Will Terrorists Stop The Olympics? Should We Even Be Considering That?

Bill Rodgers: Terrorists Won't Stop Olympic Games

Monday, 30 Dec 2013 03:05 PM

By Bill Hoffmann

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The Winter Olympics will not be stopped by the cowardly terrorists who staged two deadly bombings in Russia this week, former Olympic runner and four-time New York City and Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers says.

"I'm confident the American athletes and athletes from around the world are going to go to Sochi. It's going to be a great Olympic games," Rodgers told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.




"You're not going to stop the Olympic Games — not anywhere. I don't believe so."

On Monday, a suicide bomb killed at least 14 people in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, just a day after an explosion at Volgograd's main train station killed 17 people and wounded at least 35.

Russian authorities have declared both bombings to be terrorist attacks.

''[It's] another attempt to get attention for a cause . . . We're taking a look at a small, isolated group of religious extremists," Rodgers said.

"You can't defeat the world, you know? In this sense, it kind of gives the rest of the world an understanding of what we have to do, which is to unite and don't let people stand in your way and stop you.''

Rodgers, 66, who competed in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, believes Russia has expert security forces to prevent terrorism at the Olympics, which will take place in February.

"The Russians stopped the Nazi invasion in World War II and the Russian people are very tough. I raced against the top Russians back in the '70s and '80s," he said.

"The political leaders will take a look at this and they'll come to a solution in the end."

Rodgers, author of "Marathon Man: My 26.2-Mile Journey from Unknown Grad Student to the Top of the Running World," said athletes live by a saying: have no fear.

"It's the way we live and . . . athletes always do their best and try to rise above."

Rodgers says he vehemently disagrees with Brian Stelter of "CNN Newsroom," who suggested on Friday that news outlets may have had an "overreaction" to the Boston Marathon bombings last April that killed three and injured 264.

"I disagree completely. It is political terrorism. It's a worldwide issue because there is this small group of extremists and they travel here and there and they're around the world, to an extent," he said.

"But, overall, the majority of all people are against these extremists so that's why they cannot win."


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