Melbourne Olympian who had small role in controversial 1968 Olympic black power protest to be honoured

A MELBOURNE athlete who supported a controversial “black power” protest at the 1968 Olympics is to receive a permanent memorial.

A MELBOURNE athlete who supported a controversial “black power” protest at the 1968 Olympics is to receive a permanent memorial.

The Moreland council wants to acknowledge sprinter Peter Norman, who appeared alongside two black US athletes on the dais in Mexico City.

US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s controversial Olympics protest, with Peter Norman at left.

Norman won silver in the 200m, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who finished first and third, wore black gloves and raised their fists in black power gestures.

The Australian wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in solidarity — an action that allegedly cost him selection for the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Norman, who grew up in Coburg and died in 2006, received a posthumous apology from the federal parliament “for the wrong done by Australia in failing to send him” to the 1972 Olympics.

Moreland council will liaise with his family to consider an appropriate way to honour “his important work, possibly the naming of a street or location”.

The US Track and Field Federation proclaimed the date of his funeral, October 9, 2006, as Peter Norman Day.

Norman was a trainer and player for West Brunswick Football Club and also became a teacher.