Today in History: Olympians stripped of medals following political stand on podium
The pair decided what they’d do while they waited in the athletes’ lounge for the medal ceremony to begin.
On October 17, 1968, Olympic gold medallist Tommie Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos are forced to return their awards because they raised their fists in a black-power salute during the medal ceremony.
On October 16, Smith and Carlos finished first and third in the 200 metre dash at the Mexico City Olympics. Smith had set a new world record of 19,83 seconds. Their medal-ceremony protest was relatively spontaneous, but the sprinters had been active in the civil rights movement long before they arrived in Mexico City.
Along with Harry Edwards, one of their professors at San Diego State University, Smith and Carlos had organised a group called the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) that tried to encourage African-American athletes to boycott the Games. (“Even if you won the medal,” Carlos said, “it ain’t going to save your momma. It ain’t going to save your sister or your children. It might give you 15 minutes of fame, but what about the rest of your life?”)
When they got to the podium for the medal ceremony, Smith and Carlos were wearing OPHR badges on their tracksuits (silver medallist Peter Norman, an Australian, wore one too). They wore no shoes, to symbolise the poverty that plagued so many black Americans.
Carlos wore a necklace of black beads, “For those individuals that were lynched or killed that no one said a prayer for, that were hung tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage,” he said. Smith wore a black scarf. Both bowed their heads, raised their gloved hands and remained silent while The Star-Spangled Banner played.
People in the crowd booed and cursed at the athletes. The IOC convened the next day and determined that Smith and Carlos would have to forfeit their medals and leave the Olympic Village – and Mexico – immediately. IOC President Avery Brundage even threatened to boot the entire American team as punishment.
“The untypical exhibitionism of these athletes violates the basic standards of good manners and sportsmanship, which are so highly valued in the United States,” the US Olympic Committee said. “Such immature behaviour is an isolated incident” and “a wilful disregard of Olympic principles”.
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