tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/peter-norman-4073/articlesPeter Norman – The Conversation2021-01-27T13:40:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1493442021-01-27T13:40:52Z2021-01-27T13:40:52ZHow to protest China’s human rights violations without boycotting the 2022 Olympics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380102/original/file-20210122-23-10sxn05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5859%2C3918&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Olympic flags fly over a section of Great Wall of China to mark the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With one year to go before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, there <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/a-boycott-of-the-2022-beijing-olympics-would-work/">has been talk</a> <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-11-12/human-rights-groups-weigh-boycott-2022-winter-olympics-beijing">of boycotting the Games</a> to protest China’s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/">persecution of its Uyghur population</a> — and for the continued <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2020/10/08/boycotting-the-2022-winter-games-should-be-one-way-canada-sticks-it-to-china/">detention of two Canadians</a>. </p>
<p>The act of boycotting the Olympics is not as simple as it appears.</p>
<p>Governments don’t send athletes to the Olympics. National Olympic Committees send athletes — and they are <a href="https://www.playthegame.org/knowledge-bank/downloads/autonomy-in-national-olympic-committees-2017-/e3cb0290-dadf-4ed0-940b-a78b00b46398">supposed to operate independently</a> from their country’s government.</p>
<p>In Canada, the <a href="https://olympic.ca/">Canadian Olympic Committee</a> is a not-for-profit corporation. If the government of Canada wanted to boycott the Beijing Olympics, it would have to persuade the Canadian Olympic Committee not to send athletes.</p>
<h2>Pulling funding for athletes</h2>
<p>The government could try moral suasion or it could simply pull funding to coerce the Canadian Olympic Committee to go along. But pulling funding from Olympic athletes, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160804-many-olympians-struggle-just-to-make-ends-meet">who are already arguably underfunded</a>, may not be a popular decision.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-rescheduled-tokyo-olympics-could-heal-a-post-coronavirus-world-134757">How the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics could heal a post-coronavirus world</a>
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<p>If the government did get involved, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian athletes could face sanctions from the International Olympic Committee. The IOC has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/ioc-bans-india-from-olympics-1.1272480">banned India’s National Olympic Committee from the Olympics over political interference</a>. And <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1103458/italian-olympic-committee-tokyo-2020">Italy’s National Olympic Committee recently raised concerns about sanctions</a> in response to a new law reducing its power in Italian sport.</p>
<h2>Boycotts are historically ineffective</h2>
<p>Even if the Canadian Olympic Committee went along with a boycott, it is unlikely to be effective.</p>
<p>The two most significant boycotts of the Olympic Games — the American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games and the Soviet-bloc boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games — failed to achieve their goals.</p>
<p>The 1980 boycott was in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, but the Soviets remained in Afghanistan until 1989. The 1984 Soviet-led boycott was a response to the 1980 boycott. The 1984 Games, the first to turn a massive profit, saw <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1984/08/14/boycott-i-dont-think-it-devalues-the-gold-medals/a14b2026-ea97-4d57-9699-fec011384281/">American athletes winning a record number of medals</a> because of the absence of Soviet and other Communist bloc athletes.</p>
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<img alt="The Olympic flame is flanked by scoreboards signifying the formal opening of the the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380107/original/file-20210122-23-1p1odgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Athletes from the Soviet Union and other Communist bloc nations boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles in retaliation to an American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</span></span>
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<p>A boycott of Beijing 2022 could look at lot like the 1984 boycott.</p>
<h2>Boycott could help Chinese athletes</h2>
<p>China wants to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-china-wants-to-become-a-winter-sports-superpower-a-sports-complex-in/">become a winter sports power</a>. If the Games were boycotted by Canada and other countries that are traditionally strong winter sports performers, it would open the way for more Chinese athletes to win medals. </p>
<p>More medals won by Chinese athletes would benefit the government of China, rather than punish it for its actions against the Uyghur population or the two imprisoned Canadians.</p>
<p>The focus of the debate over human rights and the Olympics needs to be on the International Olympic Committee. The IOC, which holds the rights to the Games, could put pressure on China. But that’s unlikely.</p>
<p>First, there is no provision in the <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Host_city_elections/Host-City-Contract-XXIV-Olympic-Winter-Games-in-2022--Beijing-Execution-no-signature.pdf">Host City Contract</a> between the International Olympic Committee and the city of Beijing that would enable the IOC to remove the Games based on human rights issues.</p>
<p>Additionally, the IOC would not want to find a new, last-minute host for the 2022 Winter Games after already delaying the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo by a year due to COVID-19. The IOC is committed to the Games going ahead as planned, seen in the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics-refute-cancellation-report-1.5883305">refuting of a recent report</a> suggesting that the Tokyo Games will be cancelled.</p>
<p>Although one might look to the International Ice Hockey Federation’s recent removal of the 2021 World Championships from Belarus as an example for the IOC to follow, it’s a slightly different situation. Formally, the federation pulled hosting rights <a href="https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2021/wm/news/24134/iihf_to_move_2021_world_championship">to protect the safety of players and officials</a>. Informally, it pulled hosting rights because a <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/skoda-belarus-ice-hockey/31049014.html">major sponsor threatened to withdraw funding</a>. Neither of these appear to be the case for Beijing 2022.</p>
<h2>Sport diplomacy a better route</h2>
<p>Instead, it’s probably more helpful to use participation at the Beijing Games as a way to raise awareness of human rights issues and a <a href="https://www.sportandeu.com/post/athletes-or-diplomats-in-tracksuits">form of sport diplomacy</a>.</p>
<p>We have seen this play out with <a href="https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/16/01/2020/UN-body-welcomes-milestone-in-Qatar-labour-reforms">Qatar’s labour law reforms</a> following intense scrutiny as it prepares to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Professional sports leagues have also provided an avenue for athletes to <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/how-the-nba-social-justice-efforts-dominated-the-season/">raise awareness about Black Lives Matter</a>, an example of positive engagement.</p>
<p>The hurdle to this approach is the <a href="https://stillmedab.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf#_ga=2.239645891.1593872523.1609787342-2034070448.1606947990">Olympic Charter’s Rule 50.2</a> that states: </p>
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<p>“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”</p>
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<img alt="Australian silver medalist Peter Norman stands on the medal podium as Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their gloved fists in a human rights protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380105/original/file-20210122-19-sz2niu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In one of the most famous examples of an Olympic protest, American sprinters Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos (right) raise their gloved fists in a Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
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<p>This rule has <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/olympics-protest/">been criticized</a> and the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/olympics-protest/">International Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s Commission</a> is putting forward recommendations to reconsider the rule, <a href="https://olympic.ca/press/coc-athletes-commission-releases-seven-recommendations-on-rule-50/">including input from Canadian athletes</a>. </p>
<p>This is not to say that raising awareness, demonstrations and protests by athletes will solve the problems. But history shows us that athlete protests can have a powerful effect.</p>
<p>What could affect more change? Having more athletes with the bravery of <a href="https://www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash">Tommie Smith, John Carlos</a> <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1101989/peter-norman-smith-carlos-mexico-award">and Peter Norman</a> — who used the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympics to protest anti-Black racism — or Canadian athletes staying home next year?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Gauthier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing next February. Those opposed to China’s human rights violations are calling for a boycott. That’s a complicated form of protest.Ryan Gauthier, Assistant Professor of Law, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1235162019-09-18T03:05:02Z2019-09-18T03:05:02ZMore than a kick: sporting statues can enshrine players and also capture pivotal cultural moments<p>In March this year, photographer Michael Willson captured an image of AFL footballer Tayla Harris kicking for a goal. The image shows Harris in athletic flight, right leg extended skyward and muscles flexed as her eyes trace the arc of the football beyond the frame.</p>
<p>Last week in Melbourne’s Federation Square a 3.3 meter bronze depiction of Harris’ kick was unveiled. Statues like that of Harris, can celebrate an individual’s achievements but also expose prejudice or signpost changes in our societal values. </p>
<p>Willson’s original photograph was intended to celebrate athleticism and Australian rules football. Instead, when shared on Seven’s social media accounts, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-20/tayla-harris-felt-sexually-abused-aflw-photo-trolls-seven/10919008">misogynistic comments</a> were posted. In response, Seven took down the posts. </p>
<p>History is repeating itself with the response to her statue, with <a href="https://twitter.com/abcgrandstand/status/1171598111770324992">commenters</a> on social media suggesting Harris is undeserving of the bronzed honour. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292714/original/file-20190917-19055-4o2tmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A bronzed Malcolm Blight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Malcolm_Blight_statue_Adelaide_Oval.jpg">Thejoebloggsblog/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/aflw/aflw-star-tayla-harris-melbourne-slammed-by-afl-legend-malcolm-blight-as-ludicrous-ng-b881322080z">One of the loudest critics</a> was Malcolm Blight – former North Melbourne player and Adelaide coach, himself immortalised in bronze. </p>
<p>“[It is] one of the most mystifying things I have ever heard of,” he said on radio program Sportsday SA. “I am not happy about it.” </p>
<p>Blight’s statue was <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/sport-focus/2014/04/01/welcome-adelaide-oval-women-count-nothing/">one of eight statues of men revealed</a> at the re-opening of Adelaide Oval in 2014. </p>
<h2>‘I’m black and I’m proud’</h2>
<p>In July, a bronze depiction of Nicky Winmar raising his St Kilda jumper and defiantly pointing a finger to his torso was revealed at Perth’s Optus Stadium. </p>
<p>“Footy is for everyone, no matter where you come from, who you are, men, women, children, black or white, rich or poor” <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/crowd-goes-wild-as-nicky-winmar-statue-is-unveiled-at-optus-stadium-20190706-p524qt.html">Winmar said at the unveiling</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292377/original/file-20190913-35624-1u7xmrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">26 years after the iconic photograph, a sculpture of Nicky Winmar was unveiled at Optus Stadium in Perth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/winmar%20statue">AAP Image/Richard Wainwright</a></span>
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<p>The statue is based on Wayne Ludbey’s iconic photograph, and Winmar’s words while he pointed: “I’m black and I’m proud.” </p>
<p>“It’s an emotional day for both of us,” <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/afl-legend-nicky-winmar-in-tears-as-landmark-statue-unveiled-at-optus-stadium-ng-b881252309z">Ludbey told The West Australian</a>. “It’s been a long road.”</p>
<p>“Twenty six years ago no one wanted to know the message and didn’t understand what we were about. Twenty six years on, here we are on the banks of the Swan River.”</p>
<p>But even after 26 years, the statue still faced delays, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2019/06/10/nicky-winmars-iconic-stand-take-permanent-place-perth">kept in storage for over nine months</a> as stakeholders argued over who would pay for transportation. The sculptor Louis Laumen called it an “insult.”</p>
<h2>A sports call for racial equality</h2>
<p>Last year, <a href="https://www.athletics.com.au/news/peter-norman-statue-to-be-built/">Athletics Australia announced</a> they would be erecting a bronze statue of Peter Norman at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne.</p>
<p>In 1968, Norman won silver in the 200m at the Mexico Olympics. He shared the dias with African American runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos: Smith and Carlos raising fists in a call for racial equality, Carlos wearing the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. </p>
<p>Norman was ostracised by Australian athletics officials and criticised heavily in the Australian press. A statue commemorating his act has been considered a way to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-13/group-calls-for-statue-of-australian-athlete-peter-norman/8906244">right a significant wrong</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-later-peter-normans-heroic-olympic-stand-is-finally-being-recognised-at-home-102112">Fifty years later, Peter Norman's heroic Olympic stand is finally being recognised at home</a>
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<h2>Collective memory in bronze</h2>
<p>Statues and monuments have tended to celebrate and maintain the symbolic and material prominence of white men, with <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/tracey-spicer-why-arent-more-women-immortalised-in-stone-20170928-gyqm59.html">only 3% of public statues in Australia</a> honouring non-fiction, non-royal women. Statues of Indigenous Australians <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/historic-statues-where-women-and-indigenous-people-go-missing-20170831-gy8ev2.html">are similarly rare</a>. </p>
<p>Yet even for male players, statues of sports people are relatively new. In the UK, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-17459907">research has found</a> just 15 statues of sportspeople were erected before 1995, and over 100 to 2012. Dr Chris Stride, the statistician behind a <a href="http://offbeat.group.shef.ac.uk/statues/index.htm">database</a> of sporting statues, told the BBC “Sports people are seen as celebrities, they never used to be.”</p>
<p>Stride believes these statues, largely of retired (or dead) players are a way for fans to “[bask] in reflective glory”.</p>
<p>But they can do more than commemorate and reflect the past. Statues and the spaces they occupy are a kind of history of the present. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-public-monuments-its-time-australians-looked-at-what-and-whom-we-commemorate-82751">The politics of public monuments: it's time Australians looked at what, and whom, we commemorate</a>
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<p>These three recent Australian statues focus not only on the sports person, but also significant cultural moments. They are tangible, material remnants of social consciousness that have the potential to reach far beyond sport.</p>
<p>At the foot of the Harris monument is inscribed “More than a kick”: a testament to the fact that statues and monuments of sport stars are rarely simply about their sporting prowess. As Harris said, the statue is “not about me. It’s about the moment and what happened”.</p>
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<h2>Re-imaging an inclusive future</h2>
<p>Australian rules football is a code culturally dominated by white men, both on and off the field. Enshrining players like Harris and Winmar in bronze goes against this narrative. </p>
<p>Public statues which mark and celebrate the achievements of athletes influence the way we see ourselves. Their absence can be equally influential. The overwhelming absence of women’s and Indigenous Australian’s sporting achievements demonstrates how particular athletes and sports are valued: you can’t be what you can’t see.</p>
<p>In Federation Square, Harris was mobbed by groups of teenage girls wanting a selfie with the AFLW star.</p>
<p>In the wake of the more recent racial abuse of Indigenous AFL athletes, Winmar’s statue creates an important record of this history – and the strength of the players who have stood up to it. </p>
<p>The statue of Norman follows a <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-will-stand-with-you-finally-an-apology-to-peter-norman-10107">2012 parliamentary appology</a>: together they are a necessary corrective to the way he was ostracised following the 1968 games. </p>
<p>Online criticism of character and deservedness can divert attention away from the issues, practices and behaviour these players had the fortitude to call out – and how radical these statues are among other bronzed bodies. </p>
<p>These depictions of Harris, Winmar and Norman underline, celebrate and encourage collective memory and ongoing meaningful discussion of moments and events which have <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/why-tayla-harris-statue-is-different-from-other-sporting-legends/news-story/0e862b8a09dce0928b0e5cd82e9f07f2">profound cultural and political significance</a>.</p>
<h2>A memorial to social history</h2>
<p>The Harris statue is yet to find a permanent home, but it will remain in Federation Square during the AFL finals period. It should be celebrated for encouraging more diverse acknowledgement and recognition of the various sportspeople in Australia.</p>
<p>These statues not only create a memorial to sports people, but also Australia’s social history: they create talking points to remember our past, and imagine new possibilities for our future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle O'Shea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We might think of sporting statues commemorating great players. But three new statues are showing us they can commemorate great cultural moments, too.Michelle O'Shea, Lecturer Sport Management, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021122018-10-16T04:31:27Z2018-10-16T04:31:27ZFifty years later, Peter Norman’s heroic Olympic stand is finally being recognised at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240730/original/file-20181016-165905-813omm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Australian Olympic Committee posthumously awarded sprinter Peter Norman with an Order of Merit in June. His daughter Janita accepted the award on his behalf.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Crosling/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fifty years ago today, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/24/they-didnt-takeaknee-the-black-power-protest-salute-that-shook-the-world-in-1968/?utm_term=.6ad96acad8c5">Black Power salute</a> on the medal podium at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Mexico-City-1968-Olympic-Games">1968 Mexico City Olympics</a> to protest against racial inequality. </p>
<p>The protest became one of the most indelible sporting moments of the 20th century. Much less known, for a long time at least, was the silver medallist, Peter Norman, a white runner from Australia, who stood in solidarity with Smith and Carlos. </p>
<p>You may wonder why Smith raised his right hand while Carlos raised his left. Carlos forgot to bring his gloves to the ceremony. It was Norman <a href="https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-civil-rights-movement-in-america-1945-to-1968/peter-norman/">who suggested</a> they share the only pair they had, leaving an even stronger impact on the viewer. </p>
<p>Norman didn’t raise his fist, but he did wear an “<a href="http://www.isreview.org/issues/61/feat-zirin.shtml">Olympic Project for Human Rights</a>” badge on his chest. After the games, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/05/guardianobituaries.australia">he said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believe that every man is born equal and should be treated that way.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240731/original/file-20181016-165905-3rp91z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norman (left), Smith and Carlos on the medal podium in Mexico City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Different ways of remembering someone</h2>
<p>Whether a person is remembered, and how a person is remembered, can vary by time and space. Individual memory may not be consequential for society. However, collective memory by a group of people, especially the people of a nation, can be very influential. But collective memory is also selective, as French sociologist <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo3619875.html">Maurice Halbwachs</a> noted, as different groups of people can have different collective memories of the same person or event. </p>
<p>French historian <a href="https://eclass.gunet.gr/modules/document/file.php/ARTGU163/%CE%92%CE%99%CE%92%CE%9B%CE%99%CE%9F%CE%93%CE%A1%CE%91%CE%A6%CE%99%CE%91%20%28%CE%93%CE%95%CE%9D%CE%99%CE%9A%CE%91%29/89NoraLieuxIntroRepresentations.pdf">Pierre Nora</a> distinguished between what he refers to as <em>lieux de mémoire</em> (sites of memory) and <em>milieux de mémoire</em> (real environments of memory). </p>
<p>Examples of <em>lieux de mémoire</em> include monuments, memorials, museums, anniversaries and treaties. These are partially preserved memories of a person and are often fragmented. In contrast, <em>milieux de mémoire</em> attempt to completely preserve a person’s memory through historical depictions of their lives and accomplishments – biographies, documentaries and the like.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-will-stand-with-you-finally-an-apology-to-peter-norman-10107">'I will stand with you': finally, an apology to Peter Norman</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When it comes to Norman, two countries have experienced different collective memories of him. He has been celebrated for his contributions to civil rights in the US, while Australia, a country that <a href="http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/end_of_the_white_australia_policy">pursued a whites-only immigration policy</a> for decades, chose to selectively forget him until recently.</p>
<p>The US has produced both <em>lieux de mémoire</em> and <em>milieux de mémoire</em> of Norman. Despite the initial outcry over the salute by Smith and Carlos, Norman became gradually integrated into the history of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement">civil rights movement</a> in the US. </p>
<p>At the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Sydney-2000-Olympic-Games">2000 Sydney Olympic Games</a>, Norman was invited as a guest, not by the Australian Olympic Committee, but by the <a href="http://www.usatf.org/">USA Track and Field Federation</a>. </p>
<p>And when he died in 2006, the federation declared October 9, the day of his funeral, as Peter Norman Day. Then, in 2012, CNN aired a documentary, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/sport/olympics-norman-black-power/index.html">The Third Man: The Forgotten Black Power Hero</a>, about Norman’s life story. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1051950991686266880"}"></div></p>
<p>There are also two monuments remembering the 1968 black power salute in the US. One of them is at the new <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/">National Museum of African American History and Culture</a> in Washington DC. It includes a statue of Norman, gazing stoically from the medal stand in front of the American sprinters. </p>
<p>The other monument was erected in 2005 on the campus of Smith’s and Carlos’s alma mater, <a href="http://www.sjsu.edu/">San Jose State University</a> in California. For this piece, the second-place podium was left empty. Norman had <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/olympic-black-power-statue">declined to be depicted</a>, to allow visitors to stand in his place in solidarity with the two Americans instead. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/240727/original/file-20181016-165918-3m24ic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The San Jose State monument to Smith and Carlos, minus Norman in the silver medal spot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Tim Liao</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/human-rights-and-the-olympics-games-of-freedom-or-oppression-8287">Human rights and the Olympics: games of freedom or oppression?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australia’s slow acceptance of Norman’s place in history</h2>
<p>Australia, by contrast, has only belatedly made efforts to remember Norman and his achievements in athletics and contributions to racial equality. </p>
<p>When Norman returned to Australia following the 1968 Olympics, he faced intense criticism from the public and media. He was also ostracised by the Australian Olympic Committee, who <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7674157.stm">decided not to send him</a> to the 1972 Munich Olympics, even though he had met the qualifying time on numerous occasions. (The AOC <a href="http://olympics.com.au/athlete/peter-norman">maintains</a> he was injured at the national Olympics trials and didn’t qualify.)</p>
<p>Norman <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-hero-too-many-of-us-still-dont-know-20120813-244vg.html">retired soon after</a>.</p>
<p>After his death in 2006, some Australians began recasting Norman’s actions in a more positive light. </p>
<p>In 2008, Norman’s nephew, Matt Norman, <a href="http://salutethemovie.com/">produced a documentary</a>, Salute, retelling the sprinter’s story. It was nominated for best documentary in the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/history-shows-sidney-crosby-could-have-stood-up-to-racial-injustice-85065">History shows Sidney Crosby could have stood up to racial injustice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But it was not until 2012 when <a href="http://www.andrewleigh.com/3389">the Australian parliament issued an official state apology</a> to Norman. And this April, the <a href="http://olympics.com.au/">Australian Olympic Committee</a> bestowed <a href="http://olympics.com.au/news/aoc-annual-general-meeting-orders-of-merit-to-australian-sporting-greats">an Order of Merit</a> posthumously to Norman. It was a significant gesture, given the AOC <a href="http://olympics.com.au/news/peter-norman-not-shunned-by-aoc">has consistently denied</a> blacklisting Norman after his return from Mexico. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"920800598835978240"}"></div></p>
<p>A statue of Norman will also <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/peter-norman-statue-to-be-erected-in-melbourne">finally be erected</a> outside a stadium in his hometown, Melbourne, which is due to be completed in 2019. And October 9 will also be recognised in Australia as Peter Norman Day, too.</p>
<p>This recognition through both <em>lieux de mémoire</em> and <em>milieux de mémoire</em> is long overdue. Remarkably, Norman’s time in the 200m from the 1968 games still stands as an Australian record today. But his contributions to society should be remembered for far longer than what he achieved on the track.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102112/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Liao does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sprinter Peter Norman has been memorialised in many ways in the US for his support of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics. In Australia, it’s taken much longer.Tim Liao, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/850652017-10-05T21:56:51Z2017-10-05T21:56:51ZHistory shows Sidney Crosby could have stood up to racial injustice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189676/original/file-20171010-17691-kxfpdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">blank</span> </figcaption></figure><p>A champion athlete, who is both white and not American, has the chance, at some personal cost, to protest racial injustice in the United States. Should he avoid taking a stand or lend support to a protest that doesn’t directly affect him?</p>
<p>The question has been asked of Sidney Crosby. Crosby and the Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins visited the White House, and his <a href="http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/sidney-crosby-supports-penguins-decision-go-white-house/">statement in advance of the visit that it was “a great honour”</a> came amid a <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/nba-star-curry-and-golden-state-warriors-nix-white-house-visit/a-40655345">boycott of the White House by the NBA champion Golden State Warriors</a>, and Trump’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/columnists/trump-race-nfl-nba.html">racist criticisms of NFL players’ taking a knee to protest police brutality against black Americans</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"912019957243883520"}"></div></p>
<p>Almost 50 years ago, the question was asked of another white non-American: Australian sprinter <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/05/guardianobituaries.australia">Peter Norman</a>. The two athletes’ starkly different responses to similar situations of racial tension highlight the extent to which Crosby, the Penguins and the NHL — in the face of profound injustice — failed to rise to the occasion.</p>
<h2>A lasting image of protest</h2>
<p>The photo of African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, heads bowed, each raising a black-gloved fist in a Black Power salute, taking a stand for racial equality and human rights, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/24/they-didnt-takeaknee-the-black-power-protest-salute-that-shook-the-world-in-1968/">remains an iconic image</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188416/original/file-20171002-12107-hzxobq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian Peter Norman, left, supported the Black Power protests of U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, centre, and John Carlos during the medal ceremonies for the 200 metre sprint at the 1968 Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Norman, the silver medallist, is the guy standing next to them on the podium. He’s wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights patch, borrowed from an American rower to show solidarity with Carlos and Smith. (Incidentally, Norman was also responsible for suggesting that Smith and Carlos share a single pair of gloves after Carlos forgot his, back at the Olympic Village.)</p>
<p>Norman, like Crosby, was in a privileged position to do something. Or he could have used his non-Americanness, or his whiteness, as an excuse to stay out of a domestic U.S. racial struggle, as Crosby did.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189665/original/file-20171010-17667-1fv85y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to honour the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 10, 2017, at the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, Norman played a crucial supporting role in what has become a legendary stand for human rights.</p>
<p>When Smith and Carlos told Norman what they were going to do, they asked him if he believed in human rights. Norman, driven by his strong Salvation Army faith, <a href="https://empirerunnersblog.org/2016/05/01/who-was-peter-norman-part-2-by-brad-zanetti/">said he did</a>. His ultimate response, which should be taught in schools worldwide, was the opposite of Crosby’s: “I will stand with you.”</p>
<h2>The price of taking a stand</h2>
<p>Norman did so despite the palpable threat of assassination in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/observer/gallery/2008/jan/17/1">violent summer of 1968</a>. He faced the threat of repercussions from a controversy-averse International Olympic Committee and a home country still operating under an <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-white-australia-policy-74084">overtly racist White Australia immigration policy</a>.</p>
<p>He did so because he believed deeply in human equality. As Carlos remarks in the excellent Norman-focused documentary, <a href="http://salutethemovie.com/"><em>Salute</em></a>: “Peter didn’t have to take that button. Peter wasn’t from the United States. Peter was not a Black man. Peter didn’t have to feel what I felt. But he was a man.” That was enough.</p>
<p>Norman, like Smith and Carlos, paid an enormous price for his stand. For wearing that patch, Australia blacklisted him from the 1972 Olympics despite being the fifth-fastest sprinter in the world at the time (he continues to hold the Australian 200 metre record). He was not even invited to take part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, attending instead as the guest of an appreciative U.S. Track and Field Federation. </p>
<p>Long after the U.S. recognized Carlos and Smith as heroes (as their <a href="http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/17664885/olympic-sprinters-tommie-smith-john-carlos-support-colin-kaepernick-anthem-protests">spiritual successor, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick</a> will be, in time), Norman remained a pariah: <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-will-stand-with-you-finally-an-apology-to-peter-norman-10107">the Australian government only apologized for Australia’s treatment of him in 2012, six years after his death</a>.</p>
<h2>No regrets</h2>
<p>Despite the hardship, Norman did not regret his actions. For him, doing the right thing took precedence over doing the easy thing.</p>
<p>Crosby’s and the Penguins’ actions fall short of Norman’s example. What’s more, in trying not to choose sides — between African-Americans who fear for their lives around police and a president who finds it hard to condemn neo-Nazis — they’ve implicitly revealed what they’re prepared to tolerate. As Lt.-General David Morrison, the former Australian Chief of Army, <a href="https://youtu.be/QaqpoeVgr8U">noted in a similar context</a>, “The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.”</p>
<p>And yet, while it is profoundly disappointing that Crosby, the Penguins and the NHL have missed their Peter Norman moment, Norman himself probably would not have judged them too harshly. As he remarked in <em>Salute</em>: “In a victory ceremony for the Olympics, there’s three guys that stand up there. Each one’s been given about a square metre of God’s earth to stand on. And what any one of the three choose to do with his little square metre of earth at that stage is entirely up to them.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, what Crosby and his fellow Penguins choose to do with their square metre is a matter for their own consciences. For others, graced with the opportunity to stand with the victims of injustice, Peter Norman offers a shining example of what moral courage looks like.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188868/original/file-20171004-31295-juvszj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tommie Smith, left, and John Carlos, right, who gave the historic Black Power salutes at the 1968 Olympics, reunite for the final time with the third man on the podium that year as they as they act as pallbearers for Peter Norman at his funeral in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blayne Haggart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Almost 50 years ago, a white, non-American athlete supported Black athletes protesting racial injustice. Peter Norman paid a price for taking a stand. Canada’s Sidney Crosby is no Peter Norman.Blayne Haggart, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/619042016-07-27T10:44:33Z2016-07-27T10:44:33ZAll the Olympics are a stage, and all the athletes merely players: the rich history of the modern Games<p>The Olympics transfix us. Six in every ten people in the world – including both you, dear reader, and me – watched the London 2012 Olympics. Use of the word Olympics increased in relative frequency 3,300% between 1924 and 1984. But what are the Olympics to us, how are we to read them socially and politically?</p>
<p>The Olympic Games are a theatre — sometimes farce, sometimes tragedy, theatre of the absurd, opera buffa, reality TV, morality play or soap opera — where geopolitical, social and technological dramas are played out. </p>
<p>The Olympic village (which first appeared in the 1932 Los Angeles Games) is itself a microworld, where all nationalities, creeds and colours come together and everyday dramas of sex, politics, human achievement and human weakness are played out. </p>
<p>Olympic competition is itself a media-constructed reality.</p>
<h2>The Olympics as cinema</h2>
<p>There’s always been an easy spillover between the Olympics and the mass media. Athletes have slipped seamlessly into media celebrity. Olympic weightlifter Harold Sakata won a silver medal in the 1948 London Olympics, but became better known as Oddjob in the James Bond film Goldfinger. </p>
<p>Less known is British freestyle wrestler Ken Richmond, the bloke who bangs the huge bronze gong at the start of J. Arthur Rank films. Appropriately, he won a bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.</p>
<p>But cinematic links with the Olympics go much further back. Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie (gold medallist in three successive Olympics from 1928) became one of the highest-paid actors in the world. </p>
<p>Buster Crabbe (US gold medallist swimmer 1932) appeared in over 100 movies. Like Crabbe, shot-putter Herman Brix (silver medal, Amsterdam 1928), swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (five gold medals 1924-1928) and decathlete champion Glenn Morris (1936) all appeared as Tarzan, the last <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan%27s_Revenge">alongside US Olympic swimmer Eleanor Holm</a> (1928 and 1932). </p>
<p>Weissmuller, fondly remembered by children of my generation as Jungle Jim, featured in Tarzan’s celebrated <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bc7KDyLV80">nude swim</a>, ostensibly with Maureen O’Sullivan, but actually with stand-in Olympic and world champion swimmer Josephine McKim.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131918/original/image-20160726-31198-zdapaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buster Crabbe, US gold medallist, in Tarzan the Fearless (1933).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Simpson/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Olympics have also been the subject <em>of</em> film. Glenn “Tarzan” Morris also appeared in Leni Riefenstahl’s superb documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030522/">Olympia (1938)</a>, considered one of the best films ever made. </p>
<p>The classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082158/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Chariots of Fire (1981)</a> was a morality play looking at the clash of spiritual and worldly values, when the evangelical Scottish athlete Eric Liddell refused to run on Sunday and sacrificed his chance of winning the 100-metre sprint. Liddell later returned to his birthplace in China as a missionary, only to die in a Japanese internment camp weeks before the liberation. </p>
<p>Spielberg’s dark <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408306/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Munich (2005)</a> explored the massacre of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Games, and more recently <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Cool Runnings (1993)</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1083452/">Eddie the Eagle (2016)</a> have recounted some of the farcical aspects of the Games – the equally improbable efforts of a Jamaican bobsleigh team and an English ski-jumper.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jpdg5XOZZDY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Even Olympic venues are like film sets, scattered across the world’s most exotic destinations from Paris to Rio. Just like film sets, they’re often improvised and dismantled soon after the Games have finished. </p>
<p>Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer, improvised the 1936 Olympic stadium using 152 anti-aircraft searchlights pointed straight upwards. The <a href="http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/37/3/Teil_2.pdf">Lichtdom</a>, said British ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson, was “like being inside a cathedral of ice”. </p>
<p>Hermann Göring, never a fan of high art (“Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’, I reach for my revolver”), was unimpressed; Speer had commandeered all the anti-aircraft searchlights in Berlin, leaving the city unprotected. </p>
<p>The Berlin Olympic Village was converted to military barracks soon after the Games; perhaps the Allies should have read the signs. </p>
<h2>… as political drama</h2>
<p>In the ancient Olympics, warring states agreed to lay down their arms and establish an Olympic peace — Pax Olympica. In the modern era, the Games become a stylised working out of geopolitical tensions. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/spirit/english/e_spirit">George Orwell</a> famously described sport as “war without the bullets”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the world at this moment, you could hardly do it better than by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and Czechs, Indians and British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and Jugoslavs, each match to be watched by a mixed audience of 100,000 spectators.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Olympic nations represent a kind of global geopolitics in miniature, shifting, coalescing and dividing as global politics change. The old Soviet Union is now represented by 15 national Olympic committees, the former Yugoslavia by seven, and the two Germanies by one. </p>
<p>There are, in fact, more Olympic “nations” – 206 – than there are countries in the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/member-states/">United Nations – 193</a>. </p>
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) crystallises and provides the imprimatur for new geopolitical realities: accepting Japan back into the fold of civilised nations in 1952, and Germany in 1956; rehabilitating South Korea after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Park_Chung-hee">10.26 assassination</a> of president Park Chung-Hee by awarding it the 1988 Games; acknowledging the Soviet Union and Communist China in 1952; and refusing recognition of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo in 1936. </p>
<p>While the IOC Charter strictly forbids direct political interference in national Olympic committees, there is a wide gap between theory and practice. After the Soviet soccer team lost to heterodox Yugoslavia at the Helsinki Games in 1952 (a 5-5 draw; then 1-3 in the replay), Stalin disbanded the team, who were provided with new homes “inside the Arctic Circle”. </p>
<p>He had a historical precedent: in 1912, Tsar Nicholas dissolved the Russian soccer team after their 16-0 loss to Germany in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Clearly, Stalin set the bar a bit higher than the tsar.</p>
<p>The Games have also been the stage for celebrated political set pieces. I was 10 months old when there was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match">blood in the water</a> during the waterpolo clash between the Soviet Union and Hungary in the 1956 Melbourne Games. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131921/original/image-20160726-23692-1y7moqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s black power salute at the 1968 Mexican Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Carlos,_Tommie_Smith,_Peter_Norman_1968cr.jpg">By Angelo Cozzi via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Hungarians, on their long sea voyage to the Antipodes, were unaware of the Soviet invasion of their homeland. The clash was a bloody affair, with the Hungarians ultimately winning 4-0 and going on to win the gold medal. </p>
<p>In 1968, the Mexican military killed at least 49 students protesting against the Games in the Tlatelolco Massacre. Mexico also saw the Olympic podium used to stage the celebrated black power salute by John Carlos and Tommie Smith, with the Australian silver medallist Peter Norman stood by.</p>
<p>In 1972, militants from the Palestinian Black September movement murdered 11 Israeli athletes in the Munich Games village. </p>
<h2>… as feminist realism</h2>
<p>Women first appeared in the 1900 Olympics. The 22 women among the 997 athletes were limited to ladylike sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf. Over the years, the number of sports open to women has gradually increased, bringing, in 2016, the unthinkable — women’s rugby. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131924/original/image-20160726-31195-19n1x4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">English tennis player Charlotte Cooper, who, in 1900, became the first female Olympic champion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlotte_Cooper.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, women constitute about 40% to 45% of Olympic competitors.</p>
<p>There is one unisex sport (equestrian), although at various times both sailing and rifle shooting have been unisex. And there is one sport where, thankfully, men have not been allowed to compete: synchronised swimming. </p>
<p>In others sports, there are odd historical hangovers of sex differences: there is no 1,500-metre swim for women; women compete in the heptathlon rather than the decathlon; and men’s and women’s gymnastics are radically different. </p>
<p>One can only say that there’s been a long march towards gender equality, but we wouldn’t want to take things too far too fast, given that the Australian Matildas, one of the best women’s soccer teams in the world, were recently <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/05/25/matildas-beaten-7-0-by-newcastle-jets-under-15-boys-team/">beaten 7-0 by an under-15 boys’ team</a>.</p>
<p>Gender issues have been played out in the Olympic theatre in other ways. Indeed, the Olympics have more than anything brought into question the whole notion of binary gender and what it means to be a man or a woman. </p>
<p>This issue poses a particular quandary for the Olympics. On the one hand, as the Matildas well know, it’s just not fair to have men competing against women in most sports. On the other hand, it’s not the place of the IOC to be telling people what sex they are.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132111/original/image-20160727-7058-qk84aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Edith Louise Weston in 1936, before gender change operations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weston_(athlete)#/media/File:Mary_Edith_Louise_Weston_1936b.jpg">Unknown via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sex testing was first requested by IOC executive member, and later president, Avery Brundage in 1936, over concerns about British javelin and discus champion Mary Louise Edith Weston. In 1936, Mary had a sex change to become Mark. It ran in the family; a year later, Mark’s elder sister Hilda also had gender re-assignment treatment. </p>
<p>The most famous transgender athlete — until Caitlyn Jenner — was Stanislawa Walasiewickz, a Polish sprinter who won the gold medal in the 100-metre dash in the 1932 Olympics, and silver in Berlin. Later, living as an American under the name Stella Walsh, she was found upon her death (she was shot during an armed robbery in 1981) to have male genitalia.</p>
<p>At the same Games, German Dora Ratjen competed in the high jump, finishing fourth, but was later found to be intersex.</p>
<p>Sex testing initially consisted of a physical examination, literally a “nude parade” of women. Chromosomal testing was introduced in 1968, and in 2012 hormonal testing for abnormal levels of testosterone began. </p>
<p>The official IOC position is that rather than sex testing, this is a test to determine if certain athletes are “unfairly advantaged” by an accident of birth. One can only say that this is a tricky position to maintain: just about every athlete is unfairly advantaged by an accident of birth, certainly relative to you and me, at least. That’s why they’re elite athletes.</p>
<p>In 2009, after South African runner Caster Semenya won gold in the women’s 800-metre run, the International Amateur Athletics Federation began receiving emails from people who had doubts about Semenya’s gender because of her masculine appearance. Some unkind commentators even pointed out that her name was <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/caster-semenya-gender-storm-is-the-answer-790360">an anagram of “Yes, a secret man”</a>. </p>
<p>The results of chromosomal tests were never released, but Semenya was cleared to run again. After winning the silver medal in London, Semenya will be among the favourites in Rio. Watch this space.</p>
<h2>… as romcom</h2>
<p>The Olympic stage is a theatre of sex in another way: it is a festival of youth where the athletes compete, celebrate and fornicate. And <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnclarke/2012/07/16/who-will-win-the-sex-olympics/#7e6efd6d18c6">fornicate they do</a>, by all accounts. </p>
<p>The London Games provided 150,000 condoms — 15 per athlete — for the 17-day event. That’s enough for 30 couplings per pair, or 1.7 couplings per day. </p>
<p>But Olympic love has flourished even in condom-less environments, and in those more innocent days when men’s and women’s living quarters were separated, as they still are for Muslim athletes. </p>
<p>In 1956, US gold medal hammer thrower Hal Connolly met and fell in love with Czech discus champion Olga Fikotová, a cross-Iron Curtain romance that blossomed into a marriage. </p>
<p>The scenario was repeated 48 years later in Athens when gold medallist rifleman Matt Emmons (US) fell for Czech riflewoman Katerina Kurková. Perhaps it was a shotgun wedding. </p>
<p>There are, in fact, dozens of Olympic lovers, most famously legendary Czech distance runner Emil Zatokpek and his wife Dana, a gold-medal-winning javelin thrower, who were witnesses to the Connolly wedding.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132115/original/image-20160727-5645-ovimdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin#/media/File:Pierre_de_Coubertin_Anefo2.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>… as morality play</h2>
<p>The founder of the Games, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin">Pierre de Coubertin</a>, envisaged them as a competition between gentleman amateurs, playing fairly and competing on a level playing field, figuratively and literally. </p>
<p>Native American athlete Jim Thorpe was relieved of his two gold medals from the 1912 Stockholm Games when it turned out he had accepted money for playing baseball. </p>
<p>But the myth of professionalism, freighted with classist assumptions, was a lost cause from the start. Gradually, begrudgingly, the Games were opened up to full professionals. </p>
<p>Fairness also proved to be an elusive ideal. </p>
<p>Over 50 Olympic athletes have been stripped of their medals, mainly for doping. Most famously, they included US swimmer Rick DeMont at the Montreal Games, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at Seoul, US sprinter Marion Jones, who lost her five medals from Atlanta and Sydney, and US cyclists Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton in Sydney and Athens. </p>
<p>The vexed question of artificial performance enhancement has plagued the Olympics, and raises a basic moral question: what does “natural” mean? What is the difference, one might ask, between taking the blood-booster EPO and training in altitude tents, which has the same effect, or for that matter having a natural genetic variant? </p>
<p>Although we think of cheating mainly as a pharmacological indiscretion, there have also been interesting cases of “technology doping”. </p>
<p>Boris Onishchenko, a Russian pentathlete, rigged his electrofoil at the 1976 Olympics to mark a score before he actually hit anyone, eliciting a protest from the British. He was known thereafter as “Boris Disonishchenko”. Soviet President Brezhnev was not happy, and Onishchenko was last seen working as a taxi driver in Kiev.</p>
<p>The issue of technological performance enhancement was raised again when the “blade runner” Oscar Pistorius became the first disabled track and field athlete to compete at the able-bodied games. Several sports scientists argued that his blades provided him with an unfair advantage, allowing a greater return of elastic energy. </p>
<h2>After the theatre</h2>
<p>By September, the stage will be dismantled, and our revels will be ended. Our athletes will melt into air, into thin air. The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. </p>
<p>All that will remain will be the cold wind whistling through the empty stadiums and the athletes’ Potemkin villages. Until, that is, we switch on our televisions for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Olds receives funding from the ARC and the NHMRC. In the past he has also been funded by the Australian Sports Commission.</span></em></p>The Olympic Games are a theatre — sometimes farce, sometimes tragedy, reality TV, morality play or soap opera — where geopolitical, social and technological dramas are played out.Tim Olds, Professor of Health Sciences, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101072012-10-12T19:26:07Z2012-10-12T19:26:07Z‘I will stand with you’: finally, an apology to Peter Norman<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16440/original/k9zg2ksp-1349998618.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tommie Smith and John Carlos carry the coffin of Peter Norman, who died in 2006.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Sporting celebrities and stars have always featured centrally in the psyche of the Australian nation. Our athletes are portrayed as positive role models and many of their indiscretions and behaviours are tolerated such as “Mad-Mondays”, sexting, allegations of physical abuse and drug abuse, to mention a few. </p>
<p>What we don’t like our athletes having is a conscience and speaking up for political and social justice issues. This is the story of Peter Norman, silver medallist in the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games and current holder of the Australian 200 metres record. </p>
<p>In 1968 the Australian was involved in one of the 20th century’s most famous and striking images; when Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two US athletes with heads bowed and black glove fists raised into the sky gave us the “Black Power salute”. Norman stood with them in support and wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge. The Salute effectively ended Norman’s career.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16449/original/wfwnyqtw-1350000786.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The famed salute had longstanding consequences for the three men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikicommons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To fully comprehend the magnitude of Peter Norman’s actions you would need to step back in time and consider the scene in Australia. All Indigenous peoples in Australia could vote for the first time in 1965; There was a referendum that all Indigenous peoples to be counted in the Census for the first time in 1967; and the forced removal of children was a policy still taking place. </p>
<p>Australia was not a crucible of tolerance. Norman, a teacher and guided by his Salvation Army faith took part in the Black Power salute because of this opposition to racism and the White Australia Policy. </p>
<p>In the US, where the black power movement was strong and widespread, Smith and Carlos almost certainly knew that to a certain percentage of the American population, they would become heroes, even though martyred. In comparison, Norman came back to horrendous criticism by the press.</p>
<p>The International and Australian Olympic Committees were also interested in retribution. Even as late as the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Norman was not welcomed. In 1972 he was overlooked for the Munich Games even though he had on numerous occasions made the qualifying time. Norman’s name does not appear in books which talk about the 100 greatest Athletes or the 100 greatest moments in Australian sport.</p>
<p>It has taken almost 50 years <a href="http://www.andrewleigh.com/3389">to apologise</a> to the late Peter Norman and his family and this largely due to the efforts of Labor MP Andrew Leigh. The apology raises a number of important issues for Australians and their fascination with sport. </p>
<p>The first is, why did it take so long? Second, what does this late apology say about race relations in Australia? Third, why has the apology been driven by an MP and not the AOC or even Athletics Australia? More importantly it says that while we want our athletes to be role models, there are certain conditions. Toe the line and remember politics and sport do not mix.</p>
<p>Even as late as August 2012, the AOC denied blacklisting Peter Norman. The time is right to tell the story of the former teacher who won a silver medal in one of the strongest sprint races ever run. </p>
<p>Indeed his athletic achievements warrant greater recognition on this alone. But Norman was more than this; his words to Smith and Carlos “I will stand with you” represents one of the high points of Australian sporting history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Georgakis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sporting celebrities and stars have always featured centrally in the psyche of the Australian nation. Our athletes are portrayed as positive role models and many of their indiscretions and behaviours are…Steve Georgakis, Senior Lecturer of Pedagogy and Sports Studies, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.