About
The first games to be held at altitude with an Olympic city 2,300 metres above sea level. The air contains 30% less oxygen than at sea level and gave those born at altitutude and advantage and saw new world records in all sprint events as well as the long jump and triple jump.
Riots, strikes and protests occurred in Mexico City in the lead-up to the Games, resulting in the tragic deaths of hundreds of young protesters when police opened fire on a student rally, only a fortnight before the opening ceremony. During the Games, African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos staged their ‘Black Power’ demonstration on the medal podium after the 200 metres sprint final, each raising a gloved fist in the air during their national anthem as a symbol of defiance during the long struggle for civil rights in America.
Yet in amongst this were some outstanding athletic displays, not least that of American long-jumper Bob Beamon, whose record breaking performance remains one of the most celebrated moments in Olympic history. At that time, the world record was 8.35 metres, and had progressed just 22 centimetres in 33 years. With his first jump of the final Beamon shattered this mark by an unbelievable 55 centimetres, setting a new mark of 8.90 metres that would stand until 1991. The feat was so extraordinary that it inspired a new term in the English language, “Beamonesque”, used to describe athletic achievements of belief-defying quality.
In the High Jump Dick Fosbury leapt to gold using a new technique that was so unfamiliar, commentators described it as the "Fosbury Flip." In time the "Flop" would become almost universally used by top athletes.
Team GB
The undoubted star of the British team was hurdler David Hemery, who won the 400m Hurdles in emphatic style. Hemery had raced only once in the previous season of 1967 due to injury, and despite showing steady improvement leading up to the Games, his form betrayed little sign of what was to come in Mexico. The final was barely a contest from the very first hurdle, as the British athlete rocketed out of the blocks and didn’t look back. He finished an incredible nine tenths of a second ahead of his nearest rival, Gerhard Hennige of West Germany, with another Briton John Sherwood in third place. Hemery’s time of 48.1 seconds was a new world-record, and represented the largest winning margin since 1924.
In the boxing ring meanwhile, Britain’s Chris Finnegan fought his way to gold in the middleweight category, beating Tokyo medallist Aleksey Kiselyov of the Soviet Union in a gruelling final. Vet Bob Braithwaite secured gold in the Olympic trench shooting event, hitting an amazing 187 consecutive clays on the way to a world record winning score of 198. On the water, the British duo of Rodney Pattisson and Iain MacDonald-Smith won the Flying Dutchman class in sailing, and the British equestrian team completed the five-gold tally with overall gold in the three-day event.