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Fifty years ago today

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    Fifty years ago today

    Last edited by Nefertiti2; 16-10-2018, 07:07.

    #2
    Claims that this act prematurely ended Smith's athletics career were a little inflated, weren't they? He'd aleady signed a contract to play NFL football professionally after the games, so had effectively ended his own athletics career. Of course, I don't know what effect it had on his time in the NFL. Did sponsors and coaches snub him?
    Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 16-10-2018, 09:53.

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      #3
      Good to see that, half a century later, black sportsmen now only need kneel to protest.

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        #4
        The story of the Australian guy, silver medallist Peter Norman, in front of them is remarkable as well. All three wore the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Norman was a big critic of Australia's racist immigration policy, and totally sympathise with Smith and Carlos. In fact, it was Norman who suggested that Carlos wear Smith's left glove (Carlos had forgotten his gloves. Note which arm he raises).

        And Norman suffered a shameful backlash in Australia, also and especially from the functionaries. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral.

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          #5
          I read an interesting footnote to the story of Smith and Carlos’s huge courage and where Norman got his badge from last week :

          The forgotten story of the Harvard rowers who supported Tommie Smith and John Carlos

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            #6
            I still have one of those sweatshirts and know exactly where that photo was taken.

            Unfortunately, that story was not all well known within the program itself.

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              #7
              “I’ve been raising my fist for 50 years”

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                #8
                That piece reminds me: Avery Brundage was a nasty piece of shit, wasn't he?

                And, IIRC, he played a role in giving the Soviets the 1972 basketball gold. Or maybe that was some other meddling blazer.

                The Olympics have always had a bit of a militarist/fascist/master-race aspect, I suppose. Since the 80s, everyone involved - except perhaps Putin - seems to have compromised and agreed that it's just about selling more Coke products.

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                  #9
                  Brundage was an absolutely awful excuse for a human being, even by the depraved standards of the IOC.

                  Avery Brundage collected brickbats the way a light bulb attracts moths: pompous, sanctimonious, asinine, archaic, unbending, plutocratic, a tyrant, a jerk and an anachronism.

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                    #10
                    I had to look that up.

                    https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/10/a...st-hurrah.html

                    In reading about him on wikipedia, I noticed that Dick Pound was, for the most part, an admirer of Brundage. In my mind, that casts a shadow over all the anti-doping stuff, but I'm not sure exactly how.

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                      #11
                      Any moderate examination of Dick Pound's statements revealed him to be an incredibly pompous blowhard. I'm almost certain hypocrite can be lobbed at him too, he was extremely forthright about American track and field sprinters being doped but curiously silent when scores of Canadian sprinters got pinched for doping.

                      Brundage was scum but the point man for the 1972 disgrace in basketball was Renato William Jones.

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                        #12
                        You weren't close to being born yet, were you?

                        Seeing that in real time was something else.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Flynnie View Post
                          Any moderate examination of Dick Pound's statements revealed him to be an incredibly pompous blowhard. I'm almost certain hypocrite can be lobbed at him too, he was extremely forthright about American track and field sprinters being doped but curiously silent when scores of Canadian sprinters got pinched for doping.

                          Brundage was scum but the point man for the 1972 disgrace in basketball was Renato William Jones.
                          Thanks for clearing that up.

                          I was unaware that Canada even had "scores" Olympic sprinters. I know about Ben Johnson, but that's it. Perhaps because Pound didn't make a fuss over the others.

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                            #14
                            Out of nowhere in the 80s, Canada came up with a world-class team of sprinters in both sexes who were almost entirely West Indian migrants to Canada (France Garneau being a rare native-born Canadian). They won 9 Olympic medals from 84-92, not including Johnson.

                            Virtually all of them were coached by Charlie Francis, who was later discovered to be running a doping operation on the not-entirely-bogus premise that the Americans were getting away with all sorts of stuff, so why not us?

                            This is covered extensively in 9.79*, the very good 30-for-30 on Ben Johnson and the whole fallout from the 1988 Olympic 100 metres. It’s probably a bit equivocal for some people, since it’s very tu quoque, but it makes it pretty clear Carl Lewis was dirty as hell.
                            Last edited by Flynnie; 16-10-2018, 20:20.

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                              #15
                              Absolutely.There were a lot of people in Canadian track and field turning a blind eye during that period. Since then it's largely become something we don't talk about in front of the children.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                You weren't close to being born yet, were you?

                                Seeing that in real time was something else.
                                33 on Sunday, so no. Disregarding that I’ve been a sports history nut since I was a little kid, I feel like this was rehashed quite regularly when I was a kid by NBC, ESPN, and ESPN Classic. I haven’t seen Aleksandr Belov’s layup in years yet I recall exactly what it looks like.

                                It often goes unsaid, but 1972 was probably as weak a team as the USA sent in the amateur era. Only a handful of those guys had real NBA careers, and none became a Hall of Famer. Iba was a fossil by then, and it only took an inspired comeback from the US, purposefully disregarding Iba’s instructions to play slow, to even come back against the Soviets, Doug Collins taking the lead on the two ballsiest free throws in basketball history.

                                Then chaos ensued.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Amor de Cosmos View Post
                                  Absolutely.There were a lot of people in Canadian track and field turning a blind eye during that period. Since then it's largely become something we don't talk about in front of the children.
                                  Yeah, I was surprised to see Charlie Francis died in basically good standing as a member of Canada’s athletic elite.

                                  I recall some snarking from US commentators when Donovan Bailey took the 100m gold and Canada won the 4x100m in Atlanta. Most of this was probably just nationalism, but I’m sure some people in the know thought Canadian track and field was at it again.

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                                    #18
                                    Happy Birthday in Advance.

                                    Correct on 72 on all accounts. It was rehashed regularly, and that was a weak US team. Doug Collins had the best career, and McMillen was better as a Congressperson.

                                    I think that a lot of other countries had/have a similar attitude towards the US sprinters. I certainly heard it from Italians whenever Mennea's transgressions came up.
                                    Last edited by ursus arctos; 16-10-2018, 20:48.

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                                      #19
                                      This is covered extensively in 9.79*, the very good 30-for-30 on Ben Johnson and the whole fallout from the 1988 Olympic 100 metres. It’s probably a bit equivocal for some people, since it’s very tu quoque, but it makes it pretty clear Carl Lewis was dirty as hell.
                                      I was unaware that Lewis has even been accused. But then, I haven’t been paying attention, and I assume that everyone in the highest echelons of cycling (well, maybe not the downhill mountain bikers) and T&F is doping.

                                      I found this.
                                      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...98M0PT20130923


                                      Which reminds me of this.
                                      https://sports.theonion.com/turns-ou...pla-1819570562
                                      Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 16-10-2018, 20:54.

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                                        #20
                                        As Lewis, Johnson, Francis and ‘88 have come up, I’ll recommend (again, probably) Richard Moore’s book on the subject “The Dirtiest Race In History’.

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                          That piece reminds me: Avery Brundage was a nasty piece of shit, wasn't he?

                                          And, IIRC, he played a role in giving the Soviets the 1972 basketball gold. Or maybe that was some other meddling blazer.

                                          The Olympics have always had a bit of a militarist/fascist/master-race aspect, I suppose. Since the 80s, everyone involved - except perhaps Putin - seems to have compromised and agreed that it's just about selling more Coke products.
                                          It always happens when there is an arbitary idea of moral supremacy. Amateurism has been redefined as not being paid, but back in the day it was whether you were a working classs person who needed the money, or if the money was just a nice bonus. Before rugby league and union split, traditional rugby union clubs were accepting far larger payments, they just did not think the oiks should get anything. It besmirched the whole thing.
                                          It is not far from that to thinking different coloured people besmirch everything.

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