In July 2012 , the Anti-Defamation League called the continued refusal by the International Olympic Committee to hold a moment of silence at the opening ceremony for the eleven Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics , " a continuing stubborn insensitivity and callousness to the memory of the murdered Israeli athletes . " The Olympics have been commercialised to various degrees since the initial 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens , when a number of companies paid for advertising , including Kodak . In 1908 , Oxo , Odol mouthwash and Indian Foot Powder became official sponsors of the London Olympic Games . Coca-Cola sponsored the 1928 Summer Olympics , and has subsequently remained a sponsor to the current time . Before the IOC took control of sponsorship , national organising committees were responsible for negotiating their own contracts for sponsorship and the use of the Olympic symbols
Israeli athletes killed
Munich massacre
Olympic Games