In Memoriam: Peter Norman

I miss watching the Olympic Games. I lost interest in them sometime in the 1980s after Peter Ueberroth turned the games into a corporate feeding trough. Soon after the Olympics became more about professional athletes and their egos and less about sports and the amateur.

There was a time when the Olympic Games were about something other than money. There was a time when the Olympics were a stage upon which the pages of history were written – a history that transcended sport and challenged the foundations of society; a stage upon which a man equipped only with his will and his strength single-handedly punctured the myth of the Aryan Superman, was then celebrated as a hero, and then relegated to riding freight elevators in his own country; a stage upon which nations and athletes collided; where the Palestinian struggle brought its bloody vengeance to the world; where superpowers played the Great Game by taking their marbles home; and where the right to be treated simply as a human being was demanded and a nation was shamed.

The Olympics were about struggle. Into that struggle entered three men who will forever be remembered for a brief moment of silent protest. Those three men are Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter Norman. A few days ago Peter Norman passed away at the age of 64 from a heart attack.

In the men’s 200 meters at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Tommie Smith won the gold medal, Peter Norman won the silver medal, and John Carlos won the bronze medal. Afterwards, they made history. During the medal ceremony, as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on the dais with black socks and no shoes, a black scarf around Tommie Smith’s neck, bowed their heads, and raised their gloved fists into the air in silent protest. Peter Norman stood at attention before the two men in solidarity. All three men wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges over their hearts in protest.

Tommie Smith’s gloved right fist was black power, John Carlos’s gloved left fist was black unity, the black scarf was black pride, and the black socks were black poverty. Their protest that day is arguably the most recognizable image from any Olympics in history.

Peter Norman was literally a world apart from Tommie Smith and John Carlos. While Smith and Carlos were African-Americans living through the racially divided 1960s in America, Norman was a white man from Australia whose country had just the year before decided to count its own Aborigines as human beings. Yet, on the dais they came together as human beings in protest against those who would rather see one as human (Norman) and the other two as something less. Together they held a mirror to the world and challenged the power and the prejudice of the day.

For their protest, Smith and Carlos were sent packing from the Olympics early and ostracized when they returned home. They suffered death threats and attacks on their homes. Peter Norman was reprimanded but fared much better when he returned home to Australia.

Of his part in the protest Peter Norman had this to say:

"I did the only thing I believed was right," Norman said over a beer six years ago. "I asked what they wanted me to do to help."

Courage is often about doing what is right.

Of Peter Norman, John Carlos had this to say:

When Carlos was reached in Palm Springs, Calif., yesterday morning he said he was "just hurtin’ " from the news. "Peter was a piece of my life," he said. "When I got the call, it knocked the wind out of me. I was his brother. He was my brother. That’s all you have to know."

…

"Any other white guy, I don’t think he would have had the courage to go through with it," Carlos said yesterday. "Our lives were threatened. We were being demonized in the media. People were saying we wanted the destruction of society instead of what we really wanted, equal rights. I just don’t think most white individuals would not have been strong enough to make that commitment.

"At least me and Tommie had each other when we came home," he added. "When Peter went home, he had to deal with a nation by himself. He never wavered, never denied that he was up there with us for a purpose and he never said ‘I’m sorry’ for his involvement. That’s indicative of who the man was."

Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter Norman demanded humanity from us nearly four decades ago. We are yet to give it to them.

Peter George Norman, athlete and human being, June 15, 1942 – October 3, 2006. May God rest his soul.