Yossef Romano

Yossef Romano was born in 1940 in Benghazi

Romano was born in Benghazi, Libya, to an Italian Jewish family with 10 children. In 1946 the family made aliyah to Mandate Palestine.

He fought in the 1967 Six-Day War. He worked as an interior designer and lived in Herzliya with his wife Ilana and their 3 daughters.

Romano lifted weights for Hapoel Tel Aviv and the national team and won the Israeli title in the light and middle weight divisions for many years. He also coached at Hapoel Tel Aviv. At the 1972 Munich Olympics he tore a knee tendon and had to leave the competition.

On 5 September 1972, Black September members broke into the Israeli quarters and took him hostage. He attacked one of them with a paring knife and took his rifle, and was then shot. He was left to bleed to death in front of the other hostages and was buried in Herzliya.

His widow Ilana campaigned for a moment of silence at the Olympics. Actor Sam Feuer played him in the 2005 film Munich, and a Herzliya weightlifting club and a sports hall bear his name.