Page 49 - Provoke Magazine Vol2

Peter Norman
Did What?
It was 1968, Mexico City; where one of the most dramatic moments in Olympic history took place. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the US 200-meter medalists stood on the victory dais, with their heads bowed and gloved fists raised during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. At first glance it may have appeared, the third man, Australian track athlete, and Olympic medalist Peter Norman was unaware of this enduring symbol of protest against racial discrimination, however; the Americans had discussed their plans with the bronze medalist before the ceremony.
When Carlos realized he had forgotten his black gloves, Nor- man suggested the two share Smith’s pair. He then asked what he could do to support them, and Norman was given a badge representing the Olympic Project for Human Rights which he attached to his tracksuit. Carlos told Australia’s ABC News: “Pe- ter Norman let me know regardless of what your ethnic back- ground is, it has everything to do with your principles”. “He was a white individual and he came from a country parallel to South Africa in terms of attitude towards people other than white folks.” “I think the pressures that the nation put on him and the disrespect that they showed him, I think it wounded him.”
Smith and Carlos were expelled from the games. Their careers were crushed, and their marriages collapsed under the strain. Norman was never selected for the Olympic Games in Munich despite turning in adequate times and was not welcomed even decades later at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. The Aus- tralian team’s chef de mission, Julius “Judy” Patching, repelled calls from the country’s conservative media for Norman to be punished, telling the athlete in private, “They’re screaming out for your blood! Norman explained himself simply: “I believe that every man is born equal and should be treated that way.” Andrew Webster, Chief Sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, stated in his 2018 article “Slowly but surely Peter Nor- man is finally being recognized as the hero he was and always wanted to be”. If you travel to Washington to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Peter’s im- age, serene and proud, is captured in bronze alongside the two Americans in that iconic pose. Peter Norman died of a heart attack on October 3, 2006, at the age of 65. While his most ad- mirable verbal and written recognition is just now being ac- knowledged Peter Norman is undeniably a name that will never be forgotten again!
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