Tommie Smith Selling His Gold Medal Isn't Such a Mystery

Filed under: Track & Field

News of Tommie Smith's decision to auction off his 1968 Olympic gold medal raced around the world Wednesday at roughly the speed he once displayed in the 200 meters. Many reactions to it included words like "sad'' and "shame.''

Don't jump to that conclusion ... for now.

Smith has put that medal -- the one hanging around his neck when he raised his right fist in protest on the victory stand in Mexico City 42 years ago Saturday -- up for auction once before, in 1999. That move, like this one, was similarly shrouded in mystery; he gave no public reason for wanting to sell it and gave none when he withdrew it soon afterward. It was left open to widespread interpretation, including the notion that he needed the money to live, or that the repercussions of his protest were too great to bear anymore.

Smith answered many of those questions in his 2007 autobiography, "Silent Gesture" (on which I was his co-author) -- and his motives turned out to be more noble than desperate. One goal he hoped the book would achieve was to debunk the myth that the medal had been taken from him in Mexico City after the protest -- he owned it, and he showed it to me on an early visit.

On the other hand, he kept it stored, did not display it as he did other pieces of memorabilia of his career, and always spoke more of its meaning, to himself and others and for better and worse, than of its importance as an object.

In "Silent Gesture," he wrote that years ago he wanted to start a youth foundation in his Central California hometown of Lemoore. He went to civic and business leaders in the area for financial support, but was constantly turned down, frustrating him and bringing back memories of how he had been looked down on by many of the locals even before he became an international track star, and openly denigrated after his Olympic protest.

Laura Prepon Lauren Bush Lauren Conrad Lauren German LeAnn Rimes