History
The Mexico City 1968 Olympics (1968 Olympics hereafter) is the first Olympic Games held in a Latin American city. Several historically memorable events characterize the 1968 Olympics, in that it featured several record-breaking feats alongside the fact that the entire event is riddled with impacts of international politics. Most notable about the 1968 Olympics is that ten days before it started, the Tlatelolco massacre took place in Mexico City. Nearly a hundred people were killed by the military cordon protecting then-President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, whose regime was greatly denounced across all of Mexico for its repressiveness. Despite the existence of imminent threats to security due to the politically unstable environment in Mexico that time, the 1968 Olympics was staged there as a symbol of the rapidly growing economy of the nation and its consequently enlarging capacity enough to host such a massive international event (Minster, n.d.; The Economist, 1968).
The 1968 Olympics highlighted some of the most groundbreaking details in the history of the Olympic Games. Norma Enriqueta Basilio, a hurdler under the Mexican national team, made history as she lighted the Olympic torch, being the first-ever woman to do so. Bob Beamon, a member of the United States (US) national team, made history by winning a gold medal in long jump with a record of 29.2 ft., the highest in the world for 23 years until the record-breaking feat set by compatriot Mike Powell in 1991. Yet, the record set by Beamon is controversial in itself, given that Mexico City has an unusually high altitude for an Olympic Games event (Minster, n.d.; The Economist, 1968).
Highly regarded, however, is the so-called “Black Power Salute” performed by 200 m racers Tommie Smith and John Carlos, both members of the US national team. As Smith won gold and Carlos won bronze, both of them raised their fists in salute while standing at the podium. Australian Peter Norman, who won silver, wore a badge in support of Smith and Carlos. Claiming that the act was in support for the civil rights movement in the US, Smith and Carlos were expelled from their national team due to violations of politically charging the Olympic Games, a supposedly non-political event. Whereas Smith and Carlos were widely acclaimed for their bravery, many people back in their hometown persecuted them, apparently due to the prevailing negative attitudes held by most Americans against African-Americans that time (Minster, n.d.; The Economist, 1968).
Economic Impact
As the rightful showcase for a rapidly growing economy, the 1968 Olympics came to highlight the newfound prosperity of Mexico and its perceivably growing importance in Latin America. Trade protectionism and rising industrialization account for the growing fortunes of Mexico in 1968, although the political repression of the Ordaz regime has coincided with the growing protests in France and Czechoslovakia that time, henceforth inspiring similar uprisings that tragically ended in the Tlatelolco massacre. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the only recognized and legitimate political party of Mexico that time, carried out economic reforms that suited the middle class well while inspiring greater productivity that sufficed for funding the 1968 Olympics (Minster, n.d.; Rathke & Woitek, 2007; The Economist, 1968).
With looming threats from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the 1968 Olympics to Los Angeles in California, US, Mexico undertook measures to relax its politically unstable position – albeit in a relatively improper manner. The Tlatelolco massacre, touted as the tragic event that ended the 1968 protests in Mexico, was presented by the local media in a distorted way by making the impression that the protesters were the ones at fault. The relative calm that followed the Tlatelolco massacre allowed for staging the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, although it was not until the 1990s when a thorough investigation of the incident took place. Visits to Mexico City naturally boosted the local economy in terms of commerce, although the greatest returns came in the form of the increased number of Mexican Olympic medal winners during the 1968 Olympics. Touted as a result of home-ground advantage, Mexico had a higher medal count from the 1968 Olympics – nine medals, three each for gold, silver and bronze, Such is significantly higher compared to the participation of Mexico in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and 1972 Olympics in Munich, West Germany, having won only one medal from each event. One could therefore state that the massive investment poured in by the Ordaz regime for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City has produced its intended symbolic returns (Minster, n.d.; Rathke & Woitek, 2007; The Economist, 1968).
References
Minster, C. (n.d.). Mexico City: The 1968 Summer Olympics. In About.com Latin American History. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofmexico/p/1968olympics.htm.
Rathke, A., & Woitek, U. (2007). Economics and Olympics: An efficiency analysis (Working Paper No. 313). Switzerland: University of Zurich Institute for Empirical Research in Economics. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from www.iew.uzh.ch/wp/iewwp313.pdf.
The ghosts of Mexico 1968. (2008). The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/11090825
