The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an
international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico, in October 1968.
These were the first Olympic Games to be staged in Latin America and the first to be staged
in a Spanish-speaking country. They were also the third Games to be held in autumn, after
the 1956 Games in Melbourne and the 1964 Games in Tokyo. The Mexican Student Movement of
1968 happened concurrently and the Olympic Games were correlated to the government's
repression.
Host city selection
On October 18, 1963, at the 60th IOC Session in Baden-Baden, West Germany, Mexico City
finished ahead of bids from Detroit, Buenos Aires and Lyon to host the Games.
Olympic torch relay The 1968 torch relay recreated the route taken
by Christopher Columbus to the New World, journeying from Greece through Italy and Spain
to San Salvador Island, Bahamas and then on to Mexico.
American sculptor James Metcalf, an expatriate in Mexico, won the commission to forge the
Olympic torch for the 1968 Summer Games. Highlights
In the medal award ceremony for the men's 200 meter race, black American athletes Tommie
Smith and John Carlos took a stand for civil rights by raising their black-gloved fists
and wearing black socks in lieu of shoes. The Australian Peter Norman, who had run second,
wore an American "civil rights" badge as support to them on the podium. As punishment, the
IOC banned Smith and Carlos from the Olympic Games for life, and Norman was left off Australia's
Olympic team in 1972. American George Foreman won the gold medal
for boxing by defeating Soviet Ionas Chepulis via a second round TKO. After the victory,
Foreman waved a small American flag as he bowed to the crowd.
The high elevation of Mexico City, at 2,240 m above sea level, influenced many of the events,
particularly in track and field. No Summer Olympic Games before or since have been held
at high elevation. Although a performance reducer for endurance athletes, the thin air
contributed to many record-setting jumps, leaps, vaults, and throws, as well as all
of the men's track events of 400 meters and less. As a reminder of this fact, one of the
promotional articles of these Olympics was a small metallic box labeled "Aire de México",
that was "Especial para batir récords". In addition to high elevation, this was the
first Olympics to use a synthetic all-weather surface for track and field events; the "Tartan"
surface was originally developed by 3M for horse racing, but didn't catch on. The tracks
at previous Olympics were conventional cinder. For the first time, East and West Germany
competed as separate teams, after being forced by the IOC to compete as a combined German
team in 1956, 1960, and 1964. Beethoven's Ode to Joy was played when East and West Germany
arrived in the stadium. Al Oerter of the U.S. won his fourth consecutive
gold medal in the discus to become only the second athlete to achieve this feat in an
individual event, and the first in track & field. Bob Beamon of the U.S. leapt 8.90 m in the
long jump, an incredible 55 cm improvement over the previous world record. It remains
the Olympic record and stood as the world record for 23 years, until broken by American
Mike Powell in 1991. American athletes Jim Hines, Tommie Smith and Lee Evans also set
long-standing world records in the 100 m, 200 m and 400 m, respectively.
In the triple jump, the previous world record was improved five times by three different
athletes. Viktor Saneev won the first of three successive gold medals in this event. He won
silver in 1980. Dick Fosbury of the U.S. won the gold medal
in the high jump using his unconventional Fosbury flop technique, which quickly became
the dominant technique in the event. Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia won four
gold medals in gymnastics. Debbie Meyer of the U.S. became the first
swimmer to win three individual gold medals, in the 200, 400 and 800 m freestyle events.
The 800 m was a new long-distance event for women. Meyer was only 16 years old, a student
at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, California. Meyer was the first of several
American teenagers to win the 800 m. American swimmer Charlie Hickcox won three
gold medals and one silver medal. The introduction of doping tests resulted
in the first disqualification because of doping: Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall
was disqualified for alcohol use. John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania became internationally
famous after finishing the marathon, in last place, despite a dislocated knee.
This was the first of three Olympic participations by Jacques Rogge. He competed in yachting
and would later become the eighth president of the IOC.
Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo of Mexico became the first woman to light the Olympic
cauldron with the Olympic flame. It was the first games at which there was
a significant African presence in men's distance running. Africans won at least one medal in
all running events from 800 meters to the marathon, and in so doing they set a trend
for future games. Most of these runners came from high-altitude areas of countries like
Kenya and Ethiopia, and they were well-prepared for the 2240 m elevation of Mexico City.
It was the first Olympic games in which the closing ceremony was transmitted in color
to the world, as well as the events themselves. Controversies
South Africa
South Africa was provisionally invited to the Games, on the understanding that all segregation
and discrimination in sport would be eliminated by the 1972 Games. However, African countries
and black American athletes promised to boycott the Games if South Africa was present, and
Eastern Bloc countries threatened to do likewise. In April 1968 the IOC conceded that "it would
be most unwise for South Africa to participate". Tlatelolco massacre
Responding to growing social unrest and protests, the government of Mexico had increased economic
and political suppression, against labor unions in particular, in the decade building up to
the Olympics. A series of protest marches in the city in August gathered significant
attendance, with an estimated 500,000 taking part on August 27. President Gustavo Díaz
Ordaz ordered the occupation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in September,
but protests continued. Using the prominence brought by the Olympics, students gathered
in Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco to call for greater civil and democratic rights
and showed disdain for the Olympics with slogans such as ¡No queremos olimpiadas, queremos
revolución!. Ten days before the start of the Olympics,
the government ordered the gathering in Plaza de las Tres Culturas to be broken up. Some
5000 soldiers and 200 tankettes surrounded the plaza. Dozens of protesters and civilians
were killed and over 1000 were arrested. At the time, the event was portrayed in the national
media as the military suppression of a violent student uprising, but later analysis indicates
that the gathering was peaceful prior to the army's advance.
Black Power salute
On October 16, 1968, black sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the gold and bronze
medalists in the men's 200-meter race, took their places on the podium for the medal ceremony
wearing black socks without shoes and civil rights badges, lowered their heads and each
defiantly raised a black-gloved fist as the Star Spangled Banner was played. Both of them
were members of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.
Some people felt that a political statement had no place in the international forum of
the Olympic Games. In an immediate response to their actions, Smith and Carlos were suspended
from the U.S. team by Brundage and banned from the Olympic Village. Those who opposed
the protest said the actions disgraced all Americans. Supporters, on the other hand,
praised the men for their bravery. Peter Norman, the Australian sprinter who
came second in the 200 m race, and Martin Jellinghaus, a member of the German bronze
medal-winning 4x400-meter relay team, also wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges
at the games to show support for the suspended American sprinters. He did not salute with
them, but he did suggest the black gloves to the other sprinters. Norman's actions resulted
in a reprimand, his absence from the following Olympic Games in Munich and a failure of his
national association to invite him to join other Australian medallists at the opening
ceremony for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. This picture caused him to fall into substance
abuse depression because the picture ruined his career. and Smith and Carlos acted as
pallbearers at his funeral in 2006 [1][2]. Věra Čáslavská
In another incident, while standing on the medal podium after the balance beam event
final where Natalia Kuchinskaya of the Soviet Union had controversially taken the Gold,
Czechoslovakian gymnast Věra Čáslavská quietly turned her head down and away during
the playing of the Soviet national anthem. The action was Čáslavská's silent protest
against the recent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and was repeated when she accepted her medal
for her floor exercise routine when the judges changed the preliminary scores of the Soviet
Larisa Petrik to tie with Čáslavská. While Čáslavská's countrymen supported her actions
and her outspoken opposition to Communism, the new regime responded by banning her from
both sporting events and international travel for many years and made her an outcast from
society. Venues
Agustín Melgar Olympic Velodrome – Cycling Arena México – Boxing
Avándaro Golf Club – Equestrian Campo Marte – Equestrian
Campo Militar 1 – Modern pentathlon Club de Yates – Sailing
Estadio Azteca – Football Estadio Cuauhtémoc – Football preliminaries
Estadio Nou Camp – Football preliminaries Estadio Olímpico Universitario – Athletics,
Ceremonies, Equestrian Fernando Montes de Oca Fencing Hall – Fencing,
Modern pentathlon Francisco Márquez Olympic Pool – Diving,
Modern pentathlon, Swimming, Water polo Arena Insurgentes – Wrestling
Insurgentes Theatre – Weightlifting Jalisco Stadium – Football preliminaries
Juan de la Barrera Olympic Gymnasium – Volleyball Juan Escutia Sports Palace – Basketball,
Volleyball Municipal Stadium – Field hockey
National Auditorium – Gymnastics Arena Revolución – Volleyball
Satellite Circuit – Cycling University City Swimming Pool – Water polo
Vicente Suárez Shooting Range – Modern pentathlon, Shooting
Virgilio Uribe Rowing and Canoeing Course – Canoeing, Rowing
Zócalo – Athletics Medals awarded
The 1968 Summer Olympic programme featured 172 events in the following 18 sports:
Demonstration sports Basque pelota
Tennis The organizers declined to hold a judo tournament
at the Olympics, even though it had been a full-medal sport four years earlier. This
was the last time judo was not included in the Olympic games.
Calendar All dates are in Central Time Zone
Participating National Olympic Committees
East Germany and West Germany competed as separate entities for the first time in at
a Summer Olympiad, and would remain so through 1988. Barbados competed for the first time
as an independent country. Also competing for the first time in a Summer Olympiad were
British Honduras, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador,
Guinea, Honduras, Kuwait, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, and the United States Virgin
Islands. Singapore returned to the Games as an independent country after competing as
part of the Malaysian team in 1964.
Boycotting countries North Korea withdrew its athletes from Cuba
immediately prior to the beginning of the Olympics when the IOC refused to refer to
the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK.
Medal count
These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1968 Games. Host Mexico won 3 of each
color of medal. See also
1968 Summer Paralympics 1968 Winter Olympics
Summer Olympic Games Olympic Games
International Olympic Committee List of IOC country codes
1968 Olympics Black Power Salute References
Notes
Sources "Mexico City 1968". Olympic.org. International
Olympic Committee. "Results and Medalists". Olympic.org. International
Olympic Committee. The Politics of Hypocrisy – Mexico '68
Luis Castañeda, "Beyond Tlatelolco: Design, Media and Politics at Mexico ‘68" article
in Grey Room 40 External links
"Mexico City 1968". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee.
Result of the 1968 Summer Olympics host city candidacies
An article on the American Sprinters Controversy The program of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics