Peaceful protests and activism live up to Olympic ideals

The Paris Olympic Games begin July 26. The Olympics are always a spectacle of athletic determination, national pride and international one-upmanship. They are also a lightning rod for speech, protest and politics, and are often criticized for it. But when athletes speak up about political issues from world hunger to human rights, is that such a terrible thing?

The International Olympic Committee's vision is to build a better world through sport. Its mission statement addresses fair competition, denounces discrimination and promotes participation by women. Sports drama makes the Olympics popular, but the Games’ world platform makes them bigger than life.

The victorious African-American sprinters at Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1980 USA hockey defeat of Russia’s vaunted Red Army team at Lake Placid said as much about world issues as they did competition. And in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, 10 refugee athletes were recognized and allowed to compete as an official Refugee Olympic Team — an inspirational example of Olympic ideals.

There are limits, of course. Disrupting the Games altogether has been decidedly ill-fated. President Jimmy Carter’s Cold War boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow may have been well intended, but it harmed the Olympics and invited a Russian boycott of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

A world platform for expression isn’t worth much if the platform is dismantled. Even worse, the 1972 terrorist attack at Munich exploited the Games, abused the Olympic ideals and resulted in the tragic deaths of 11 Israeli athletes.

A raised fist goes viral

By contrast, two American athletes at the 1968 Games touched worldwide sentiment about civil rights, discrimination, famine and war through silent protest. It was a noble gesture that became a powerful moment in Olympic history. It was also captured by a profound, enduring photograph that went as “viral” as it could at the time.

On Oct. 16, 1968, at the Mexico City Summer Games, African-American 200-meter sprint medalists Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) took the podium with heads bowed during America’s National Anthem. Each of them raised one black-gloved fist as a protest against racial injustice. Both wore black socks and no shoes to underscore their statement about oppression.

Australian sprinter Peter Norman (silver medal) even played a role. Carlos had forgotten to bring his own pair of black gloves for the planned protest. The supportive Norman, who was white, suggested that Carlos wear Smith’s left-handed glove. The image produced a provocative symmetry that amplified their Black Power statement.

All three of them also wore badges for the Olympic Project for Human Rights, and all were booed by the crowd, even though their statement was quite consistent with broader Olympic principles.

Nevertheless, Smith and Carlos were expelled from the Games. The supportive Norman was also shunned in Australia and would be removed from the following 1972 Games altogether.

When Norman died in 2006, both Smith and Carlos made the long journey to serve as pallbearers for his funeral. They had stayed in touch all those years. Meanwhile, Peter Norman’s Australian sprint record set at Mexico City still stands.

The world was ablaze in 1968. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated; the unpopular Vietnam War raged; racial strife intensified; and endless protests dogged the Johnson administration.

The compelling image of Smith, Carlos and Norman was preserved by photojournalist John Dominis. His snapshot features Smith and Carlos on the podium, heads bowed, each with one black-gloved hand raised high in support of equal rights. The photo still resonates. So does the message.

For decades, athletes were expected to keep personal politics to themselves. That norm was shattered by the outspoken Muhammad Ali during the 1960s when he loudly championed equality and justice. His actions set the stage for Smith and Carlos, and they, in turn, created precedent for 49ers Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt in protest of racism and police brutality in 2016.

All of them were initially ostracized. Kaepernick wound up on the cover of Time magazine, but he also riled the football establishment. He played his last NFL game on January 1, 2017, and has been shunned by the NFL ever since. Today’s athletes have earned a meaningful voice, and many speak out against abuse, mental illness, gender equality, world hunger and racism. And this honors the stated Olympic ideals. All of them.

Eldon Ham is a member of the faculty at IIT/Chicago-Kent College of Law, teaching sports, law and justice. He is the author of five books on the role of sports history in America.

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