Athletics at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Mexico City

A long jump into the next century

A number of world records in the sprinting events

World class long distance runners collapsing and receiving oxygen to recover

A man who won gold in high jump with his back to the bar

Clenched fists in black gloves in silent protest against racism

Mexico City was a controversial choice among the candidate cities because of the unknown effects from a city located 2240 m above sea level. The possible effects were also unclear in relation to the athletics competitions.

In the days just after Mexican hurdle runner Enriqueta Basilio as the first female athlete ever lighted the olympic fire it became clear that several long distance runners without the necessary high altitude training encountered problems. As an example Ron Clarke from Australia collapsed after the 10.000 m. Clarke is arguably one of the all time best long distance runners not to win an olympic gold medal. He only finished in 6th place and was among others superseded by 4 runners from countries situated high above sea level.

On the opposite the thin air proved to be an advantage in the explosive events. On the 100 m, 200 m and 400 m for men the three American gold winners Jim Hines, Tommie Smith and Lee Evans all set world records that would stand for almost 20 years or more.

And in the long jump Bob Beamon, USA, accomplished probably the most spectacular achievement with his "jump into the next century" as it is sometimes called. Beamon's perfect jump was measured to 8,90 m. As a world record it stood until 1991, as an olympic record it has not been beaten in more than 40 years.

As expected USA were by far the most successful nation in the Mexico City athletics competitions despite some American favorites failed to win, for example Jim Ryun in 1500 m M. In total the Americans won 15 gold medals, 6 of silver and 6 of bronze divided with 12 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze in the men's competitions and 3 gold and one silver in the women's. In more than halve of the mens 22 events an American claimed gold.

Kenya was surprisingly second best nation in the men's events with 3 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze. It was an overwhelming success for the African state that in 1968 only had about 7 million inhabitants. It was the opinion of many experts that the Kenyans life on the East African plateau, located at the same altitude as Mexico City, was instrumental in the good results.

Also Ethiopia and Tunisia won medals and several other African nations achieved excellent results. There was the impression - that would later prove to be right - that the African continent could potentially become a dominant factor in the athletics competitions.

The Soviet Union won fewer medals than they did four years earlier in Tokyo 1964, even though the Tokyo games marked a decline in medals compared to the Rome 1960 games. The Soviet Union only took 2 gold medals, 2 silver and 7 bronze. It was noticed that URS didn't win a single gold in the women's events - something that the Western press partly connected to the obligatory gender tests.

It is also worth noting that East as well as West Germany only took one gold medal each in Mexico City.

10 of the gold winners from the games in Tokyo 1964 defended their olympic championship. Only two succeeded in retaining the gold medals, both of them Americans and both of them writing Olympic history. Wyomia Tyus was the first in Olympic history to win gold twice on the 100 m distance, and Al Oerter, who won the discus, was the first to win gold in the athletics events in four consecutive Olympic games.

After eight eventful days where 1114 men and women from 92 countries competed in 36 events there were 15 new world records and 26 new olympic records to be added in the athletics record books.