The Olympian who sacrificed everything

Tommie Smith knows better than anyone what Colin Kaepernick is going through, said Tik Root in The Atlantic. The Olympic sprinter was one of two black American athletes who famously raised their fists in protest of international human rights violations while receiving their medals at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Smith, who won the gold medal for the 200meter dash and was then the fastest man on Earth, paid for this quiet gesture with his track career. He and his teammate, bronze medalist John Carlos, were expelled from the Olympic Village and banned from international competition. Returning home, they were deluged with hate mail and death threats. “I was knocked verbally and financially,” says Smith. Struggling to find work, he could barely afford to buy formula for his infant son. Since then, some Americans have reassessed his famous protest. In 2005, San Jose State erected a statue of Smith and Carlos, who were later awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from ESPN. Smith met with Kaepernick last fall, and the two bonded over the experience of being shunned by their sport for their beliefs. “He was on his knee and I was on my feet, but we represent the same thing. The brutality, inequality,” Smith says. “I’m not broken to a point that I can’t move forward. Colin Kaepernick is going to be the same way.”