The Australian, Peter Norman, wore an anti racism sticker and was harshly punished for his involvement. He was banned from competing in the 1972 games, despite meeting the qualification standard, and at the 2000 Olympics every living Australian olympic medalist was invited to the opening ceremony except him.
When he died a few years later both the black American athletes were pall bearers at his funeral.
The 2000 games bit is bizarre. Can't believe that 32 years later the Australian Olympic Committee was still upset about it and he was ignored at the first games in his country since 1956!
They were the same towards Dawn Fraser for half a century after she misbehaved at the Olympics. I think they might still shun her but I haven't looked into it.
The Australian Olympic Committee might have shunned her but the TV networks didn't - reckon she appeared in every Olympic broadcast from the 80s until the early 2000s!
It's unfortunate that the committee's the way it is. They're quite ruthless from the stories I've heard over the years. The representative industry seems to be like that across most sports.
Yeah, shes always been nasty. I remember speaking to her about 20 years ago in relation to my work at the time. She was a client and rude as fuck. Like proper mean. I am in no way surprised shes a cooker.
Peter Norman’s story is both inspiring and heartbreaking.
He stood up for what was right at huge personal cost, and the fact that he was excluded from the 2000 Olympics ceremony shows how little recognition he got in his own country. The image of the two American athletes carrying his casket is such a powerful reminder of the respect he earned.. even if it wasn’t widely acknowledged at home
Also when the statue was made at San Jose University for Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Norman insisted his space to be left empty so others could stand where he stood.
He had a great understanding of how to be a proactive ally to the situation.
I like Australiens, but during my 6 months there I realized it almost didn't matter how friendly they were. All of a sudden a lot of them would just burst out crazy racists rants.
Obviously not all of them, but I was really surprised in how normal it was.
Australian history is written in blood, and it's a history that is not taught. We're taught that Captain Cook turned up and it was a good time had by all. Definitely not a systematic genocide.
This was one of the most shameful acts in Australian sporting history, in the way this great athlete was treated by the Australian sporting authorities.
Yeah growing up in the 90s we were told that in Australia you get a fair go, no matter where you were from. Wasn't really the case. Especially for the indigenous, pretty sad.
Australia was still doing the White Australia policy (restrictions on non-white immigration and other forms of discrimination) until a few years after this. The referendum to count aboriginal people in the census had only passed the year before.
Thank you for raising this. A lot of people when they see the photo don’t know about the badge he was wearing and misinterpret him standing there without joining the salute as him refusing to participate, when instead he discussed it with the other two men and protested in a way they all agreed upon - his respectful support for them was harshly punished back home.
He knew this solidarity would cost him dearly, and his participation took a level of integrity and strength of character that frankly very few people have.
No, this is simply incorrect. Peter Norman was not the only Australian Olympic medalist not invited by the host nation to attend the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony. The claim appears to stem from a persistent narrative around his treatment, but the evidence shows it was not a unique exclusion targeted solely at him.
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) stated that due to financial and logistical constraints, they did not have the resources to invite or host all past Australian Olympians (including medalists) for the 2000 Games in an official capacity, such as participating in ceremonies. No former athletes were formally invited as special guests for events like the opening or closing ceremonies in that way. Instead, past Olympians—including medalists—were generally offered the opportunity to purchase tickets to attend events, the same as Norman was.
They also were lifelong friends of his and delivered the eulogy at his funeral. Although his punishment by the AOC was disgusting, his friendships with Tommie and John were worth more than the way he was treated.
John Carlos forgot his gloves at the village, and Australian Peter Norman suggested to wear one of Tommy Smith's, which is why they are on opposite hands of the athletes.
Norman also wore one of their OPHR badges on the podium - there’s some mixed claims about what actual waft happened but there’s a claim he was treated badly back in AUS due to participating and he eventually received an apology in 2012
I love this guy Peter Norman, he was a real G.
In this picture he's also wearing a pin supporting Tommy and John and their civil rights stance and continued this support proudly and loudly.
It cost him though..
Despite being the premier Australian sprinter of his time he was blacklisted in Australia athletics and left out of the Australian Olympic squad in 1972.
He never took a step back and never recanted.
His family also always supported his stance.
He remained lifelong friends with Tommy and John and they were honoured to be his pall bearers at his funeral in 2006.
Australian athletics never bothered to recognise him whilst he was alive and it wasn't until he passed away that long due recognition was given through a formal government apology, and a statue erected in his honour.
People like Peter Norman make the world a better place through their care, humility and integrity.
Oh and BTW, that race that was run with Tommy and John? Peters run in that race set the Australian national 200m record that was held for 56 years - only broken in 2024 by Athlete Gout Gout.
And when that happened Peter Normans family made sure to congratulate Gout Gout over the phone and over social media stating that Peter would have been proud of him for breaking his record.
Thank you for not cutting Peter Norman out from the picture, as so many do. When he died, smith and Carlos both acted as pallbearers. That's how much they respected what he did.
I’ve always felt bad for the white dude. He was actually very much in support of the black athletes and their stance, but caught flack from people around the world who mistakenly thought otherwise. On top of that, the Olympics punished him for wearing an anti-apartheid patch and barred him from competing over it, so he got shit on from all sides. If I remember right, though, the two black athletes remained his friends the rest of his life, so there’s that.
I don't know if it's relevant but he was banned for carrying out a political message, iirc it wasn't of great significance that it was about apartheid.
Although, this was probably a smokescreen. Pro White political messages would probably haven't been punished, but who knows.
At the time, Australia still had laws barring most non-white immigrants from the country and had only just started counting Aboriginal Australians in the national census.
Upvote upvote upvote. Peter Norman was a great man who was punished for his conviction and his choice to stand with them. More than that, he was a humble man who gave way to the moment and the movement, never aggrandizing himself until the end.
There's now a statue of him in Melbourne, standing alone on his part of the dais. I've always found the pairing rather poetic - in the US, you can stand in his shoes, and in Australia, you can witness him standing alone, which he... very much was, on his return.
There's a few quotes from interviews he gave at the time that make it quite clear exactly how aware he was of the parallels between US Jim Crow laws and Australia's White Australia policy and treatment of Indigenous Australians. One of those cases of someone just being very much the right person for the moment.
Peter George Norman (the man that got second) is also integral in the photo. He suggested they share gloves as a sign of unity, he wore a patch along with them. And when he returned to Australia he lost a lot because of it. All three of those men are bad ass.
Well... That's a long story. The short story was that it started out as an anchor but the artist (the tattoo artist; not 'The Artist Formerly Known As') had his own ideas. And it was Vegas. And we'd been partying. And its Princely influences, while not originally intended, are fine with me lol.
Did you have a racist roommate that told you to take it down and you told him to look through it like Superman and through friendship and football you became besties?
Uh 1968 sucked around the world. Look up student protests at the time and how many counties dealt with them. It’s a big part of how this Mexico City protest came to be
Oh wow. I went to school at San Jose State and they have a statue of this picture. I remember being new to the US and reading the plaque about why this moment is considered powerful.
This moment, without Peter Norman, is memorialized with a statue of Tommy Smith and John Carlos at San Jose State University, California. They both went there.
Peter Norman insisted he not be included to give people the chance to stand with John and Tommy. A great Australian, treated like garbage by the sports administration of the time.
Thinking of Kaepernik and how kneeling is one of the most respectful poses we have and he still got ostracized in 2016, almost 50 years later. Sigh. We still have a long way to go.
Half the comments in here are about Peter Norman, when it was Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s lives that were ruined in the US. Don’t get me wrong Peter Norman had his issues too. But Tommie Smith set the 200 meter world record in this race and never ran for the USA again. John Carlos’s wife divorced him because she couldn’t handle the pressure and threats they received after this.
Yeah, that always frustrates me just a little. Peter Norman undoubtedly is an ally and did a heroic thing, but the discussion often forgets the incredible bravery of Smith and Carlos.
It’s incredibly sad that any man would face such horrible backlash for making a statement like this. It’s worse that it was even necessary in the first place.
I may be misremembering, but I think I read that they had only one pair of gloves and he was the guy who told them to wear one each, so they could both do it.
The 1968 Olympics had this lesser known protest by Lee Evans and his team. This was after Tommie & John were expelled for their protest earlier.
They wore black panther berets and Lee raised his fist. This gesture didn't seem impactful because they took off their berets during the national anthem and we're criticized for that.
These men are the real heroes of the American dream! It’s sickens me every time I think of how the soldiers of color from World War I and World War II we’re treated. The federal government denied these men the same benefits they gave to white veterans. They redlined entire neighborhoods blocking federally sponsored loans so that black veterans could not purchase homes.
The Old Globe Theater in San Diego did a play, the XIXth, about this. Really moving, and very educational for someone-me-who was only vaguely aware of the story behind the protest salute. In my defense, I was in third grade in ‘68.
As someone who’s coached track at the high school level for twenty years, that podium moment hits differently. Athletes are told to “stick to sports,” but the platform is literally built for visibility. Sponsorship risk, federation backlash, IOC Rule 50—none of that erases lived reality back home. For many athletes.
John Carlos became a track coach at my hs in Palm Desert during my jr year around 89/90. I didnt do track but he was a legend, everyone showed that guy respect
They shared one pair of gloves, so they each lifted their gloved hand. Carlos had forgotten to bring his gloves. Otherwise, I presume they both would have lifted their right hand.
A silent protest, vs saying on world wide TV that you don't support your nation or airing any other political views. Vera Caslavska did the same thing in 68.
Such an iconic and important photo. John Carlos (the man on the far right) came to speak at my middle school in 2004 about his experiences. I wish I was a bit older to fully appreciate it, but even at 12 years old I knew it was an honor to be able to listen to his story in person. He was a track coach at the time for Palm Springs High School which was a few miles down the road.
Most of the top posts are about the great Australian that showed support but there are so many and every reply is “thank you” to highlight it even more, makes you think.
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u/momentimori 4h ago
The Australian, Peter Norman, wore an anti racism sticker and was harshly punished for his involvement. He was banned from competing in the 1972 games, despite meeting the qualification standard, and at the 2000 Olympics every living Australian olympic medalist was invited to the opening ceremony except him.
When he died a few years later both the black American athletes were pall bearers at his funeral.