There's A Brilliant Story Behind 'The Other Guy' In The Famous 1968 Olympics Picture

There are plenty of photos of historical events that we all know. The aerial shot after Muhammad Ali knocked out Cleveland Williams; children running away from their burning village during a napalm attack in the Vietnam War; The Beatles walking across Abbey Road; Albert Einstein pulling tongues.

And then there's African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos' act of solidarity during the 1968 Olympics. It's a picture that has recently gone viral again, with the focus not being on Smith and Carlos, but instead the third man in the photo.

During the medal ceremony for the 200-metre race, which Smith achieved gold and Carlos bronze, they both raised a fist during 'The Star-Spangled Banner', which was seen as a 'Black Power salute', however Smith later described it as 'a cry for freedom and for human rights'.

The third man was Peter Norman, who won silver in the race. Many people pass off Norman as 'the other guy' in the picture, but he had a silent gesture which makes his role in it all the more important.

When he learned that his competitors would be protesting for equality and justice during the ceremony, he gave them a pair of black gloves, with each of them wearing one on the fist they raised.

Norman stood by, but did not raise his fist, instead wearing an Olympic badge for justice and equality instead. Because of his solidarity, Australia would not allow him to participate in the Olympics, despite achieving their national record time in the race.

His bravery to stand by his fellow athletes caused great trouble for him in his homeland, as he became an 'outsider', struggling to find work.

Norman has written about the event in his autobiography Silent Gesture, but remains modest about his actions.

Rather than be known as the man that did this or that, he happily remained unrecognised simply because he knew he was standing for what was right.

In 2005, artist Rigo 23 (Ricardo Gouveia) created a statue of Smith and Carlos' salute for San Jose State University, but Norman requested his space on the podium be left empty, so that people could pose next to the two African-America athletes.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos were both pallbearers at Norman's funeral in 2006. The picture was taken 49 years ago yesterday.

Topics: World News, olympics, History

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.