In his words: Olympic gold medalist Tommie Smith
In his words: Olympic gold medalist Tommie Smith

Published: August 21, 2008

American sprinter Tommie Smith was only 24 when he stood on top of an Olympic podium, gold medal around his neck, and raised a black-gloved fist. Now a 64-year-old teacher and coach living in Georgia, Smith talked to The Oklahoman's Jenni Carlson about his silent protest in Mexico City.

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It was kind of a lonely night. It appeared that I was kind of standing by myself because what I needed to do, I didn't know. I do know that the athletes, the black athletes, decided not to boycott only a few days before. Each athlete would represent themselves according to how they felt about the country that did not recognize them fully.

This is what happened. A black glove to denote black empowerment, and the socks represented poverty that a lot of folks had gone through just so I could stand on top of any type of stand to make a stand.

If there's any crystal-clear thing about it ... it's the thought that something had to be done and noting that we had a very short time for it to be done, it had to be visual.

The only thing I could think of was to stand tall and make a taller stand.

My thought as soon as I stepped off the victory stand was, "Now I have to live with this the rest of my life.” But I didn't know how it would affect the rest of my life. I didn't know the ramifications of hardship.

It had an impact then. It had a very ballistic impact then. It hit the world like a brick would hit a fly. The aftermath of the collision, people had to drag their thoughts from what they saw. They were not the same.

Your thoughts!