Peter Norman

Peter Norman was born on June 15, 1942, in Coburg, Australia. He never played contact sports as a child due to his build and what his father believed in, so he ran track in school. Norman ended up as a physical education teacher in Melbourne, still often running for recreation. He saw an opportunity and wanted to go for gold when the 68 Mexico Olympics came along. This is where his life would be changed forever.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/assets/images/8/6/0/3 (Unknown)

Norman was known as the "white man in the photo". The other two men on the stand, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, had removed their shoes and thrust their gloved hands into the air as the national anthem played. For this act, they were kicked out of the Olympic village and removed from the games entirely. This was a highly controversial act for that time. Some say that if it weren't for this act of Smith and Carlos, Peter Norman would be a nobody. He would just be known as another silver medalist for Australia, if it weren't for him getting involved in this movement with the two other men. Norman always said that it made no sense to him why you would treat someone differently just because of their color. "If you like someone, you like someone" he said in the 2008 film, Salute. He came from an area where racial tension was excruciatingly high and he had strict laws. They were almost as strict as South Africa at this time, with apartheid laws (institutionalized laws within the country that segregated the people) the Australian equivalent to the Jim Crow laws. Even with this factor, Norman stood up for the rights of these people. "I'll stand with you" Norman said. The night of the race, Smith finishing first, Norman second and Carlos third, they stood on the podium together. Smith and Carlos, along with being barefoot and the black gloves, sported a "Project for Human Rights" badge. Norman asked for one as well, officially supporting the cause, and at that moment, destroying his life at home. He was hated on, beaten, attacked, and discriminated against. Even to the extent of losing his job back home and being banished from the Olympic games.

Peter Norman is a huge inspiration to me because he say what was right and stood up for it, even though he knew he would be scrutinized and hated on when he went back home. He didn't care. He wanted what he wanted no matter what people would think of him. Even after being nearly deleted from the history of his own country, he said that he was "proud to be a part of it" forty years after the incident. He was a courageous man that wanted what he believed in no matter what would happen to him. He helped start the movement that desegregated the country, and faced scrutiny for it, never apologizing. Norman was a true hero, left out of the history books.