Controversial Athlete: Tommie Smith Essay

Talent is one thing that can change a person's life. A person's expertise can help them achieve their dreams while earning a good amount of money. In fact, talent is the highest paying kind of job. No white-collar job pays better than what a person using their talent excellently earns. An individual may be talented in music, theater, games among other things. This write-up focuses on Tommie Smith who is a celebrated athlete for so many things that he has done.

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Tommie Smith is a black American born in Texas in the year 1944. Even as a young boy, he had a lot of interest in athletics. He took it upon himself to participate in as many track events as possible. While in highs school, he was one of the athletes and he set several records which remains unbroken till date. He attended San Jose State College which is in California. While there, he continued to participate in athletics. He even competed at the Olympic Games in 1968 which were held in Mexico City to represent his college.

During this Olympic Games, Smith emerged the winner of the gold medal while his teammate John Carols managed to get the bronze medal. Smith also broke the world record for the 200m final race. However, this was not the first world record to break. He had broken several world records in the previous years. Nevertheless, what he and his teammate did during the 1968 Olympic Games made him a controversial person (Brown, 2017).

First, both Tommie Smith and John Carlos decided to wear black socks and walk bare feet to the podium for their medals. This was a representation of the poverty their fellow people were facing back at home. During that time, black Americans were not well off. They were treated more like slaves, and they were discriminated. They were thus left to do tiresome jobs which they were not well compensated. Some of them even went for days without something to eat and drink. These teammates, therefore, decided to stand in solidarity with their fellow black Americans and complain about the poverty status of their community.

Another thing that they did was wear black gloves, raise their fists, and bow down during the American national anthem. This was a symbol that meant that they were protesting the way African- Americans were being treated. The black gloves meant they were supporting black Americans. There was racial inequality in the country something they all protested. Raising a fist and bowing during the anthem indicated they the teammates were protesting the inequality. Instead, they wanted a nation where all people were treated equally regardless of their skin color (Younge, 2012).

Moreover, Smith wore a scarf while his teammate wore some beads representing the lynching victims. These are the things that made Tommie Smith a controversial athlete. He made a political statement in an Olympic tournament something that was prohibited. The Olympic Games were meant to bring together people from different countries and not to address political issues in a specific country. As a result, he and his teammate Carlos were banished from the Olympic Games. Those in attendance booed them, and they even faced death threats from people who believed what they did was wrong. However, they knew that what they were doing would not be welcomed. Despite that, Tommie Smith took a stand which made him a controversial athlete.

References

Brown, D. L. (2017, September 24). They didn't #TakeTheKnee: The Black Power protest salute that shook the world in 1968. The Washington Post.

Younge, G. (2012, March 30). The man who raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games. The Guardian.