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1968 Mexico City Olympic Games
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1968 Mexico City Olympic Games
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The Games of the Nineteenth Olympiad were the highest and most controversial ever held.
Medal Count Gold Silver Bronze Total USA
USSR
Hungary
Japan
East Germany
West Germany
Australia
France
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Romania45
29
10
11
9
5
5
7
5
7
428
32
10
7
9
10
7
3
2
2
634
30
12
7
7
10
5
5
11
4
5107
91
32
25
25
25
17
15
18
13
15Staged at 7,349 feet above sea level where the thin air was a major concern to many competing countries, the Mexico City Olympics were another chapter in a year buffeted by the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Ten days before the Olympics were scheduled to open on October 12, 1968, over 30 Mexico City university students were killed by army troops when a campus protest turned into a riot. Still, the Games began on time and were free of discord until black Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished 1-3 in the 200-meter run, bowed their heads and gave the Black Power salute during the national athem as a protest against racism in the U.S.
They were immediately thrown off the team by the USOC and they were banned from ever participating again. However, they got to keep their medals, and Tommie Smith set a World Record.
The thin air helped shatter records in every men's and women's race up to 1,500 meters and played a role in U.S. long jumper Bob Beamon's incredible gold medal leap of 29-feet, 2 1/2 inches - beating the existing world mark by nearly two feet.
Other outstanding American performances included Al Oerter's record fourth consecutive discus title, Debbie Meyer's three individual swimming gold medals, the innovative Dick Fosbury winning the high jump with his backwards "flop", and Wyomia Tyus becoming the first woman to win back-to-back golds in the 100 meters.
Source: 1996 Information Please Sports Almanac
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