More than fifty years after his raised fist on the podium of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Tommie Smith, who is still awaiting the apology from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), supports the athletes, who were protesting against racial injustice. "These athletes are in the process of changing something by uniting their forces ", he said in an interview with the German press agency dpa.

After his victory over the 200 metres at the Olympic Games of Mexico City, on the podium, the U.s. had lifted to the sky a black-gloved fist – the sign of the Black Power movement – as a protest against the discrimination to which blacks were victims. He was not wearing shoes but only black socks as a symbol of poverty.