The 1972 Munich Olympics was meant to be a festival of sport. But that's not how it turned out. Produced by Sonia Sly.

The 1972 Munich Olympics was meant to be a festival of summer sport.

"A policeman was shouting at me to stay in our quarters"

"I was brought up to shoot straight and tell the truth," says Bruce McMillan (76) - a professional target pistol shooter based in Whanganui.

McMillan's shooting career began in the mid 1960s. A recreational pistol shooter today, he has competed in two Commonwealth Games, a world champs, and was one of 89 Kiwis competing at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

This particular Olympic Games had been the biggest at the time, with more than seven thousand competitors and it was an event kicked off to a celebratory start with an impressive venue.

"The atmosphere at the Games was absolutely fantastic...it was a summer festival of sport," recalls McMillan.

By the time the Olympics were halfway through, McMillan had already completed his part of games.

"I finished in the middle of the field with the world champion close to my score," he says.

Josef Zapedski, a cavalry officer from Communist Poland, had taken out the title, winning a new Olympic record of 595 out of 600. McMillan says Zapedski wasn't the most talkative man, but given the Cold War was taking place, and Poland was bleak, this was almost to be expected.

But it was on 5th September 1972 that the atmosphere at the Olympics would turn sour.

It was dawn and there was a bit of commotion taking place outside. People were being shooed away by police, according to McMillan who headed outside to take a peek.

"That's when I got shouted at," he says.

"A very well-built policeman in a leather overcoat was shouting at me to stay in our quarters."

McMillan only knew a few words in German and couldn't make out what was going on. But when he headed down to the village car park on a day trip out of the Olympic Village, he saw confirmation that something big had just taken place.

"They were bringing Weinberg's body out on a gurney," he says of Moshe Weinberg - the coach of the Israeli weightlifting team.

McMillan was staying in the men's-only quarters, about 40 to 50 metres away from where the shooting had occurred. He never heard the shot that killed Weinberg.

Eleven Israeli athletes were being held hostage by members of a Palestinian group called Black September who were making a political statement calling for the release of just over 200 Palestinians and non-Arabs imprisoned in Israel. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details