The Olympic Protest

When they performed the Black Power salute during the medal ceremony for the 200-meter sprint at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, American track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos made what is possibly the most iconic political statement in Olympic history. The protest that took place during the next Summer Olympics in Munich was less famous than the picture of the two of them raising their fists in the air.

Similar circumstances existed: for the 400-meter event, Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett, two Black Americans competitors, took home the gold and silver medals, respectively. The two of them then gathered on the first-place platform during the medal ceremony as the American national anthem began to play, engaged in casual conversation, fidgeted, and played with their medals with their backs to the flag.

The International Olympic Committee responded to the pair's protest by banning them from future competitions and criticizing them for being rude. However, their deeds were rapidly forgotten as the Munich atrocity came to define the 1972 Olympics. Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization, assaulted the Olympic Village during the second week of competition, killing 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team as well as a West German police officer.

• Date:1972