Chapter 6: The Olympics: Gold, Guns, and Graft

Sports have so many cultural ties to them that it’s hard sometime to just view the sport. The year 1968 was a year of many controversies that shook up the sport world. One being that the world famous boxer Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title for resisting the draft. This was a time when war was a very strong subject in America and Ali was at the top of his game. Also a time when Bill Russell, of the at the time championship Boston Celtics, was harassed. These actions question his city and made him say “he’s a Celtic not a Boston Celtic.” This is also a time when the Tigers won the World Series in their home city and riots were full blown. The most important thing to occur in the sports world was an event that took place at the 68 Olympics. A civil group OPHR Olympic Project for Human Rights made a stand at the medal podium. They demonstrated unity by putting their fist in the air to try to unite the world again. This was a pivotal moment for the Olympics that a statue is erected to memorialize this moment in sports. Many fear that the statue will not have value other then a piece of art. People think that the action depicted in the statue should be taught more and explained. A lot of what happened at the Olympics seems very political. I almost think they should leave the leaders of the world out of the games and just let the athletes compete. It got so bad that the Mexican ,military rounded up peaceful student protesters and massacred them just for speaking there mind. I think its good that the figures we see on our television are takings stands for thing they believe in. this give an opportunity to show out young people that you don’t have to be in things to get money and other perks.