Carl Lewis Wins Olympic Gold In 100-Meters

On August 4, 1984, United States Olympian Carl Lewis wins the Gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

In addition to winning the Gold medal in the 100-meter dash, Lewis won the 200-meter spring, 4x100-meter relay and the long jump at the 1984 Olympics.

In 1988 is Seoul, Lewis continues his reign in the 100-meter dash by earning his fifth Olympic Gold medal, and his sixth with the Gold medal in the long jump as well. He wouldn’t be able to keep his streak of Gold medals alive though as he earned a Silver medal in the 200-meter dash.

In 1992 in Barcelona, Lewis won Gold in the 4x100-meter relay and the long jump.

In the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta Lewis earned his ninth Gold medal of his Olympics career, also his last in the long jump.

But it wasn’t just at the Olympics where Lewis shined, in the Inaugural World Championships in 1983 at Helsinki, Lewis took Gold in the 100-meter dash, 4x100-meter relay and long jump.

In the 1987 World Championships in Rome, he earned Gold in all three events again, topping the field in the 100-meter dash, 4x100-meter relay and long jump.

Again in 1991 at the World Championships in Tokyo, Lewis continued his reign on the track taking Gold in both the 100-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay.

"The best race of my life," Lewis said of his 100-meter dash. "The best technique, the fastest. And I did it at thirty."

Lewis was referring to what would be the deepest 100 meters race ever to that time, with six men finishing in under ten seconds, with Lewis not only defeating his opponents, but he reclaimed the world record with a clocking of 9.86 seconds. Lewis's world record would stand for nearly three years.

However, he was dethroned in the long jump, taking home his only Silver medal in his World Championships career.

Lewis would be dethroned by Mike Powell who took Silver behind Lewis at the Olympics in 1988.

The two battled, in what is considered by some to have been one of greatest competitions ever in any sport.

Powell's 8.95 meter jump and Lewis's final two jumps of 8.87 and 8.84 meters still stand as of October 2011 as the top three low altitude jumps ever. The farthest anyone has jumped since under legal conditions is 8.74 meters.

In reference to his efforts at the 1991 World Championships, Lewis said, “This has been the greatest meet that I’ve ever had.”

In 1993 at the Stuttgart World Championships, Lewis placed third, taking home his only Bronze medal in World Championships competition.

At the San Juan Pan American Games in 1979, Lewis took Bronze in the long jump before coming back for Gold at the 1987 Indianapolis Pan American Games. He also took Gold in the 4x100-meter relay.

In the Goodwill Games of 1986 in Moscow, Lewis took home Gold in the 4x100-meter relay, but was only able to grab Bronze in the 100-meter dash.

The 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle saw Lewis take Silver in the 100-meter dash while taking Gold in the long jump.

At the 1994 St. Petersburg Goodwill Games, Lewis took Gold in his only event, the 4x100-meter relay.

In the Olympic Boycott Games of 1980 in Philadelphia Lewis took Bronze in the long jump.

Lewis goes down as one of most glorified American athletes with his nine Gold and one Silver medal in Olympic competitions.

Smith Sets World Record

On Oct. 16, 1968, On the morning of 16 October 1968, U.S. athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 meter race in a world-record time of 19.83 seconds, with Australia's Peter Norman second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the U.S.A's John Carlos in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds.

After the race was completed, the three went to collect their medals at the podium. The two U.S. athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S. and wore a necklace of beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage.

All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges after Norman, a critic of Australia's White Australia Policy, expressed empathy with their ideals. Sociologist Harry Edwards, the founder of the OPHR, had urged black athletes to boycott the games; reportedly, the actions of Smith and Carlos on 16 October 1968 were inspired by Edwards' arguments.

Both U.S. athletes intended on bringing black gloves to the event, but Carlos forgot his, leaving them in the Olympic Village. It was the Australian, Peter Norman, who suggested Carlos wear Smith's left-handed glove, this being the reason behind him raising his left hand, as opposed to his right, differing from the traditional Black Power salute. When "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture, which became front-page news around the world. As they left the podium the crowd booed them. Smith later said, "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.”

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Avery Brundage, deemed it to be a domestic political statement, unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were supposed to be. In an immediate response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the two athletes being expelled from the Games.

A spokesman for the IOC said it was "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit.^” Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics. He argued that the Nazi salute, being a national salute at the time, was acceptable in a competition of nations, while the athletes' salute was not of a nation and therefore unacceptable^.

Brundage had been one of the United States' most prominent Nazi sympathizers even after the outbreak of the Second World War and his removal as president of the IOC had been one of the three stated objectives of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.

As late as 2010, the official IOC website stated "Over and above winning medals, the black American athletes made names for themselves by an act of racial protest

Smith and Carlos were largely ostracized by the U.S. sporting establishment in the following years and, in addition, were subject to criticism of their actions. Time magazine showed the five-ring Olympic logo with the words, "Angrier, Nastier, Uglier", instead of "Faster, Higher, Stronger”.

Back home, they were subject to abuse and they and their families received death threats.

Smith continued in athletics, going on to play in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals, before becoming an assistant professor of Physical Education at Oberlin College. In 1995, he went on to help coach the U.S. team at the World Indoor Championships at Barcelona. In 1999 he was awarded the California Black Sportsman of the Millennium Award. He is now a public speaker.

Carlos' career followed a similar path to Smith's. He initially continued in athletics, equaling the 100-yard dash world record the following year. Later, he played in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, before a knee injury prematurely ended his career. He fell upon hard times in the late 1970s and, in 1977, his ex-wife committed suicide, leading him to a period of depression. In 1982, Carlos was employed by the Organizing Committee for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles to promote the games and act as liaison with the city's black community. In 1985, he became a track and field coach at Palm Springs High School, a post he still holds.

Norman, who was sympathetic to his competitors' protest, was reprimanded by his country's Olympic authorities and ostracized by the Australian media. He was not picked for the 1972 Summer Olympics, despite finishing third in his trials. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral after his death in 2006^.

In 2005, San Jose State University honored former students Smith and Carlos with a 22-foot high statue of their protest, created by artist Rigo 23^. A student, Erik Grotz, initiated the project: "One of my professors was talking about unsung heroes and he mentioned Tommie Smith and John Carlos. He said these men had done a courageous thing to advance civil rights, and, yet, they had never been honored by their own school." In January 2007, History San Jose opened a new exhibit called Speed City: From Civil Rights to Black Power, covering the San Jose State athletic program "from which many student athletes became globally recognized figures as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements reshaped American society."

On March 3, 2008, in the Detroit Free Press editorial section, an editorial by Orin Starn entitled "Bottom line turns to hollow gold for today's Olympians" lamented the lack of social engagement of modern sports athletes, in contrast to Smith and Carlos.

Smith and Carlos received an Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2008 ESPY Awards honoring their action.

Internationally, in a 2011 speech to the University of Guelph, Akaash Maharaj, a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee and head of Canada's Olympic Equestrian team, said, "In that moment, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman, and John Carlos became the living embodiments of Olympic idealism. Ever since, they have been inspirations to generations of athletes like myself, who can only aspire to their example of putting principle before personal interest. It was their misfortune to be far greater human beings than the leaders of the IOC of the day."

Fox Ends Marathon Of Hope

On Sep. 1, 1980, Terry Fox ended his Marathon of Hope. Fox was forced to cut his run short due to his health problems.

Terry Fox embarked on a cross-country run of Canada, despite having his right leg amputated a few years earlier after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. 

Fox’s main objective for his journey was to raise money for cancer research, but also to raise awareness for those unfamiliar with the disease.

After 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, Terry ended his quest as his cancer had spread throughout his body, which ultimately led to his death. 

Although he was gone, Fox’s determination and courage is carried on through The Annual Terry Fox Run.

The first annual Terry Fox Run was held in 1981 and has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon. 

Every year millions of participants in over 60 countries get involved for the largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. 

To date, over $500 million has been raised from the Terry Fox Run.