The image still resonates with quiet dignity and a palpable rage that is almost shocking to behold, especially in these politically neutered times. We live in an
age of bland sporting automata, steeped in the language of PR, super-aware of their salaried roles as ambassadors of Nike, Adidas and Reebok, and afraid of saying or doing anything that might alienate their sponsors.

Tommie Smith (C) and John Carlos (R), first and third place winners in the 200 metre race, protest at America’s treatment of its black citizens with the Black Power salute as they stand on the winner’s podium at the Olympic games in Mexico City, October 19, 1968. Australian silver medallist Peter Norman stands by unaware of history in the making.

Contrast this with 1968, when sociologist Dr Harry Edwards declared the ‘revolt of the black athlete,’ and added the voice of America’s black sportsmen to the civil rights movement. Dr Edwards was the organiser of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), and the group’s founding statement proclaimed that:

“We must no longer allow this country to use a few so called Negroes to point out to the world how much progress she has made in solving her racial problems when the oppression of Afro-Americans is greater than it ever was. We must no longer allow the sports world to pat itself on the back as a citadel of racial justice when the racial injustices of the sports world are infamously legendary…any black person who allows himself to be used in the above matter is a traitor because he allows racist whites the luxury of resting assured that those black people in the ghettos are there because that is where they want to be. So we ask why should we run in Mexico only to crawl home?”

Smith and Carlos’ distinguished, impassioned protest was to be the defining moment of the OPHR, the ’68 Olympics and – for better or worse – of their lives. History will remember them as heroes and also as martyrs. They made a stand for what they believed in and earned immortality – but they also paid a heavy for price for what they did that night.

Tommie Smith was born in Clarksville, Texas in 1944, John Carlos a year later, in Harlem. Both were raised in poverty – Smith was one of 12 children, the son of a ‘dirt farmer,’ while Carlos lived in an apartment behind his father’s shoe store with his four brothers and sisters. Like many young black men, sport seemed to offer them the possibility of a better future, and their burgeoning athletic prowess won them scholarships to San Jose State College. It soon became clear that the two had the potential to become world-class athletes.

Smith went on to break records over 220 yards, 400 metres, and 440 yards, but his favoured distance was 200 metres, where his so-called ‘Tommie-Jet Gear’ allowed him to tap into a new burst of pace whilst travelling at high speed, leaving opponents trailing in his wake. However, in the Olympic trials, Carlos was to
defeat Smith over 200 metres in a world record time, setting up the prospect of an American one-two in the 1968 Games.

But Carlos and Smith had more on their minds than medals and records. At San Jose State, they became friendly with Dr Harry Edwards, who asked them, and all the other black athletes selected to represent the United States in the Mexico Olympics, to boycott the games, in order to bring the world’s attention to the injustices facing black America, and to expose how the U.S. used black athletes to project a lie of racial harmony at home and abroad.

The late 60s were a time of change and struggle – 1968 saw the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy; anti-war protests coincided with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, which saw the U.S. lurching towards ignominy and defeat; only 10 days before the games were due to begin, hundreds of students occupying the National University in Mexico City were slaughtered by Mexican Security forces. The atmosphere was ablaze with a revolutionary spirit that is hard to imagine ever emerging again, especially in a U.S. that seems to be docilely submitting to a right-wing hegemony left behind by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Co, after an ever so brief fling with the idea of change. While the proposed boycott did not occur, OPHR members decided to compete in Mexico and protest individually. Carlos, in particular, was by now a political firebrand who had been in support of a full boycott. But, as he stated many years later:

“…not everyone was down with that plan. A lot of the athletes thought that winning medals would supercede or protect them from racism. But even if you won the medal it ain’t going to save your momma. It ain’t going to save your sister or children. It might give you 15 minutes of fame, but what about the rest of your life? I’m not saying they didn’t have the right to follow their dreams, but to me the medal was nothing but the carrot on the stick”

John Carlos took the bronze medal in a time of 20.10 seconds during the heats of the 200m at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
© George Herringshaw / Sporting Heroes Collection Ltd.

However, he and Smith surely knew that their chance would come, as they renewed their rivalry on the track and made swift progress through to the 200m final, with Carlos establishing a new Olympic record during the preliminary rounds. In the final, Smith drew his least-favourite inside lane, and ran with a strained thigh muscle, yet still came through to win the Gold medal in a then world record time of 19.83 seconds, while Carlos finished in third to earn the Bronze medal. Carlos controversially went on to claim that he slowed down in the finishing straight in order to allow Smith to win as, “the Gold medal meant more to him.”

This was a comment typical of a relationship that was fractious at best. The two were always colleagues rather than friends, as many people have assumed. However, as they took to the podium, they were in perfect harmony, coordinated in an eloquent, planned protest that would send shockwaves around the sporting and political worlds, and which would reverberate throughout the rest of their lives.

Stepping up to receive his Gold medal, Smith wore a single black glove on his right hand which, when he raised it above his head, was to symbolise black power in America. Around his neck he wore a black scarf, representing black pride. Carlos wore a glove on his left hand to symbolise unity in black America, and around his neck he wore a beaded African necklace that he said was,“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.” Both stood shoeless in black socks, to represent the enduring, abject poverty of black America.

As the Stars and Stripes were raised high above the stadium in Mexico City, and the bombastic strains of the Star Spangled Banner blared out over the tannoy, Smith and Carlos raised their fists and lowered their heads, disassociating themselves from the nationalistic triumphalism of the moment and sending a message of rage and defiance to the world. A thousand flash bulbs popped, history was made, and the lives of John Carlos and Tommie Smith changed forever.

There is an interesting side-note in the creation of this eternal image, in the shape of the silver medallist, Australian sprinter Peter Norman. When studying the photograph, Norman seems to represent a bland, white-bread counterpoint to the two black athletes. Their outstretched arms seem to make them tower above him; they gaze mournfully downwards as he stares, obediently, straight ahead, cutting an almost gormless figure, seeming to personify all the self-absorbed myopia of the white sporting world. However, Norman too played a part in the protest. Opposed to his own country’s pro-white immigration policy, he grabbed an OPHR badge from the crowd, and wore it on the podium in an act of solidarity with the two Americans.

The fallout from Smith and Carlos’ protest was immediate and devastating. The International Olympic Committee demanded that the U.S Olympic Committee ban them from the games. The U.S. team refused, but the IOC threatened to ban the entire American team, forcing the USOC to climb down. Smith and Carlos were sent home in disgrace, to face the wrath of a media who were both bewildered and outraged by their gesture. As a 1967 U.S. News and World Report put it, athletics was one arena, “where Negroes have struck it rich” – that two black athletes had chosen this forum to protest was perceived as uppity ingratitude. The press showed no mercy. The athletes’ bowed heads were perceived as disrespectful towards the American flag, and the clenched fists mistakenly interpreted as in support of the feared Black Panthers. Yet, never afraid of contradicting themselves, other media outlets described their “Nazi-like salute,” with Chicago columnist Brent Musburger dubbing them “black – skinned Storm-troopers.” Time magazine ran a picture of the Olympic insignia, replacing the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger” with the words “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier.”

Carlos did little to placate a furious white America with his public comments: “We’re sort of show horses out there for the white people. They give us peanuts, pat us on the back and say, ‘Boy, you did fine’.”

Tommie Smith threw his arms into the air and broke into a wide smile 5 metres before the finish. He shattered the world record with a time of 19.83 seconds.
© Ed Lacey/Sporting Heroes Collection Ltd.

Smith and Carlos found themselves ostracised, struggling to find work, and in receipt of regular death-threats. Smith was forced to attend night-classes when he returned to college, and had to battle to make ends meet: “A rock came through our front window into our living room, where we had the crib…it seemed like everybody hated me. I had no food. My baby was hungry. My wife had no dresses.”

Smith was able to borrow enough money to complete his education, and became a qualified teacher. He spent several years with the Cincinatti Bengals American football team, later moving on to Santa Monica College, where he remains as a social science and healthcare teacher, and coaches athletics.

The outspoken Carlos found life even more difficult, being forced to travel to find whatever work he could, spending time as a security guard, a gardener, a caretaker. His situation became so dire that he was forced to chop up his furniture for firewood to keep his family warm. The stress of life as an out-cast was too much for his wife, who committed suicide.

Years on, Smith and Carlos have been justly recognised as heroes, being inducted into the African American Ethnic Hall of Fame in 2003. But John Carlos still cannot rest: “I don’t feel embraced; I feel like a survivor, like I survived cancer.” He is dismayed that his and Smith’s legacy seems to have been wasted by a generation of black athletes who have reaped the financial rewards of sporting success, but turned their back on their social and political obligations. He believes there is still a battle to be fought, and is contemptuous of those who believe that athletes should be seen and not heard:

“Those people should put all their millions of dollars together and make a factory that builds athlete-robots. Athletes are human-beings. We have feelings too. How can you ask someone to live in the world, to exist in the world, and not have something to say about injustice?”

While Smith seems to have found some peace, Carlos’ revolutionary spirit cannot come to terms with today’s insipid, apolitical, hyper-commodified world of sport. He paid a terrible price for his actions one hot night in Mexico City, but the image that was created there will live forever as a beautiful symbol of defiance. Forty-two years on it burns as fiercely as it ever did, still resonating with all the possibilities of the human spirit. But, for John Carlos, the fight goes on.

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Born in Trelawny on the northwest coast of Jamaica on 21 August 1986, and fed on a diet of “dumplings, yam and bananas,” Usain Bolt is a true Caribbean superstar; and a legend in the making at only twenty-two years old. Watch out Tiger Woods, your money-making American crown might just be slipping.

On the 8th Day: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt blows away the rest of the men’s 100m field to claim the Olympic gold medal and a new world record in 9.69 secs. The first Jamaican man to win the title, and he wasn’t even trying.

On the 12th Day: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt obliterates Michael Johnson’s long-held record to storm to victory in the Olympic 200m final in a new world record time of 19.30 secs.

On the 14th Day: Jamaica’s men take 4x100m gold in record 37.10 secs at the 29th Olympic Games in the 91,000 capacity Bird’s Nest Stadium, Beijing, China. The quartet of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell were just too awesome for the rest of the field in the men’s 4x100m relay final at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

On the Day of Rest: Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt says winning the 200m gold medal and shaving 0.02 seconds off Michael Johnson’s world record means the most to him as it is his favourite event.

“We wanted to show the world that Jamaica is a special country,” Frater said later, as the country’s medal tally increased to six gold, three silver, and one bronze.

Not bad for a tiny Caribbean island of 2.7 million people. It must be all those yams, dumplings and bananas! What do you think?

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Christian Malcolm has been competing in top level athletics for well over a decade. He won the sprint double at the World Junior Championships in 1988. What keeps him motivated to compete more than ten years later?

“The fact that I feel that I have still not achieved my potential,” he tells me. “The actual love of running, and competing, and the buzz. Nothing comes close to it, as far as I am concerned. I love performing on the big stage. It’s a preparation game. You train for eleven months for one race, and when you do perform well in that race, it’s a great feeling.

I only started training a few weeks back (mid October at time of interview), which is a bit later than usual, due to a few late season races. So, I’ll sit down with my coach, Linford, and probably decide in December or January what I’ll be doing.”

How much do you change your training from season to season?
“In recent years injuries have meant that I have had to change things, and modify plans. 2008 was my first injury free year since 2001. I’ve had hamstring, groin and Achilles injuries in the past.”

What are your strengths as a sprinter?
“I’ve got natural speed. Whereas a lot of other sprinters have a large power base. I’m not as strong, but I have got a good stride length. For me, what is really important is that I have always been able to perform well on big occasions.”

What have been your career highlights?
“I’d say, the European indoor gold and world indoor silver, and European indoor silver and Commonwealth silvers. But funnily enough, there has been nothing that really stands out. No, not really, because I feel that I’ve been unfortunate not to win (better) medals. Although I have medalled in major outdoor championships in the relays, I have not done so, individually. That’s a goal I am still looking to achieve.

If you had asked that question a few years back, I would have said winning the double at the World Junior Championships. This put me on a great platform to move into the senior ranks. But there’s not really so much that I have really been happy with after that.”

With a time of 20.08 seconds for the 200 metres is it burning you to get under 20 seconds?
“Yeah, definitely, it is.”

What do you need to do to get under twenty?
“Stay fit. Stay injury free. I feel that after I have had an injury free year, that I am able to push and build and have a really good next season. So I’ll be looking to get close to my personal best, if not better it.”

Do you prepare mentally for your races, or just turn up and run?
“It’s a little bit of both. Performing at a big events is like performing at a theatre. It’s my stage. We train and train for that one big moment.”

How does being coached by the Barcelona Olympic 100 metres champion work? Does Linford really coach you, or is he more of a mentor?
“Linford ‘coaches me, coaches me.’ He sets my sessions. Mentally, he’s great to have around because he has been there and done it. And I think that anyone who has been around him will realise why he has been successful–because he is so mentally strong.”

What are the toughest workouts he sets for you?

Malcolm Christian laughs for the first time during our interview. “A few of them,” he says. “I started training this week…hmm…15 by 150 mertres, 4 by 400 metres–these are quite tough for the first week back. Then there are the 42-second runs, those are hard. You have to run as far as you can in 42-seconds.

I couldn’t really tell you why 42-seconds. But in that time you’re looking to get to 350 metres. It’s more of a mental thing, rather than running to a mark. You’re running until you stop. It’s important to run through the finish when you race, but there can be a tendency to slow at the line and the 42-second runs encourage you not to do that.”

And what about the sessions you like?
“Block work. It’s always competitive. It’s what sprinters do. It’s fast. It’s intense, and in a session like that the egos are flying, and that’s really good.”

Who else trains with you?
“Mark Lewis Francis has joined the group, Wade Bennett-Jackson, and there are some other younger athletes.”

What weight training do you do?
“For me, it’s all about keeping strong and getting my body together. I tend to do weights for pre-habilitation (injury prevention).”

Okay, so what about Usain Bolt?
You faced the phenomenon in the Olympic semi and the finals. You were fourth to the Jamaican in the semi, clocking 20.25 to his 20.09, and in the final you came in fifth in 20.40 seconds. Over a second behind Bolt’s world record in 19.30 seconds.

“Look, he is phenomenal. People have asked me about what it was like being in the race–and to be honest–it wasn’t great. I’ll probably look back in years to come and say, ‘yeah, it’s nice to be part of history,’ but no, it wasn’t my greatest moment. He is a great talent. He has raised the bar and we’re all going to have to step up.

He is going to put a lot of doubt into people’s minds. But he is going to have times when he is not quite so on song–and that is when we will have to be on our game–and take the advantage.”

Christian Malcolm Fact File

DOB – 03/06/1979
Weight – 66Kg
Height – 1.71m
Coach – Linford Christie

Career Highlights

1998 – World Junior 100m and 200m (gold)
2000 – European Indoor 200m (gold)
2002 – European Indoor 200m (silver)
2005 – World Champions 4 x 100m (bronze)
2007 – World Champions 4 x 100m (bronze)
100m – 10.11 (2001)
200m – 20.08 sec (2001)
60m – 6.64 sec. (2001)
200m – 20.54 (2000)

Christian Malcolm is an Asics athletic Ambassador – for more information visit: www.asics.co.uk

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Not much more is really known about the young woman born in East London in 1984 and who has been named the British Athlete of the Year for the second successive season, and was recently awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. Yet, she will be spearheading Team GB’s 2012 Olympic track and field challenge, and had the small issue of defending her world title in Berlin, when I caught up with her in Los Angeles earlier this year. Prior to starting the outdoor season, Christine had had a good indoor season over 200m, and as she told me, she was in good spirits, both physically and emotionally.

I had a slight advantage over some of the other assembled journalists. Christine’s coach, Lloyd Cowan, was one of my closest friends. In fact, he’d asked Christine to divert my incisive journalism during our interviewed with a random question about Lloyd and I from the deep, distant past. The pressure had been made worse as he had warned me to ‘watch out!’ As it transpired, I needn’t have worried. Christine was a model interviewee. She asked me her question (which shall remain a secret) and then laughed out loud when she couldn’t remember what Lloyd had to her the ‘right’ answer should be. Other belly laughs during our short interview, and a willingness to not take herself too seriously, except when it matters most, reflected Christine’s very genuine and bubbly personality.

We talk about the forthcoming season. “I have goals,” she told me, suddenly serious again. “But my most important one is…and I know this might sound dumb…is to get the World Championships and try to enjoy myself. It’s been so intense over the last three to four years. I think I have achieved more than I ever thought I would have by this time in my life.” I acknowledge her answer and reflect that very few of Britain’s illustrious track and field world-beaters have achieved as much so young. Do you find it difficult to remain motivated and to keep winning, I ask.

Her reply is equally candidly, “Yes. I don’t want to be doing the same thing in 5–10 years, just chasing medals. I don’t think I could do that.” I suggest, albeit it somewhat negatively that losing a major title might not be such a bad thing. So that perhaps her hunger could return, just in time for 2012. “Do you think so? I’m still really hungry,” she tells me. “With me, it’s all about getting to the championships prepared, and then when I get there, I’ll do what I am best at, racing.”

The 400m runner obviously has a steely determination, despite her charm. She knows how to focus and has a great belief in the training that her coach puts her through. “What Lloyd does is keep things (in training) very simple. Basically, he tells me to go out and run and that’s all there is to it. I try to remember when I go out on the track, that I have done the work, and that there is no reason why I should run badly.”

How do you approach the 400m? In the Olympic final, you were well off the lead round the top bend. Did you think you would win? “The race is not over until you cross the line. I study many races, watch videos and assess different split times, to know that nothing is won or lost until you cross that line. You can get to 200m as fast as you can and think that you are winning, but you’ve still got half of the race to go. You can win or lose in a step.

How do you deal with nerves, I ask. “I do get nervous. But when I get on the track, I recognise that I am there to do a job, and every thing happens for a reason. You’re there because you are supposed to be there, and that gives you comfort, in that everything is planed out.” The focus is seemingly always there, and Christine is a real racer, where does this come from? “I believe that track and field is an extension of myself. I like challenges. They gives me that opportunity to push myself everyday.”

The Olympic champion has won three major senior titles but is criticised for not racing that much on the summer track circuit. “People think I prefer championships to one-off races, but it’s not that I prefer them, it’s just that I have not had a lot of one-off races at a high level. When I started the sport, I was thrown straight into a championships (the European juniors) and that’s where I learned to develop my racing. I don’t know anything else. The Athens Olympics in 2004 was again the same. It was my first major championships as a senior. That’s when I tasted the high-life and realised that that is all you need to train for.”

So why the 400m–the toughest of all the sprints? “We had a club race when I was young, and there was no one to do the 400, and I was told to run, just do it and jog round. And because I was nice and polite,” she laughs, “I just went and did it, and won. So from then on, it was the ‘four.’”

Any set backs? I wanted to know. Christine explained that she suffered from Achilles tendon problems in the past, and then there was that one-year suspension for missing those drugs tests. We don’t go into that, enough has been said elsewhere already. She explained that the injury was the result of being an under-nineteen year old England netballer – an operation had sorted out the problem – although years of playing injured had affected her running style.

Laughing at herself, she explained, “I have this strange lopey running style, where I kinda take my time,” but more seriously and worryingly for her rivals, “I know I can get faster and we’re working on that,” she added with a smile.

And those three missed tests in 2006? Well, the ‘story’ has been told and retold many times in the press. It seems to have been a genuine mistake. My friend, Lloyd, confirms it, and some of the aspersions from certain sections of the media do still seem a little out of order. As an international athlete myself, I know that Christine’s performances are within the boundaries of ‘real’ human capabilities and frailties. She has moved on, but the year out was a very difficult time. Lloyd was central to her continued involvement in the sport. “Lloyd is a good guy, and an excellent coach” Christine explained. “It’s rare that you find someone who is willing to put themselves out for their sport and their athletes, as opposed to making themselves look great.”

Christine Ohuruogu deserves superlatives. Bathed in the golden glow of three major titles, like Berlin world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis, but their is still plenty potential to come from this East London athlete. Blessed with a congenial and down to earth personality, a home victory in 2012 would make her, arguably, Britain’s greatest ever female athlete, and bring her the true recognition that she so rightly deserves.

What advice do you have for people running for fitness? I ask her, finally. “Find a good coach,” she says, “someone you can trust to give you good information, and encourage you. You have to enjoy running and not just see it as something you have to do.”

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