Famed Olympian and protester Tommie Smith believes modern athletes are less political than before despite the need to continue fighting racism, including in the United States where it "could not get any worse."
Smith, a gold medal-winning American sprinter in Mexico City in 1968, produced one of the most iconic images of the modern Olympics when he raised his fist on the podium to protest racial discrimination.
The gesture at the high point of his career, at only 24 years old, earned him a lifetime ban from athletics for breaking rules prohibiting political statements set by the International Olympic Committee.
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