50 years after winning the Olympic Marathon, Frank Shorter reflects on the games marked by...

After 11 Israeli athletes died in a terrorist attack, American runner Frank Shorter was sure the 1972 Olympics were over. Nothing's worth more than human life, he thought: "We're going home."

But once the decision was made to continue the games, Shorter never hesitated. He would run in his event, the marathon, because not competing would mean "they win" — the terrorists. So on Sept. 10, 1972, Shorter toed the starting line in Munich, West Germany, where he had been born in 1947 while his father worked there as a military doctor, and he ran for the gold medal. He finished the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 19 seconds, more than 2 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.

Shorter was the first American winner of the Olympic Marathon since 1908 and no man from the United States has won it since. Joan Benoit won the women's Olympic marathon in 1984, the first time the event was held for women. She's the only American winner of the women's event.