Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

Men's 200 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
The medal award ceremony for the 200 metres. Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right) showing the Black Power salute while silver medalist Peter Norman (left) wears an OPHR badge to show his support for the two Americans.
Medalists
Tommie Smith  United States Peter Norman  Australia John Carlos  United States

The men's 200 meters event at the 1968 Summer Olympics was held in Mexico City, Mexico. The final was won by Tommie Smith in a time of 19.83, a new world record. However the race is perhaps best known for what happened during the medal ceremony – the Black Power salute of Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos. The background and repercussions of the salute carried forward into subsequent Olympics and is perhaps the single most memorable event from these Olympics.

The event started on 15 October and finished on 16 October.

Results

WR	Denotes athlete set World and Olympic Record
OR	Denotes athlete set Olympic Record
Q	Denotes athletes that advanced to following round
DNF	Denotes teams that did not finish

Heats

Heat one

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	John Carlos	United States	20:54	Q
2	Andrés Calonge	Argentina	20:81	Q
3	Mani Jegathesan	Malaysia	20:92	Q, NR
4	Livio Berruti	Italy	21:06	Q
5	Valentin Maslakov	Soviet Union	21:07	Q
6	Norman Chihota	Tanzania	21:28
7	Canagasabai Kunalan	Singapore	21:39
8	Hadley Hinds	Barbados	22:35

Heat two

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Tommie Smith	United States	20:37	OR
2	Charles Asati	Kenya	20:66	Q
3	Jochen Eigenherr	West Germany	20:69	Q
4	Edwin Roberts	Trinidad and Tobago	20:69	Q
5	David Ejoke	Nigeria	21:09	Q
6	Edwin Johnson	Bahamas	21:22	Q
7	Kun Min-Mu	Taiwan	22:44

Heat three

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Larry Questad	United States	20:75	Q
2	Julius Sang	Kenya	20:90	Q
3	Edward Romanowski	Poland	20:95	Q
4	Miguel Angel González	Mexico	21:31	Q
5	Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa	Madagascar	21:53
6	Norris Stubbs	Bahamas	21:64
7	Morgan Gesmalla	Sudan	22:70

Heat four

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Mike Fray	Jamaica	20:62	Q
2	Winston Short	Trinidad and Tobago	21:00	Q
3	Hansruedi Wiedmer	Switzerland	21:06	Q
4	Bernard Nottage	Bahamas	21:31	Q
5	Philippe Housiaux	Belgium	21:41
6	Porfirio Veras	Dominican Republic	21:53
7	Juan Argüello	Nicaragua	22:80

Heat five

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Iván Moreno	Chile	20:93	Q
2	Jacques Carette	France	20:97	Q
3	James Addy	Ghana	21:00	Q
4	Fernando Acevedo	Peru	21:02	Q
5	Harry Jerome	Canada	21:22	Q
6	William Dralu	Uganda	21:38
7	Colin Thurton	British Honduras	22:14

Heat six

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Peter Norman	Australia	20:17	OR
2	Roger Bambuck	France	20:61	Q
3	Dick Steane	Great Britain	20:66	Q
4	Rajalingam Gunaratnam	Malaysia	21:58	Q
5	Alberto Torres	Dominican Republic	21:99
6	José Astacio	El Salvador	23:13
	Juan Franceschi	Puerto Rico		DNF

Heat seven

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Greg Lewis	Australia	20:71	Q
2	Ralph Banthorpe	Great Britain	20:73	Q
3	Nikolay Ivanov	Soviet Union	20:78	Q
4	Pedro Grajales	Colombia	21:07	Q
5	Gert Metz	West Germany	21:24
6	Carl Plaskett	Virgin Islands	21:29
7	Cristóbal Corrales	Honduras	23:93

Quarterfinals

Heat one

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	John Carlos	United States	20:69	Q
2	Greg Lewis	Australia	20:81	Q
3	Dick Steane	Great Britain	20:81	Q
4	Mani Jegathesan	Malaysia	21:01	Q
5	Julius Sang	Kenya	21:04
6	Jacques Carette	France	21:15
7	Edwin Johnson	Bahamas	21:41
8	Harry Jerome	Canada	21:43

Heat two

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Peter Norman	Australia	20:44	Q
2	Jochen Eigenherr	West Germany	20:53	Q
3	Fernando Acevedo	Peru	20:78	Q
4	Iván Moreno	Chile	20:83	Q
5	Charles Asati	Kenya	20:84
6	Livio Berruti	Italy	21:01
7	Winston Short	Trinidad and Tobago	21:51
8	Rajalingam Gunaratnam	Malaysia	21:52

Heat three

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Tommie Smith	United States	20:28	OR
2	Edwin Roberts	Trinidad and Tobago	20:50	Q
3	Edward Romanowski	Poland	20:85	Q
4	Nikolay Ivanov	Soviet Union	20:90	Q
5	David Ejoke	Nigeria	20:99
6	Andrés Calonge	Argentina	21:03
7	Hansruedi Wiedmer	Switzerland	21:42
8	Miguel Angel González	Mexico	21:57

Heat four

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Mike Fray	Jamaica	20:39	Q
2	Larry Questad	United States	20:54	Q
3	Roger Bambuck	France	20:63	Q
4	Ralph Banthorpe	Great Britain	20:83	Q
5	James Addy	Ghana	20:90
6	Valentin Maslakov	Soviet Union	20:96
7	Pedro Grajales	Colombia	21:05
8	Bernard Nottage	Bahamas	21:53

Semifinals

Heat one

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	John Carlos	United States	20:12	OR
2	Peter Norman	Australia	20:22	Q
3	Mike Fray	Jamaica	20:46	Q
4	Roger Bambuck	France	20:47	Q
5	Iván Moreno	Chile	20:84
6	Dick Steane	Great Britain	20:85
7	Nikolay Ivanov	Soviet Union	20:89
8	Fernando Acevedo	Peru	20:91

Heat two

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Tommie Smith	United States	20:14	OR
2	Edwin Roberts	Trinidad and Tobago	20:44	Q
3	Larry Questad	United States	20:48	Q
4	Jochen Eigenherr	West Germany	20:49	Q
5	Greg Lewis	Australia	20:53
6	Edward Romanowski	Poland	20:80
7	Ralph Banthorpe	Great Britain	20:88
8	Mani Jegathesan	Malaysia	21:05

Final

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
	Tommie Smith	United States	19:83	WR
	Peter Norman	Australia	20:06	NR
	John Carlos	United States	20:10
4	Edwin Roberts	Trinidad and Tobago	20:34
5	Roger Bambuck	France	20:51
6	Larry Questad	United States	20:62
7	Mike Fray	Jamaica	20:63
8	Jochen Eigenherr	West Germany	20:66