Tommie Smith

Tommie Smith (actually Thomas C. Smith, born June 5, 1944 in Clarksville, Texas ) is a former American track and field athlete and Olympic champion.

Life

Although he was rather sickly as a child, he later grew to a 1.91 m and 84 kg athlete approached by a lot of perseverance. As a student of San Jose State University won the 1967 national championships over 220 yards. 1968, when AAU champion, he managed to win the 200m, after which he was admitted to the Olympic team.

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he won the gold medal in the 200 -meter run with a world record time of 19.83 s ahead of Australian Peter Norman ( silver ) and the American John Carlos ( bronze). However, even the awards ceremony, 16 October 1968 Smith and his team -mate Carlos by U.S. NOK were on the day dismissed and asked to leave the Olympic Village, as the two during the ceremony the schwarzbehandschuhte thumb extended upward, the former symbol of Black Power movement, which was directed against the discrimination of the African American population.

During his career as a runner Smith set world records over various distances. His best times were 10.1 s in the 100 - meter dash, 19.83 s in the 200 - meter dash and 44.5 s in the 400 -meter run. His world record of 19.5 s for a 200 -meter run in a straight line on May 7, 1966, undercut only in 2010 by Tyson Gay with 19.41 s.

After graduating in 1969, he was for three years a professional football player for the Cincinnati Bengals and then coach at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he finished the sociology. Until his retirement in 2005 he taught at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.

In 1978 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Athletics Federations and 1996 in the California Black Sports Hall of Fame. In 1999, Smith the Sportsman of the Millennium Award. In the years 2000 and 2001, he was awarded several honors the city of Los Angeles and the state of Texas.

Publications

  • David Steele: Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith. Temple University Press, 2008, ISBN 1592136400
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