Peter Norman: The Forgotten Man in the Photograph

Today, I learned something new, and not something trivial either. The iconic photograph from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City award cermony for the 200 meter race has three men in it. Like most Americans I could only identify two of them. I knew who the gold medal winner, Tommie "The Jet" Smith and the bronze medal winner, John Carlos, both African American athletes were. I did not know who the third man on the podium was. The white silver medal winner was also to me just background. It turns out he was a lot more. He was an integral and largely forgotten part of the protest as well as being one of Australia's greatest athletes and a strong life long advocate for human rights and a fighter against racism. This article by Riccardo Gazzaniga goes a long way to reviving the memory of the forgotten man in the photograph.