Olympic champion Tommie Smith
auctioning gold medal and other artefacts
Bert Rosenthal (AP)
12 April 2001 – New York - The gold medal that hung from the neck of Tommie Smith when he raised his fist in a black-power salute at the 1968 Olympics is on the auction block, with a starting bid of a half-million dollars.
Smith, the 1968 Olympic 200 metres winner, has put the medal and many of his other mementos up for sale.
Among the 20 items, the gold medal is by far the most expensive, with a minimum bid of dlrs 500,000.
Smith, the men's track and field and cross country coach at Santa Monica (California) College for the past 23 years, insists that he is not conducting the auction for financial reasons.
"It's not to make money,'' he said. "I thought somebody might want it more than me. I thought it might be nice for someone to hold it who didn't win it.
"It's been in my trophy case for so many years. I've been smiling at it every day. It's tired of where it is.''
Smith and his wife, Delois Jordan-Smith, did not want to part with the medal or the other treasures he has kept over the years.
However, they were outvoted by his five children.
"It was a family decision, a consensus of the Smith family,'' Smith, 56, said. "They convinced me. It's not something I dread.''
After being swayed, Smith and his wife, who also is his agent, opened a Web site last September featuring an auction in which the gold medal is listed.
Smith said he doesn't expect the medal to sell because of its high price. His wife has received some inquiries about the medal, but so far there have been no takers.
"I doubt anyone will come and say I want the medal ... for a half-million dollars,'' he said. "But if somebody does ... if someone thinks they need it badly, I will hand-deliver it. I can't see putting the gold medal in a box and giving it away.''
Smith won the gold by running the 200 metres in 19.83 seconds, a world record that stood for 11 years. On the victory stand during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner,'' the national anthem of the United States, Smith thrust his gloved right fist into the air, while bronze medallist John Carlos raised his black-gloved left fist.
The protest came at the height of the black-power and anti-war movements in the United States and so enraged Olympic authorities that Smith and Carlos were ordered out of the athletes' village and sent home.
The glove is not for auction, because Smith hasn't seen it in years.
"If it turns up in one of the boxes in my garage, then ...,'' he said.
Among the other choice items up for auction are Smith's 1968 U.S. Olympic track and field team warm up uniform, for dlrs 50,000; the singlet and shorts worn during his record-setting race, for dlrs 30,000; and the boxed olive branch that is presented to all gold medallists, for dlrs 25,000.
The least expensive item, a small 1963 trophy won during his senior year at Lemoore (California) Union High School for being the outstanding athlete at the Golden West Invitational, is going for dlrs 1,500.
The total of all items in the auction is dlrs 663,000.
He plans to leave the items up for auction for two years. Smith plans to use much of the money from the sales to start a youth empowerment foundation in Los Angeles.
"I've been trying to do this for years and years, but you need more than a vision,'' he said.
Carlos has said he has no intention of auctioning off his medal, saying that decision eventually will be up to his children.
For now, Smith's children have made their choice and he is going along with it. He also is defending his decision to raise his gloved fist.
"We were just human beings who saw a need to be recognised,'' Smith said. "I don't like the idea of people looking at it as negative. There was nothing but a raised fist in the air and a bowed head, acknowledging the American flag, not symbolising a hatred for it.''
For more information see http://www.tommiesmith.com
