Sydney Morning Herald

Jennifer Robinson

Many more Olympic heroes were made in London but in Australia - a nation that reveres sporting heroes - mine remains all but forgotten.

At the 1968 Mexico Olympics US sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos took to the victory dais and raised their black-gloved, clenched fists in a "black power" salute to further the civil rights cause in America. LIFE magazine and Le Monde have declared it one of the most influential images of the 20th century.

Making history beside them was the Australian sprinter Peter Norman, who had broken the world record in his 200-metre heat and ran a close second to Smith's world-record time in the final. His effort would have won gold at Munich (1972) and Sydney (2000) and has been described as "one of the finest, and least expected, individual performances by a sprinter at the modern Olympics".

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