On September 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian militant group called Black September secretly entered the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. They were disguised as athletes. They broke into the Israeli Olympic team’s quarters, killing two members and taking nine others hostage. The group demanded the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and two German terrorists held in West German custody. The attack shocked the world. The Olympics was supposed to be a time of friendly competition and comradery among the athletes. With the attack, athletes were no longer sure of their safety.
When the United States bid for the 1980 Winter Olympics, it made an agreement with the International Olympic Committee…the village near Lake Placid in upstate New York could be built with public funds, but only if the dormitories were later repurposed as inmate housing. The five cinderblock dorms featured 1,000 small, basic “sleeping rooms,” each with barred windows. Heavy steel doors had “peep” windows for guards to check on future inmates. The site was enclosed by two 11-foot electric perimeter fences—initially to keep terrorists out, and later to keep prisoners in. The idea seemed like a good one…in theory, but it was not well received.
Many athletes were frustrated by accommodations that resembled a future prison. “After four years of intense training, we cannot expect competitors to live in such terrible conditions,” remarked Gianfranco Cameli, a member of the Italian Olympic Committee. “The rooms clearly indicate their purpose… If two people stay inside with the door closed for privacy, they would feel imprisoned—stifled.” Protesters demonstrated during the Olympic torch relay, while an opposition group distributed posters depicting the torch held by a hand reaching out from behind prison bars. The plan for a future prison at the Olympic Village made the athletes feel like prisoners themselves, even if the reasoning was to ensure their safety. Beyond the dorms, six other buildings completed the complex, all repurposed for a new use. The athletes’ recreation center, which used to feature a game room, discotheque, and 350-seat theater, now serves as a prison chapel, chaplain’s office, psychology department, and commissary, according to the Bureau of Prisons. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a good idea to make the rooms like cells, but it was approved.
On September 26, 1980, the Lake Placid Olympic Village reopened as a federal correctional facility, meeting a 
Congressional mandate to repurpose the site after the games. The complex was originally designed with athlete security in mind following the 1972 Olympic terrorist attacks, the complex’s layout made it an ideal candidate for conversion into a prison. The transformation was completed, and it was a pretty good prison, but I doubt if the prisoners felt honored.
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