1896 Athens

 1900 Paris

 1904 St. Louis

 1908 London

 1912 Paris

 1920 Antwerp

 1924 Paris

 1928 Amsterdam

 1932 Los Angeles

 1936 Berlin

 1948 London

 1952 Helsinki

 1956 Melbourne

 1960 Rome

 1964 Tokyo

 1968 Mexico City

 1972 Munich

 1976 Montreal

 1980 Moscow

 1984 Los Angeles

 1988 Seoul

 1992 Barcelona

 1996 Atlanta

 2000 Sydney

 2004 Athens

  Humor Guy's Funnies

Olympic Games - 1968 Mexico

Olympic Games - 1968 Mexico

Altitude

Bob Beamon is one of a hand full of athletes that is synonymous with an Olymic games and an event.  His spectacular long jump of 8.90m lasted as a world record for 22 years.  In the Mexico Olympics, we had the first Summer Games to include sex testing for women.  It was fitting that the Mexican hurdler Enriqueta Basilio became the first woman to light the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony.  While Eulalia Rolinska of Poland and Gladys de Seminario of Peru were the first women to compete in shooting.

Wyomia Tyus of the United States became the first repeat winner of the 100m.  There was a more sinister and longer lasting image in the medal ceremony of the men's 200m where Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their symbolic black-gloved salute.

The most popular female athlete of the 1968 Games was Vera Caslavska, the Czech gymnast. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia two months before the Olympics, Caslavska went into hiding for three weeks. She emerged to win four gold medals and two silvers. On the male side,

Al Oerter of the United States won the discus throw for the fourth time. The 1968 Games also saw the first drug disqualification, as a Swedish entrant in the modern pentathlon, Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, tested positive?for excessive alcohol.

One of those to find out just how disadvantaged most of the competitors would be was the great Australian distance runner Ron Clarke. Clarke held the world record for the 10,000m.  But he was beaten as much by the altitude as the African runners lead by Temu.