What a shame that yet another story has been written (Racism has been the grinding backdrop to my life. Is a different future now possible?, 26 June) about that iconic photograph of the medal ceremony for the 200m in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, without giving credit to the dignity and courage shown by the silver medallist, Peter Norman of Australia – a country that had strict apartheid laws, almost as strict as South Africa.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos had asked Norman before the ceremony if he believed in human rights. Norman said he did. They asked him if he believed in God, and he, who had been in the Salvation Army, said he believed strongly in God. “We knew that what we were going to do was far greater than any athletic feat, and he said ‘I’ll stand with you’,” remembers John Carlos. “I expected to see fear in Norman’s eyes, but instead we saw love.”
Norman was rejected by his country for having supported them, and treated like a pariah for the rest of his life. But not by Smith and Carlos, who acted as pallbearers at his funeral in 2006.
Some pictures only tell half of the story.
James Vine
Yeoford, Devon
