Tommie Smith facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Tommie Smith

Smith in March 2009
Personal information
Nationality	American
Born	(1944-06-06) June 6, 1944 (age 81) Clarksville, Texas, U.S.
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Football career
No. 24
Position:	Wide receiver
Personal information
Height:	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight:	190 lb (86 kg)
Career information
High school:	Lemoore (CA)
College:	San Jose State
NFL Draft:	1967 / Round: 9 / Pick: 226
Career history
Cincinnati Bengals (1969)
Player stats at PFR
Sport
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Sprints
College team	San Jose State Spartans
Club	Santa Clara Valley Youth Village
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m: 10.1 seconds, hand-timed (San Jose, 1966) 200 m: 19.83 (Mexico City, 1968) 400 m: 44.50 (San Jose, 1967)
Medal record Men's athletics Representing the  United States Olympic Games Gold 1968 Mexico City 200 m Universiade Gold 1967 Tokyo 200 m Silver 1967 Tokyo 100 m

Tommie C. Smith (born June 6, 1944) is an American former track and field athlete and wide receiver in the American Football League. He is best known for winning a gold medal in the 200-meter sprint at the 1968 Summer Olympics. At 24 years old, he ran the race in 19.83 seconds, becoming the first person to officially break the 20-second barrier.

During the medal ceremony, Smith and fellow athlete John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists. This act, known as the Black Power salute, caused a lot of discussion. It was seen as a way to bring attention to important social issues during the Olympic Games. Today, it is still a powerful symbol in the history of the Black Power movement, showing a stand for human rights.

Early Life and Sports Career

Tommie Smith was born on June 6, 1944, in Clarksville, Texas. He was the seventh of twelve children. Even though he was sick with pneumonia as a child, he grew up to be a very athletic young person.

While attending Lemoore High School in Lemoore, California, Tommie was an amazing athlete. He set many school track records, and some of them are still unbroken today! In 1963, he won the 440-yard dash at the California State Meet. He was named Lemoore's "Most Valuable Athlete" in basketball, football, and track and field. He was also voted vice president of his senior class. His impressive achievements helped him get a scholarship to San José State University.

Setting World Records

On May 7, 1966, while at San Jose State, Smith set a world best time of 19.5 seconds in the 200-meter straight race. He ran this on a cinder track. This record stood for over 44 years until Tyson Gay broke it in 2010. However, Smith still holds the official record for the slightly longer 220-yard straight event.

Just a few weeks later, on June 11, 1966, Smith set another record. He became the first person to run the 200 meters and 220 yards around a curve in 20.0 seconds. He then won the national college 220-yard title in 1967. He also won the AAU 200-meter crown. Smith traveled to Japan for the 1967 Summer Universiade and won the 200m gold medal there. In 1968, he won the U.S. 200m championship again, which helped him make the Olympic team.

1968 Summer Olympics and the Protest

Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right) raising their fists on the podium after the 200 m race at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Both wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges. Peter Norman (silver medalist, left) from Australia also wore an OPHR badge to show his support.

Before the Olympics, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Tommie's teammate John Carlos actually beat Smith's world record. However, Carlos's record was not allowed because of the special shoes he was wearing.

Standing Up for Human Rights

Tommie Smith was part of a group called the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). This group wanted to bring attention to unfair treatment and inequality. Smith first suggested that athletes should not go to the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. This boycott would happen unless certain things changed. These included:

• South Africa and Rhodesia not being allowed to compete in the Olympics.
• Muhammad Ali getting his world heavyweight boxing title back.
• Avery Brundage stepping down as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
• More African-American assistant coaches being hired.

The boycott did not get enough support, but the IOC did remove South Africa and Rhodesia from the Games. Smith and Carlos then decided to protest in a different way. They wore black gloves and went barefoot to show concern about poverty. They wore beads to protest violence against Black people and wore OPHR buttons.

The Historic 200m Race

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico, Smith had an injured leg. Despite this, he made it to the 200m final. In the race, John Carlos started very fast. Smith had a slower start but then sped past Carlos. His victory was so clear that he raised his arms to celebrate 10 meters before the finish line!

Smith's time of 19.83 seconds set a new world record. This record lasted for 11 years. It was one of the first world records for this event that was timed automatically.

An interview before the Olympic trials, where Tommie Smith talks about possible protests.

The Black Power Salute

After the race, Carlos and Smith made headlines around the world. They raised their black-gloved fists during the medal ceremony. Both athletes wore black socks and no shoes on the podium. This was to show the poverty faced by many African Americans. Peter Norman, the silver medalist from Australia, also supported them. He wore an OPHR badge to show his agreement.

The president of the IOC, Avery Brundage, thought this protest was a political statement. He believed the Olympic Games should not be used for politics. He ordered Smith and Carlos to be removed from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the U.S. Olympic Committee did not agree at first, Brundage threatened to ban the entire U.S. track team. Because of this threat, Smith and Carlos were removed from the Games.

A spokesperson for the IOC said Smith and Carlos's actions were a "deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit." However, Brundage had not objected to Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics. He argued that the Nazi salute was a national salute at the time, which he considered acceptable in a competition between nations. He said the athletes' salute was not from a nation and therefore unacceptable.

Smith and Carlos faced difficulties for challenging authority in the U.S. Ralph Boston, another Black U.S. long jumper at the 1968 games, said: "The rest of the world didn't seem to find it such a derogatory thing. They thought it was very positive. Only America thought it was bad." The athletes' protest had lasting effects for all three men. Smith, Carlos, and their families even received threats. After being suspended by the IOC, they faced financial hardship. Peter Norman's career also suffered in Australia. He was not allowed to run in the Olympics again.

Smith later explained his reasons for the protest: "We were concerned about the lack of black assistant coaches. About how Muhammad Ali got stripped of his title. About the lack of access to good housing and our kids not being able to attend the top colleges."

Athletics and Later Career

Tommie Smith leads the parade at his Youth Track Meet in 2023.

During his career, Tommie Smith set seven individual world records. He was also part of several world-record relay teams at San Jose State. His coach there was Lloyd (Bud) Winter. Smith's best times were 10.1 seconds for 100 meters, 19.83 for 200 meters, and 44.5 for 400 meters. These times still rank very high on the world's all-time lists.

Smith was also drafted by the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams in 1967. He later signed to play for the American Football League's Cincinnati Bengals. He was part of their practice team for most of three seasons as a wide receiver. In 1969, he played in two games, catching one pass for 41 yards.

A year after his Olympic win, Smith finished his degree in Social Science at San Jose State University. He then earned a master's degree in Social Change from Goddard College. This program allowed him to combine his teaching and writing with his studies.

Awards and Recognition

After his careers in track and football, Tommie Smith was inducted into the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978. In 1996, he was added to the California Black Sports Hall of Fame. In 1999, he received that organization's Sportsman of the Millennium Award. In 2000 and 2001, he received awards from Los Angeles County and the State of Texas.

He later became a track coach at Oberlin College in Ohio. He also taught sociology there. Until 2005, he was a physical education teacher at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.

In August 2008, Smith gave one of his shoes from the 1968 Olympics to Usain Bolt of Jamaica as a birthday gift. Bolt had just won three gold medals at the 2008 Olympics.

In 2010, Smith put his gold medal and running spikes up for auction. In 2013, Goddard College honored Smith with the Presidential Award for Activism.

Books by Tommie Smith

Smith's autobiography, Silent Gesture, was published in 2007. It was co-written with David Steele. This book was recognized as an Adult Nonfiction Honor Book in 2008 and nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Smith's second book, Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice, came out in 2022. This is a graphic memoir, meaning it tells his story through pictures and words, like a comic book. It was co-written with Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile. The book has received many awards, including the 2023 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. It was also recognized as a 2023 Corretta Scott King Award Author and Illustrator Honor Book and was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Personal Life

Tommie Smith first married Jimi Denise Paschal from 1967 to 1973, and they had one child. He then married Denise M. "Akiba" Kyle in 1977, and they had four children. They divorced in 2000, and Smith married Delois Jordan in the same year.

Public Recognition and Legacy

Tommie Smith in the 1960s.

Tommie Smith is featured in the 1999 HBO documentary Fists of Freedom: The Story of the '68 Summer Games. This film looks at the events before, during, and after the 1968 Olympics. It includes interviews with Smith, Carlos, and sociologist Harry Edwards. The documentary also shows old footage from the Games and what happened after the raised fist salutes. In the program, Smith says:

We were not Antichrists. We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country. I don't like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag – not symbolizing a hatred for it.

For his lifelong dedication to sports, education, and human rights, Smith received the Courage of Conscience Award. In 2004, a sports hall named after him was opened in Saint-Ouen, France.

Statues and Murals

In 2005, a statue called Victory Salute was built on the campus of San Jose State University. This statue, created by artist Rigo 23, shows Smith and Carlos on the medal stand. The spot where Peter Norman stood (the silver medalist) was left empty at his request. This allows visitors to stand there and take photos, showing their support for Smith and Carlos, just as Norman did.

A large painting of the famous photo of Smith, Carlos, and Norman on the podium was painted on a brick wall in Newtown, New South Wales, Australia. It is called "Three Proud People Mexico 68". The owner of the house allowed an artist to paint the mural. Peter Norman himself visited Newtown to see the mural and take a photo with it before he passed away in 2006. In 2012, the Sydney City Council made the mural a heritage site to protect it. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers (people who help carry the coffin) at Norman's funeral in Melbourne in 2006.

On July 16, 2008, Smith and Carlos received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY Awards for their salute. In 2018, Smith was given the Dresden Peace Prize.

The Tommie Smith Youth Track Meet is held every year in his honor. It is an event sponsored by AAU and USATF, held at the University of California, Berkeley.

San Jose State University has secured funding to rebuild the track and field complex. The main part of this new complex is the Speed City Legacy Center. This center honors SJSU alumni track stars and civil rights advocates like Tommie Smith.

Awards

• World Athletics Awards - President's award：2020

See also

In Spanish: Tommie Smith para niños

• Timeline of the civil rights movement
• Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
• Other American Football League players
• Men's 200 metres world record progression