The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad and officially branded as Mexico 1968, were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968 in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Olympic Games to be staged in Latin America, the first to be staged in a Spanish-speaking country, and the first to be staged in the Global South. Consequently, these games also marked the first time that there would be a gap of two Olympic Games not to be held in Europe. They were also the first Games to use an all-weather (smooth) track for track and field events instead of the traditional cinder track, as well as the first example of the Olympics exclusively using electronic timekeeping equipment.
Avery Brundage was the fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, serving from 1952 to 1972, the only American and only non-European to attain that position. Brundage is remembered as a zealous advocate of amateurism and for his involvement with the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics, both held in Germany.
Tommie C. Smith is an American former track and field athlete and wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.
Lee Edward Evans was an American sprinter. He won two gold medals in the 1968 Summer Olympics, setting world records in the 400 meters and the 4 × 400 meters relay, both of which stood for 20 and 24 years respectively. Evans co-founded the Olympic Project for Human Rights and was part of the athlete's boycott and the Black Power movement.
The raised fist, or the clenched fist, is a long-standing image of mixed meaning, often a symbol of solidarity, especially with a political movement. It is a common symbol representing a wide range of political ideologies, most notably socialism, communism, anarchism, and trade unionism, and can also be used as a salute expressing unity, strength, or resistance.
Peter George Norman was an Australian track athlete. He won the silver medal in the 200 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, with a time of 20.06 seconds, which remained the Oceania 200 m record for more than 56 years. He was a five-time national 200-metre champion.
Payton Jordan was the head coach of the 1968 United States Olympic track and field team, one of the most powerful track teams ever assembled, which won a record twenty-four medals, including twelve golds. He was born in Whittier, California. Jordan was exceedingly successful as a collegiate track coach for a decade at Occidental College and for 23 years at Stanford University. A star three-sport athlete in his youth, Jordan more recently became one of the most dominant track athletes of all time, as a sprinter, in senior divisions. Jordan died of cancer at his home in Laguna Hills, California on February 5, 2009.
During their medal ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City on October 16, 1968, two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist during the playing of the US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". While on the podium, Smith and Carlos, who had won gold and bronze medals respectively in the 200-meter running event of the 1968 Summer Olympics, turned to face the US flag and then kept their hands raised until the anthem had finished. In addition, Smith, Carlos, and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human-rights badges on their jackets.
Wayne Curtis Collett was an African-American Olympic sprinter. Collett won a silver medal in the 400 m at the 1972 Summer Olympics. During the medal ceremony Collett and winner Vincent Matthews talked to each other, shuffled their feet, stroked their chins and fidgeted while the US national anthem played, leading many to believe it was a Black Power protest like the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
Martin Jellinghaus is a retired West German former athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.
The Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) was an American organization established by sociologist Harry Edwards and multiple Black American athletes, including noted Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, on October 7, 1967. The purpose of the group was to advocate for civil rights and human rights for Black people in the United States and Africans abroad, along with protesting racism in sport in general. The OPHR proposed a complete Black athlete boycott of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City to achieve its goals. While the OPHR advocated for a boycott backed by all Black Americans, the group did not actively include women in its discussions and in the end was mostly composed of track and field athletes.
Douglas Fergusson Roby was an American sportsman and Olympics official. After playing football at Phillips University and the University of Michigan, he worked for American Metal Products Company, an automobile parts manufacturer, from 1923 to 1963. From 1951 to 1953, he was the president of the Amateur Athletic Union, then America's governing body for many amateur sports. He was vice president (1953–65) and president (1965–68) of the United States Olympic Committee and one of two American members of the International Olympic Committee (1952–84). As president of the USOC during the 1968 Summer Olympics, he expelled African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos after their raised-fist Black Power salute during a medal ceremony.
Salute is a 2008 Australian sports documentary film directed, produced and written by Matt Norman. It tells the role of Peter Norman, Norman's uncle, in a defining moment of the American civil rights movement: the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
Lloyd C. Winter, better known as Bud Winter was an American track and field coach who is regarded as one of the greatest sprint coaches in the world. Over a 29-year coaching career (1941–1970) at the then San Jose State College, he produced 102 All-Americans, 27 who went on to become Olympians.
The president of the International Olympic Committee is head of the executive board that assumes the general overall responsibility for the administration of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the management of its affairs. The IOC Executive Board consists of the chairman president, four vice-presidents, and ten other IOC members; all of the board members are elected by the IOC Session, using a secret ballot, by a majority vote.
Michael Fray was a Jamaican Olympic sprinter. In the 1968 Mexico Olympics, he ran second leg on the 4x100 meters Jamaican relay team which set the world record at 38.6 seconds in the preliminary heats and then broke the record with a 38.3 seconds clocking in the semi-finals. This 38.3 clocking still stands as the world record for athletes under twenty-three years old.
The men's 200 metres event at the 1968 Summer Olympics was held in Mexico City, Mexico. The final was won by 0.23 seconds by Tommie Smith in a time of 19.83, a new world record. However, the race is perhaps best known for what happened during the medal ceremony – the Black Power salute of Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos. The background, consequences, and legacy of the salute carried forward into subsequent Olympics and is perhaps the single most memorable event from these Olympics.
The 200 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the second edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 200 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 and the women's 200 m has been held continuously since its introduction at the 1948 Games. It is the most prestigious 200 m race at elite level. The competition format typically has three or four qualifying rounds leading to a final race between eight athletes.
The 1972 Olympics Black Power salute was a political protest by two U.S. Olympic runners, Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett, during the medal ceremony for the Men's 400 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. This event is sometimes referred to as "The Forgotten Protest". It came four years after the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
Victory Salute, commonly referred to as the Olympic Black Power Statue, is a monument depicting the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute performed by African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The monument consists of two fiberglass statues covered in ceramic tiles, atop a concrete base designed to emulate the Olympic podium. It was created in 2005 by Portuguese artist Rigo 23 and is installed next to Tower Hall on the San José State University campus, in San Jose, California, United States.
