Olympic Athletes

Nearly 20 years after the Orestes virus swept across the earth, finally, there is hope. Women are no longer dying within seconds of giving birth. The global population is on an upward trend. As the world returns to normal, Antimone is back on the athletics track, a single race away from achieving her lifetime goal of winning the Olympic 1500-meter Wheelchair gold medal. But a deadly new threat has emerged. Could Antimone’s unique biology, once again, provide the vital clue to develop a cure? When the details of her past become exposed, ruthless forces prepare an audacious plan.

On September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) entered the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany, and took 11 Israeli athletes and team members hostage. After a lengthy standoff and a bungled rescue operation, all 11 were killed. While today, Israel is one of the most divisive political subjects across the world, the Munich Massacre and the Israeli operations in response all came about entirely because of the emotional power inherent in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

The athletes competing in the 1960 Rome Olympics included some of the most honored in Olympic history: decathlete Rafer Johnson, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, and Louisville boxer Cassius Clay, who at 18 seized the world stage for the first time, four years before he became Muhammad Ali.