Too bad she wasn’t an Israeli gymnast.

So did Aly Raisman “thumb her nose” at the IOC, or not? HuffPo says she did:

Aly Raisman did a lot more than just win a gold medal in the floor exercise, she thumbed her nose at the I.O.C. On the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre, Olympic honchos refused to honor the memory of the slain Israeli athletes with a moment of silence. Aly was anything but quiet. She used “Hava Nagila” as her music in tribute to her Jewish roots, and after clinching the gold yesterday she said winning the gold on the 40th anniversary of the massacre made her accomplishment “special.”

But:

…she won her event with the Hebrew folk song “Hava Nagila” playing in the background.

“Having that floor music wasn’t intentional,” an emotional but poised Raisman told reporters after her performance.

“But the fact it was on the 40th anniversary is special, and winning the gold today means a lot to me.”

Then Raisman stuck the landing.

“If there had been a moment’s silence,” the 18-year-old woman told the world, “I would have supported it and respected it.”

That sounds like an answer to a question. It sounds to me like she didn’t intentionally seek to make a statement about the Munich Massacre, but that, okay, since you asked, yes she’s glad all this happened this year.

Still, it’s a nice little bit of schadenfreude to have a Jewish American win gold to the tune of Hava Nagila – which is a catchy tune, by the way – when the IOC seems to be ignoring the anniversary. Only way it could’ve been better: if Raisman was an Israeli.