THE THIRD MAN: THE LEGACY OF PETER NORMAN
- Peter Radan
- Oct 16, 2018
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 24, 2019
Peter Radan (16 October 2018)
Although the men’s 200 metre final at the Games of the XIX Olympiad held in Mexico City on 16 October 1968 provided one of the most exciting and memorable finishes for that event, much about the race was entirely predictable. It was won by the African-American Tommie Smith, who broke the 20 seconds barrier for the first time with a time of 19.83 seconds. His fellow African-American, and fierce rival, John Carlos, also medaled.
What was less predictable was that a relatively unknown Australian, Peter Norman, placed sixth at the bend, powered home to pip Carlos by 0.04 seconds to win the silver medal. Norman’s time of 20.06 seconds equaled the previous world record and became the Australian record for that event.
However, it was the medal ceremony for that event that provided one of the most dramatic and controversial moments in sporting history. After four bars of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ had blasted around the Olímpico Universitario stadium, the 84,000 plus crown was stunned when, in unison, Smith and Carlos, with heads bowed, raised and pointed to the stars above a clenched, black-gloved fist. That both of them had their running shoes off and wore only black socks, and that Carlos wore a string of beads around his neck, was less noticed by the silenced crowd.
The actions of Smith and Carlos were symbolic protests aimed at bringing to light the plight of African-Americans, with the black gloves and socks representing black America and Carlos’s string of beads symbolising the countless past lynchings of black Americans. John Dominis’s black-and-white shot of 'The Salute' for Life magazine immortalised the moment and was named in Time’s 100 Most Influential Images of All Time.
Peter Norman, the third man in the medal ceremony, did not see Smith and Carlos raise their fists. They were standing behind him, because, having received their medals, all three turned 90 degrees to the right to watch the raising of the flags while the American anthem was played. However, he knew what they did. Indeed, he was a willing participant in their protest. This was symbolised by having, just as Smith and Carlos had, an OPHR badge pinned to his tracksuit top.
The Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) was an African-American-led group of athletes that had, in the tumultuous year that was 1968, campaigned for athletes to boycott the Mexico Olympics. John Carlos was one of its most prominent activists. Although the boycott did not eventuate, the campaign’s demand for equal rights for African-Americans gained much publicity and was part of the broader campaign by black Americans for civil rights. However, although the boycott did not eventuate, it was expected that some form of protest by African-American athletes was likely to take place at Mexico City, especially so, given that race relations had reached a boiling point in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr earlier that year.
In the change room following the 200 metre final it was clear that Smith and Carlos were going undertake some form of gesture aimed at highlighting the issues of segregation and racism in America. It was also clear that in the frenzied minutes before the medal ceremony, as Smith and Carlos discussed exactly what they would do, that Norman would participate in the protest. His “I’ll stand with you” statement of support to Smith and Carlos was to be manifested by joining them in wearing tracksuit tops with the OPHR badge stitched on them. Smith and Carlos already had such tops. Norman got his badge from an African-American member of the US rowing eight and had it hurriedly stitched onto his tracksuit top.
What puzzled Smith and Carlos at the time was why did Norman, who had, much to his consternation been earlier referred to by Carlos as that “little white guy”, willingly participate in the protest. The answer to that question lies in Norman’s upbringing.
Born into a poor working-class family in inner-city Melbourne, Norman was profoundly influenced by his family’s strong Protestant religious beliefs and dedication to volunteer work with the Salvation Army in support of Melbourne’s down-and-outs, irrespective of their colour, ethnicity, or religion.
But there was also a strong independent larrikin streak that ran down Norman’s spine. His brand of Protestant evangelicalism did not make him a teetotaller. Nor did it preclude him from smoking. And, as an athlete, he was not above trash-talking his competitors. Indeed, in the 200 metre semi-final in which Carlos beat Norman, the “little white guy” yelled out to Carlos as they crossed the finish line: “You have this one John! I’ll have the next”. It was also this larrikin streak that, in his early career as an as an emerging sprint talent, led him to have the words “GOD IS LOVE”, and later “JESUS SAVES”, emblazoned on the back of his tracksuit top. For Norman these messages did not signify a belief that God would help him run fast. Rather, they were, in part, simply a reflection of his, then, commitment to his Protestant religious beliefs and, in part, a means of getting up the noses of his sporting rivals.
It was thus Norman’s religiously inspired commitment to the principle of equality and human rights for all that, in effect, inevitably led him to stand on the dais in solidarity with Smith and Carlos. Wearing the OPHR badge was the obvious means by which to demonstrate that solidarity. After all, he had previous form on that score.
In return for their actions on the dais, Smith and Carlos were reprimanded by the US Olympic Committee and ordered to leave Mexico City within 48 hours. At home they were met with a barrage of criticism and racially based abuse that lasted for years. In contrast, Judy Patching, Australia’s Chef de Mission at the games, simply noted what Norman had done and gave him a ticket to attend the next day’s hockey matches.
The support given by Norman to the two African-Americans immediately cemented a life-long bond between the three medalists. This was quickly symbolised by Smith and Carlos having Norman invited - the only white man so invited - to compete in the inaugural Martin Luther King Jr International Freedom Games held in Philadelphia in May 1969.
Although Norman did not suffer the indignity of being sent home as did Smith and Carlos, he was never again to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. Whether that was a consequence of his actions at Mexico City is a disputed issue. What is undisputed is that he was not one of the former Australian Olympians welcomed as guests of the Games of the XXVII Olympiad held in Sydney in 2000.
Otherwise, life after 1968 did not treat Norman well. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1975 and he didn’t see his three children from that marriage for a decade. He remarried on the sixth anniversary of his Mexico City triumph and had two further children. In 1985 a snapped achilles tendon led to botched surgery and gangrene. Further surgery left him in extreme pain and precipitated an addiction to prescription pain medication that took him eight years to recover from.
On 3 October 2006, Peter Norman died of a heart attack. Both Tommie Smith and John Carlos crossed the Pacific Ocean to be pallbearers and deliver eulogies at his funeral that was held on 9 October 2006, a date that the US Track and Field Federation proclaimed as ‘Peter Norman Day’.
In 2010, Norman was posthumously inducted into the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame.
On 11 October 2012, Australia’s House of Representatives passed a posthumous apology to Norman which read as follows:
"That this House:
(1) recognises the extraordinary athletic achievements of the late Peter Norman, who won the silver medal in the 200 metres sprint running event at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, in a time of 20.06 seconds, which still stands as the Australian record;
(2) acknowledges the bravery of Peter Norman in donning an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on the podium, in solidarity with African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who gave the ‘black power’ salute;
(3) apologises to Peter Norman for the treatment he received upon his return to Australia, and the failure to fully recognise his inspirational role before his untimely death in 2006; and
(4) belatedly recognises the powerful role that Peter Norman played in furthering racial equality."
On 9 October 2018, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Norman’s silver medal in Mexico City, Athletics Australia announced that, in partnership with the Victorian government, a bronze statue of Norman would be built and erected at Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadium in recognition of his legacy as an athlete and advocate for human rights. That legacy is, perhaps, best summed up by John Carlos who, in an interview in 2012, said:
"There’s no-one in the nation of Australia that should be honoured, recognised, appreciated more than Peter Norman for his humanitarian concerns, his character, his strength and his willingness to be a sacrificial lamb for justice."
Norman’s Australian record time of 20.06 time for the 200 metres still stands, 50 years after it was set.
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