When the Olympics were last held in Australia, in Melbourne in 1956, no one looked behind the facade. While Australian athletes performed brilliantly, coming third in the tally of gold medals, Aboriginal children were being torn from their families and incarcerated in institutions, where they were prepared for a life of virtual slave labour. This year the Human Rights Commission described the theft of these children as genocide and demanded that the federal government apologise and pay reparations. The prime minister refused. When he presides over the Olympic opening ceremony, he ought to be reminded that the civilised world is watching. John Pilger, article 11th December 1998, ‘When the Olympics Comes to Australia It Will Provide a Facade for a Shameful Australia’
The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have won but to have fought well. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, 1863-1937
1) 2008: Usain Bolt 100m
2) 1968: Bob Beamon’s long jump
3) 1976: Nadia Comeneci’s perfection
4) 1960 & 1996: Muhammad Ali
5) 1996: Michael Johnson
6) 2008: Michael Phelps
7) 1968: Bob Hines & black power salute
8) 1972: Basketball USSR v USA
9) 1976: Vasily Alexeev
10) Kurt Angle wrestler wins gold with a broken neck
11) 1936: Jesse Owens
12) Seoul: Roy Jones junior disqualified
13) Coe v Ovett
14) Budd v Decker
15) 1956: Water Polo Hungary v USSR
16) 1972: Michael Spitz
17) Ed Moses
18) 1988: Ben Johnson
19) Steve Redgrave gold x 5
20) Matthew Emmons’ last shot: misses target x2. Top 20 Olympic moments, esias
20) 2000: Cathy Freeman 400m
19) 1984: Decker v Budd 3,000m
18) 2000: Eric the Eel 100m freestyle 1.52.72
17) 1980: Kozakiewicz’ Gesture
16) 1956: Alain Mimoun marathon
15) 1976: Vasily Alexeev weightlifting
14) 1988: Greg Louganis diving
13) 2008: Usain Bolt’s 100m
12) 1956: Water Polo Hungary v USSR ‘Blood in the Water’
11) 1996: Michael Johnson 400 & 200m
10) 2008: Michael Spitz cf. Michael Phelps gold x 8
9) 1992: Derek Redmond 400m
8) 2000: Korea United
7) 1960: Abebe Bikila marathon 2.15.16
6) 1980: Coe v Ovett
5) 1972: USSR 51 v USA 50 basketball
4) 1908: Dorando Pietri marathon
3) 1968: Bob Beamon 8.90 metres
2) 1992: Tulu/Meyer Victory Lap
1) 1936: Jesse Owens Top 20 Olympic Moments, ESPN
50) Munich: USA 50 v USSR 51 basketball
49) Moscow: Alan Wells 100m
48) Seoul: Greg Luganis hits head on board & wins gold
47) Los Angeles: Opening & Closing ceremonies
46) Barcelona: Chris Boardman laps opponent in final
45) 1992: Gail Devers overcomes Graves’ Disease, wins 100m
44) 1980 & 1984: Daley Thompson’s decathlon
43) 2000 Edwards cf. 2004 & 2008 & 2012 Saduie triple jump
42) 2000: Eric the Eel, sole swimmer in early heat 100m 1.53
41) 1992: US basketball men’s dream team
40) 1972: Mark Spitz and his tash x7 world records cf. Phelps
39) Modern Pentathlon
38) 2008 opening ceremony
37) 2008 American David Nevill 400m Bronze – dives for finish.
36) 2004 UK v US 100m relay
35) 1996 Atlanta: Kerry & USA woman’s gymnastics
34) Seoul: Roy Jones junior robbed
33) 1976: Princess Anne & Jim Fox fencing
32) 1984: Women run Olympic marathon
31) 1992: Lyndford Christie 9.96
30) Angel Matos Twai-Kwondo kicks the referee
29) Seoul: Flo-jo!
28) 2000 Karalyn v Gardner
27) Athens: Cornelius Horan ruins Marathon runner’s race
26) 2008 Spanish basketball team’s racist photo
25) Sydney 100x4 swimming USR v Australia & Thorpe
24) Seoul: Korean riot and boxer’s sit-in protest
23) 1994: crazy guy’s steeplechase
22) Kurt Angle wrestler wins gold with a broken neck
21) Paula Ratcliff runs Athens marathon & 10,000 metres
20) Sydney: vaulting horse set too low
19) 2008: Michael Phelps x8 gold
18) 2000 Sydney Cameroon football gold v Spain on penalties
17) Matthew Emmons’ last shot: misses target x2
16) 1984: Evander Holyfield disqualified
15) Boris Johnson at closing ceremony of Beijing
14) Beijing men’s cycling team all wins medals except Cavendish
13) 1984: Zola Budd & Mary Decker
12) 1988: Dayley Thompson Pole vault injury
11) 1988: Ben Johnson’s 100m
10) 1988: Colin Jackson silver 1992: Colin Jackson 7th
9) 1996: Michael Johnson 400m & 200m
8) 1992: Derek Redmond’s pulled hamstring
7) 2004: Kelly Holmes x2
6) 1976: Nadia Comeneci’s perfect scores x7
5) 2000: Cathy Freeman 400m gold
4) Coe v Ovett
3) 2008: Usain Bolt 100m with laces undone & 200m 19.30
2) Steve Redgrave gold x 5 x games
1) 1960: Muhammad Ali gold & 1996 torch lighter. Olympic’s Most Amazing Moments, BBC 2012
About an hour later I came down. Bob Beamon
On the long-jump runway Bobbie Beamon of the United States, the man most feared by every competitor in this competition ... My goodness me, it’s an enormous one! BBC commentary
I’ll stand by you. Peter Norman to Smith & Carlos et al’s 1968 protest
Citius. Altius. Fortius. Olympic motto
So what exactly is the end of perfection? Or do you grab it? There is no end. Nadia Comeneci
The least deserved gold medal. An outrageous decision ... That is a total farce. Harry Carpenter, Roy Jones junior fight loss
1996: If anyone sees me go anywhere near a boat you’ve got my permission to shoot me. Stephen Redgrave
Mitt Romney Olympic Archive Still Off Limits: More than a decade has passed since Mitt Romney presided over the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, but the archival records from those games that were donated to the University of Utah to provide an unprecedented level of transparency about the historic event, remain off limits to the public. And some of the documents that may have shed the most light on Romney’s stewardship of the Games were likely destroyed by Salt Lake Olympic officials, ABC News has learned. ABC News article Lynn Packer 23rd July 2012
I want that Olympic medal. I can see it. It waits for me. Harold Abrahams
On 16th October 1968 Tommy Smith and John Carlos’s controversial demonstration stunned the world. Yet it wasn’t the only black protest on the victory rostrum. And nor was it spontaneous. 1968 Olympics: Black Power Salute
Bob’s [Beamon] astonishing leap of twenty-nine feet two inches claimed the gold medal. ibid.
Tommy and John’s readmission into respectable society was completed in October 2005 when a statue of their iconic protest was unveiled at San Jose University, the place where it all began. ibid.
There was no standard operating procedure for a situation like this. ibid.
The black power disciples Tommy Smith and John Carlos, the Olympic 200 meters gold and bronze medallists, have been suspended by the United States Olympic Committee and given forty-eight hours to leave Mexico. BBC Good Morning Mexico news report 1970
I can’t eat that. And the kids round my block that grew up with me they can’t eat it. The kids that are going to grow up after them they can’t eat ... gold medals. John Carlos, BBC interview
Had I been a good boy in Mexico, I could probably have been monetarily richer ... But still I would have to fight myself from the inside. Tommy Smith
Sir: Charges were made in 1968 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had conducted on the San Jose State University campus an investigation of sociology instructor Harry Edwards and that the FBI had recruited a student to report on Edwards’ classroom discussions. Norman Mineta, House of Representatives, letter
We were electrified when they raised their fists. None of us knew that was coming. And when it happened it was so right. Professor Steven Millner, San Jose State University
You have the leading arm of Tommy Smith – his right arm raised. And you have the left arm of John Carlos and it forms that nice arc shape that shows the unity of black America. So it becomes an aesthetic moment. Professor Ben Carrington
This is about people who have had enough. Gary Young, Guardian columnist
There are many ways to boycott. Everybody was free to do what they feel their commitment permits them to do. Professor Harry Edwards, University of California Berkeley
We – as individuals – have been concerned with the place of the black man in American Society and his struggle for equal rights. As members of the United States Olympic team, each of us has come to feel a moral commitment to support our black teammates in their efforts to dramatize the injustices and inequalities which permeate our society. This commitment led us to initiate conversations with the Olympic Project for Human Rights. OPHR statement sent to individual competitors