the bomber the Olympic bomber captured? And the answer was in North Carolina in the Appalachian Mountains.