FROZEN IN TIME

Traditionally, it is the most eagerly awaited medal ceremony of the Olympic fortnight. The photographs of two black American sprinters standing on the medal podium with heads bowed and fists raised at the Mexico City Games in 1968 not only represent one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history but a milestone in the United States' civil rights movement.

The two men are Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Smith was born on June 5, 1944, in Clarksville, Texas. John Carlos was born in Harlem, New York, a year later. They are forever joined by the year 1968, a year unlike any other - the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy; anti-war protests; black power; the summer of love; the Olympics in Mexico City.

Smith and Carlos, teammates at San Jose State University, represent a new breed of athlete unwilling to passively wait for progress in racial integration.

The pair are stirred by the suggestion of a young sociologist friend Harry Edwards, who asks them and all the other black American athletes to join together and boycott the games. The protest, Edwards hopes, will bring attention to the fact that America's civil rights movement has not gone far enough to eliminate the injustices black Americans are facing.

Edwards' group, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), has gained support from several world-class athletes and civil rights leaders but the all-out boycott has never materialised.

Still impassioned by Edwards' words, Smith and Carlos secretly plan a non-violent protest in the manner of Martin Luther King. In the 200-metre race, Smith wins the gold medal and Carlos the bronze. As the American flag rises and the Star-Spangled Banner plays, the two close their eyes, bow their heads, and begin their protest.