Shaul Ladany

Shaul Paul Ladany (; born April 2, 1936) is an Israeli Holocaust survivor, racewalker and two-time Olympian. He holds the world record in the 50-mile walk (7:23:50), and the Israeli national record in the 50-kilometer walk (4:17:07). He is a former world champion in the 100-kilometer walk.

Ladany survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944, when he was eight years old. In 1972, he survived the Munich Massacre. He is now a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management at Ben Gurion University,

Early and family life Ladany was born to a Jewish family in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He and his wife Shosh were married for 58 years, until her death in 2019, and have a daughter Danit

Concentration camp During the Holocaust in Europe, Ladany's maternal grandmother and grandfather were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp,

In April 1941, when he was five years old, the Germans attacked Belgrade and the Luftwaffe bombed his home. There, when he was eight years old they tried to hide him in a monastery for safekeeping, warning him to keep secret the fact that he was Jewish. He was terrified the entire time that he would be discovered, but says that after that experience he wasn't afraid of anything. Many of his family were killed. But in December 1944, he was saved by American Jews who had paid a ransom to have a number of Jews, including him and his parents, released from the concentration camp, where 100,000 Jews had already been killed.

Ladany recalled:

I saw my father beaten by the SS, and I lost most of my family there... A ransom deal that the Americans attempted saved 2,000 Jews and I was one. I actually went into the gas chamber, but was reprieved. God knows why. In 1964, he earned a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later said "in the 1950s, when I started running, people also thought I was a nut. Jews didn't run. They would laugh." In 1968, at the age of 32, Ladany competed in his first Olympics – the 1968 Olympics – in the 50-kilometer walk (31 miles, 121 yards) in Mexico City. He finished in 24th place, In early 1972, Ladany set a world record in the 50-mile walk in a time of 7:44:47, shattering the world mark that had stood since 1935. He also holds the Israeli national record in the 50-kilometer walk, at 4:17:07, which he also set in 1972.

In September 1972, he returned as the sole male member of the Israeli track and field team, to compete in the 50-kilometer walk in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. When he was congratulated by locals on his fluent German, he responded: "I learned it well when I spent a year at Bergen Belsen". Asked about competing in Germany, the Holocaust survivor said: "I don't say I have to hate Germans. Of course not the younger generation, but I have no special sympathy for the older generation who have been accused of what happened in the Nazi period." The terrorists captured wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg. They shot and killed Weinberg, and threw his body out of a window onto the sidewalk.

Early in the morning somebody wakens me, I open my eyes and that's when my roommate from the Mexico Olympic Games says, 'Get up, Monie was killed by Arab terrorists'. I knew him as a joker but that sounded too serious, so without thinking much, in my pyjamas, I went to the entrance door of the apartment, opened it and looked around. I have seen guards from the village and they were speaking to somebody that was standing in the entrance to apartment number one. I have noticed his dark skin and the hat and I listened, still without being afraid or thinking that something is very dangerous for me, and the guards are asking the permission to let the Red Cross enter apartment one and provide some aid to a wounded person and the man, he refuse. They said, 'Why should you be inhumane?', and the man replied something like either, the Jews or the Israelis 'are not humane either.' At that point I understood that something is going on and I closed the door.

Another team member took Ladany to the window and pointed to the blood stains outside the apartment. They decided to leave the apartment via the rear of their apartment that backed onto a lawn, despite knowing that they would be visible to the terrorists. Ladany ran around to the building housing the U.S. team and banged on the ground-floor apartment belonging to the team coaches. He awoke the American track coach Bill Bowerman, who alerted the German police. Bowerman called for the U.S. Marines to come and protect American Jewish Olympians swimmer Mark Spitz and javelin thrower Bill Schmidt. Ladany was the first person to spread the alert as to the attack, and was one of only five Israeli team members to escape. Weinberg and 10 other Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches were kidnapped and killed by the terrorists. Two of the released Black September members were later killed, as were others who organized the Munich massacre, during a campaign of assassinations by the Israeli Mossad. He visits the graves of his murdered teammates in Tel Aviv every year, on September 6.

In 2012, the International Olympic Committee decided to not hold a minute of silence before the start of the 2012 Olympic Games, to honor the 11 Israeli Olympians who were killed 40 years prior. Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, said it would be "inappropriate". Speaking of the decision, Ladany commented: "I do not understand. I do not understand, and I do not accept it." He won the gold medal in the 100-km walk,

At the 1973 Maccabiah Games, he won the 20-km and 50-km walks. He became the first person to win both the American Open and American Masters (40 years and over) 75-kilometer walking championships.

In 2012, at the age of 75, he was still competing in 35 events a year, and claimed to walk "[...] a minimum of 15 kilometers a day", and participates in "[...] a four-day, 300-kilometer walk from Paris to Tubize, near Brussels." In his career, Ladany has never had a coach. When asked what he enjoyed most about walking, he answered "Finishing". Ladany completed 83 km on his birthday in 2019, but was unable to do 84 in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Academic career In his academic life, Ladany was a Lecturer of at the Tel Aviv University Graduate School of Business and, for over three decades, a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, where he was formerly Chairman of the department and is now emeritus professor.

Autobiography In 1997, his autobiography was published in Hebrew, entitled The Walk to the Olympics.

Hall of fame and awards In 2007, Ladany was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for outstanding service to the Olympic Movement. He was cited as a special person with "unusual outstanding sports achievements during a span covering over four decades."

Selected publications The Structure of the Printed Hebrew Language and Its Efficiency in Transmitting Information, by Shaul P. Ladany, Tel Aviv University, Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration (1969) The Interaction of Linear Programming and Value Analysis, by Shaul P. Ladany, Tel Aviv University, Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration (1969) Graphical Determination of Single Fraction-Defective Sampling Plans for Individual Small Lots, by Shaul P. Ladany, Tel Aviv University, Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration (1970) English-Hebrew dictionary of statistical terminology, by Shaul P. Ladany, Israel Institute of Productivity (1970) Determination of Optimal Compressed Limit Gaging Sampling Plans, by Shaul P. Ladany, Tel Aviv University, Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration (1971) Efficient Sampling by Artificial Attributes, by Avraham Beja and Shaul P. Ladany, Tel Aviv University, Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration (1973–76) Optimal Car Rental Policy, by Shaul P. Ladany, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business (1974) Management science in sports, Robert Engel Machol and Shaul P. Ladany, North Holland Pub. Co. (1976) Optimal strategies in sports, by Shaul P. Ladany and Robert Engel Machol, North Holland Pub. Co. (1977) Optimal Segmentation of Walls Built on Slopes, by Shaul P. Ladany, Internat. Inst. für Management und Verwaltung (1978) Optimal Hotel Room Pricing Policy, by Avner Arbel and Shaul P. Ladany, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University (1986) Optimal Cruise-liner Passenger Cabin Pricing Policy, by Avner Arbel and Shaul P. Ladany, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University (1990) King of the Road: The Autobiography of an Israeli Scientist and a World Record-Holding Race Walker, by Shaul P. Ladany, Gefen Publishing (2008)

Philately Maximization of Revenue from Sale of United Nations Postage-stamps for Philatelic Purposes, by Shaul P. Ladany, Columbia university, 1968 Greeting Telegrams of the Jewish National Fund, by Shaul P. Ladany, Society of Israel Philatelists Educational Fund (1995)