Caroline Zimmerman wasn’t in the stadium at Mexico City when Tommie “Jet” Smith and John Carlos made their historic black power salutes in 1968.

But the Springfielder did attend the Olympics that year.

And as sure as she saw helicopters hovering over the Olympic Village after Israeli athletes were killed in Munich in 1972, she’ll be in London this month, having attended all the summer games in between but one: The 1980 Moscow Games the United States boycotted because of the Soviet Union’s military presence in a country called Afghanistan.

“We go in the summer because it’s warm,” joked Claire Longman of Germantown, Zimmerman’s traveling companion to the summer games since the Seoul games of 1988. “We don’t go places it’s cold.”

Before Seoul, Zimmerman traveled with Betty Dillahunt, a legendary local athlete and Zimmerman’s colleague for decades in the Health and Physical Education Department at Wittenberg University.

Longman herself has a Dillahunt connection, having graduated from Wittenberg in 1957, before starting her career as a physical education teacher at Fairmont High School, then as an elementary physical education teacher in Valley View Schools.

At 75 and 76, respectively, Zimmerman and Longman both looked lean heading into their most recent games — Longman equipped with the staying power that comes from a pair of new hips.

Exposure to games have made both very hip fans of international sports — events that have expanded their tastes far beyond the traditional American meat-and-potatoes sports of baseball, basketball and football.

“We like sports generally,” Zimmerman said. “We like team handball and volleyball. We’ve seen table tennis, weight lifting, boxing.”

Longman also has become a huge badminton fan.

“That shuttlecock goes so fast, you can’t see it,” she said.

“We just appreciate elite athletes,” Zimmerman explained. “And there’s not a bad seat in the house at any of the arenas.”

The two watch from their seats with eyes experienced enough to suspect that when they see a water polo player suddenly disappears beneath the water, holding might soon be called.

There have been highlights for them, of course, including being on hand for two of the biggest highlights of the games in Seoul. The first was when American diver Greg Louganis smacked his head on a diving board in a preliminary round, opening a nasty gash.

“He looked like a frog going in — legs all bent, arms all bent,” Zimmerman said.

That was prelude to the second highlight.

“I remember when he went again” Zimmerman said. “All the Americans cheered. And all the goosebumps — you never forget the goosebumps.”

For Zimmerman, the shadow of death in Munich in 1972 is a lingering memory. During those games, the Black September group of Palestinian extremists killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, a drama that began to unfold when Zimmerman was seated in the soccer stadium next to the Olympic Village.

Speaking English exclusively made her one of the last ones out of the stadium that year (the evacuation order came over the loudspeakers in other languages first).

Language problems also were an issue in French-speaking Quebec in the Montreal games and were so severe they caused Zimmerman and Longman to lose weight during the games in Seoul.

There was little food available at the sporting venues and “we couldn’t go to restaurants because we couldn’t speak the language,” said Longman. “I lost 10 pounds” and was down to the last belt hole when it was time to leave.

She and Zimmerman also convinced their host family that Americans love fruit, gobbling a bowl of it down each day they returned hungry from the tames.

On the other hand, they left South Korea with the impression that the South Koreans loved them.

“We were so different (to them) with her blond hair and my gray hair,” Longman said. “But they were so kind to us. We never had to stand (on the subway). We were always given a seat.”

Longman also has discovered that being injured is actually advantage to an Olympics spectator.

Carrying a cane after one of her hip surgeries, Longman found herself and Zimmerman being escorted to excellent seats by the host ushers. A passerby even stopped her car when she spotted Longman’s cane and drove the two of them to their destination.

As impressive as the courtesy they were shown in Beijing was the architecture of the Olympic venues.

Said Zimmerman, “Each year they try to outdo the last.”

In the 12 Olympic Games she’s attended, Zimmerman always has gone during the first week, when the tickets and cheaper and crowds thinner.

“The cheapest seats (in London) are 20 pounds ($31) and the most expensive are 65 pounds ($101), Zimmerman said. “I think it was $10-$15 back at the beginning.”

Although Zimmerman and Longman ordered tickets for 10 events two years ago and received tickets for just two events.

“Every time we go in the preliminaries there are empty seats,” Zimmerman said.

Another staple, she said: “Every Olympics there’s always some country having an argument with another. You have to have the faith that things will work out.”

Or the patience to endure it when they don’t.

Zimmerman made a two-hour trip outside Montreal to see an equestrian event only to arrive when the riders were taking a break. Longman thought it the better part of valor not to take a bus ride to horse events the day after a bomb went off at the Atlanta games.

Neither was as disappointed as the athlete they saw who had trained for the Olympics, entered the weight lifting venue and was so absorbed in his warm up that the bell sounded before he attempted his lift.

“His time was up,” said Longman. “he was disqualified.”

On the other hand, Zimmerman saw legendary gymnast Nadia Comaneci perform her perfect routine in Montreal in 1976, and both have witnessed the steady and dramatic improvement in women’s athletics over the years.

They’ve also enjoyed the pleasures of just being there.

At Athens, they found themselves drawn into a birthday celebration for an American softball player and saw with seasoned eyes something the first time fan might have misread.

When Greek fans were cheering foul balls at a baseball game, most casual observers would have concluded that the fans were ignorant.

But the Zimmerman and Longman saw through to the more fundamental point.

Said Zimmerman: “They were supporting their country.”

That’s the sporting spirit she and Longman take to every Olympic games.