Rome 1960

[dukehjsteve]

I remember the Rome OG's well...a great break through race by Max Truex was one of the highlights to me....a surprise 6th, right behind Murray Halberg with an American record 28:50.2 ...first American under 29:00 in 10,000m. I was a high school runner at the time and much inspired by Truex's performance.

And if I recall correctly, it not only was an AR for 10K, but also for 6 miles, even though 346 meters longer than 6 miles ! Needless to say, no intermediate clock at an English distance at the OG's.

[runforfun]

I remember the Rome OG's well...a great break through race by Max Truex was one of the highlights to me....a surprise 6th, right behind Murray Halberg with an American record 28:50.2 ...first American under 29:00 in 10,000m. I was a high school runner at the time and much inspired by Truex's performance.

[FrankS]

The Rome Olympics were the first games that I can recall. I think the BBC covered the athletics pretty comprehensively. At the time, Halberg's gutsy victory impressed me most. I went to a post-Olympic meeting in Manchester, UK which featured gold medalists Herb Elliott, Otis Davis, and Don Bragg.

[Per Andersen]

Either you mis-heard it or whoever said it got it wrong. Shavlakadze was not a Russian--he was a Georgian. And I believe Brumel, who also beat John Thomas, was Ukrainian.

All Soviets were "Russians" to Americans in the good ol' Cold War days, no matter where in the USSR they actually came from.

I was going to post the same thing. It is completely incorrect, but " the Russians" were the whole country in US parlance back then. 99 % of US'ers, I'm sure, had no idea or interest in what " Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" meant. USSR= Russia... that simple.

Same thing in Western Europe. We called them Soviet-Russians or Russians. It meant the same thing in those days. Stalin was born in Georgia. Made no difference.

[dukehjsteve]

Either you mis-heard it or whoever said it got it wrong. Shavlakadze was not a Russian--he was a Georgian. And I believe Brumel, who also beat John Thomas, was Ukrainian.

All Soviets were "Russians" to Americans in the good ol' Cold War days, no matter where in the USSR they actually came from.

I was going to post the same thing. It is completely incorrect, but " the Russians" were the whole country in US parlance back then. 99 % of US'ers, I'm sure, had no idea or interest in what " Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" meant. USSR= Russia... that simple.

[Al in NYC]

Either you mis-heard it or whoever said it got it wrong. Shavlakadze was not a Russian--he was a Georgian. And I believe Brumel, who also beat John Thomas, was Ukrainian.

All Soviets were "Russians" to Americans in the good ol' Cold War days, no matter where in the USSR they actually came from.

[Master Po]

Visited the author's website http://www.davidmaraniss.com/ and found a great little video which has some color clips of the iclonclastic scenes I've only seen before in black and white - Bikila, Rudolph, & others.

Also, interesting is a still photo (at about 1'40" in the video) taken during the procession of athletes on the track in front of the opening ceremony crowd in which the flag bearer (for an Asian country?) hefts not his country's flag but a large piece of cardboard hand-lettered "UNDER PROTEST."

I wonder what came of this protest. Were there other public protests at Olympics up to and at the Rome?

Was a there a new rule in place by '68 that made Smith & Carlos' public protest a grounds for dismissal from the Games? Or, as I imagine, was that a punishment reserved for them, alone, at least up to that point?

And, currently, if sign carrying by athletes is permissable, is there a limit on what can be said, ie, "Hi, Mom" vs "Free Tibet"?

I have not read the book yet, and this is probably mentioned in the book. This is a different kind of protest sign than the popular or spontaneous protests we might otherwise be thinking of. I believe the "Under Protest" sign that is shown in the photograph you mention was being carried by the team from the Republic of China (aka Taiwan, aka in current OG parlance Chinese Taipei, & perhaps aka in Rome 1960 Formosa), which was participating under the protest of the government of the PRC/mainland China, which refused to participate in the Games unless Taiwan withdrew, which it did not. Thus, the sign included in the opening ceremony. I believe they did also carry the ROC flag.

(I trust the real historians on this board to correct this, if necessary.)

[tc]

Brumel was born in Tolbuzine, a small town in eastern Siberia on the Chinese border.

[tandfman]

Either you mis-heard it or whoever said it got it wrong. Shavlakadze was not a Russian--he was a Georgian. And I believe Brumel, who also beat John Thomas, was Ukrainian.

[Halfmiler2]

It is the earliest Olympics of which I have any recollection. I don't recall seeing any television of it - my family was at the shore without a television set in those days. But I do recall hearing that the American had lost to the Russian in the high jump and that it was a big disappointment.

[Whitman]

I was nine years old at the time of the 1960 Olympics, but reading the
book was like reading about ancient Egypt. Attitudes, concerns,
technology, the whole world has changed so much in 48 years.

[Steeplechaser]

I picked up the book on Friday for $14.95 in Costco but will have to wait until I go down to the shore to read it later this summer.

I got it for $17.95 at Sam's and got halfway through it this past week at our shore (Lake Michigan). It's an excellent book--he's got a great hand at narrative and the way he weaves different elements of the complex stories together is excellent. I highly recommend it for any serious track fan.

[Halfmiler2]

I picked up the book on Friday for $14.95 in Costco but will have to wait until I go down to the shore to read it later this summer.

[kuha]

This book gets major play in today's NYTimes Book Review: a full page review (mixed, but more positive than not) and a full-page ad from the publisher.

[bambam]

I got asked this recently about IOC rules against demonstrations, etc. That is in the Olympic Charter and I had to look this up recently. It is now Rule 51.3, as follows:

51.3 Advertising, Demonstrations, Propaganda
No kind of demonstration, or political, religious, or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues, or other areas.

The first mention I could find of such a rule was in the 1975 Olympic Charter. The first real demonstration at the Olympic opening ceremony occurred in 1952 when a rather zaftig woman, in flowing white robes, ran onto the track, up to the dais with the loudspeakers and started making a speech about world peace. A bit less security in those days.