, bowed their heads, wearing black socks and black leather gloves, raised their fist in the Black power salute as the Star Spangled Banner played and the American flag was raised. Their actions were a protest against racism in the U.S.Later, Smith concluded that their actions were not of a Black power salute, but an Olympic project for human rights. He also stated that the Black-gloved fists represented African-American pride, and their black socks were a testament to poverty encountered by African-Americans during those times (Boogard, 2000,p. D1). The U.S. organizing committee immediately removed Smith and Carlos from the track and field team as a result of their protest. Smith and Carlos however took advantage of their day in the spotlight and made news around the world. They stood for something that is needed to be corrected, which was racism, and took a stand. Over the years, the tensions of racism slowly decreased in the U.S., as a result of one of the biggest nationwide protest ever seen.Naim Suleymanoglu, also known as “Pocket Hercules,” is another athlete who used the Olympic games to represent oppression among his countrymen. Naim grew up as part of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, where he trained to be the most dominant weightlifter in his weight class for many years. He would have been a sure gold medallist during the 1984 Olympic games at Los Angeles, but Bulgaria was part of the Eastern Bloc boycott. When he returned to his training camp back at Sofia, Bulgaria, he found that Bulgarian authorities violently repressed Turkish demonstrations and banned Moslem holidays, burials, Turkish dress, and ordered the Turks to change their names to the Bulgarian equivalent. The following year, his passport was confiscated and was issued a new one, under the name of Naum Shalamanov. Later, he opened a newspaper indicating that he was proud of his new Bulgarian name. Naim finally decided to defect out of Bulgaria, leaving ...
