A moment of grace

The Games of the XIX Olympiad were held in México City fifty years ago this month. There was a lot of political overtone to the Games—for one thing, they followed by less than two months the Soviet crushing of the Prague Spring movement, and while there was no visible bloodshed (as had happened in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 when the pool holding the Soviet-Hungarian water polo match was red), there were real tensions.

It was also the time of the Black Power movement, and one of the most iconic images of an Olympiad was of Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowing their heads and giving the clenched fist Black Power salute. They had finished first and third, respectively, in the 200 meter sprint; Smith’s 19.83 second finish was a world record.

Photo by Angelo Cozzi

Smith and Carlos provoked massive controversy with their gesture, but what’s not widely known (outside of Australia) is that Peter Norman, the Aussie who finished second in the race, supported them wholeheartedly, and his athletic career suffered for it.

Norman, from a devout Salvation Army Christian family, deeply believed in human rights. The Americans had told him before the medal ceremony what they intended to do, and he supported them fully. Carlos later told a journalist that he’d expected to see fear in Norman’s eyes when they told him. Instead, he said, “I saw love.”

At the ceremony, Norman wore a badge for the Olympic Project for Human Rights he’d borrowed from another athlete as another symbol of his support.

The controversy that enveloped Carlos and Smith extended to Norman. Australia kept him out of Olympic competition, and he was not even acknowledged in the 2000 Games held in Sydney. He died in 2006 of a heart attack. Carlos and Smith were pallbearers at his funeral on 9 October, which was declared Peter Norman Day.

In a 2012 interview, Carlos said, “There is no one in Australia that should be honored, recognized, appreciated more than Peter Norman for his humanitarian concerns, his character, his strength and his willingness to be a sacrificial lamb for justice.”

In our current social climate where vicious tribalism makes all the headlines, I’m finding it heartening to recall that there are indeed individuals willing to stand (literally) for the right thing.