modern olympics athletic achievement & political statements

Modern Olympics

Athletic Achievement &

Political Statements

1968 Mexico City• Tommie Smith and

John Carlos• All black athletes

were urged to boycott the upcoming games

• Their action resulted in both men being expelled from the Olympics

1972 USA Basketball• Doug Collins was

fouled with three seconds left and made two free throws to make the score 50-49

• Referees ordered the clock reset twice, allowing the Soviets to win 51-50

Mark Spitz• Spitz won 7 gold

medals & broke 7 world records

• 100m butterfly• 200m butterfly• 100m free-style• 200m free-style• 400m free-style• 800m free-style• 400m relay

1976 USA Boxing• USA Boxing won

five gold medals for the first time since Helsinki in 1952

• Leo Randolph, Howard Davis, Michael & Leon Spinks, Sugar Ray Leonard were on the team

1980 Speed Skating• In nine days, Eric

Heiden won five individual gold medals in a single Olympics

• Dave Kindred of the Washington Post called him “an alchemist on skates, the first man ever to turn ice into gold”

1980 “Miracle on Ice”• 4-3 victory over

Russia actually came in the 1980 Olympic semifinals

• The U.S. would go on to defeat Finland in the Gold Medal game 4-2

• Victory over the Soviet Union gave the United States a symbol of hope

Olympic Protests

Greatest All-Around Athlete

• Despite pulled hamstrings and asthma, Jackie Joyner-Kersee still triumphed

• In 1988's Olympic Games she took the gold in both the heptathlon and long jump

1996 Atlanta• Kerri Strug had felt a

pop in her ankle on her first vault and could barely walk

• “Kerri listen to me…you can do it,” said USA coach Bela Karolyi

• She suffered two torn ankle ligaments

1994 Lillehammer• On January 6th,

Shane Stant attacked Nancy Kerrigan at a Detroit ice rink

• Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy, was fined $100,000 and received a lifetime ban from skating

1998 Nagano• Picabo Street took

gold in the Nagano Super-G by a mere hundredth of a second

• After a leg injury and two years of rehabilitation, Street returned to compete in 2002 in Salt Lake City before retiring

Dara Torres• On January 6th,

Shane Stant attacked Nancy Kerrigan at a Detroit ice rink

• Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy, was fined $100,000 and received a lifetime ban from skating

Michael Phelps• Michael Phelps has

won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008

• Won a total of fifty-four career medals thus far in major international competition

Olympic Ceremonies