To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we’re cataloging 25 objects that define the country’s history.
Athletes from around the world are in Italy for the Winter Olympic Games, chasing medals and a place in history. But nearly 30 years ago, at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, one of the most unforgettable Olympic moments didn’t happen in a competition.
Boxer Muhammad Ali appeared at the opening ceremony carrying an Olympic torch, his arm trembling from Parkinson’s disease. It became one of the most iconic moments in sports history. Now, a torch from those games signed by Ali is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.
Damion Thomas, sports curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, said the 1996 Olympic Games focused on looking back at America’s history, 30 years after the Civil Rights Movement. The Games allowed the world to see how the progress made in the Deep South in race relations.
“In some ways, there is no better person to choose than Muhammad Ali, who in the mid 1960s was, perhaps, probably, along with Dr. [Martin Luther] King, the most hated man in America,” Thomas said. “By 1996, he became one of the most beloved figures in American society. Not because he changed, but because we changed and grew as a society.”
3 Questions with Damion Thomas
Why did this moment reframe Ali’s legacy?
“It’s worth remembering why Ali was hated. Before 1967, we go back to 1964 when he won the heavyweight title, came out as a member of the Nation of Islam, and rejected integration. That’s a seminal moment in our larger discussion about civil rights access and inequality in the United States.
“It was a position that was not only unpopular in white America, it was also a position that Black America looked at with a bit of trepidation, because the Civil Rights Movement was about integration. It was about creating an opportunity. It was about moving forward. And Ali, when he became heavyweight champion, rejected those ideals. And so that’s the moment where Ali becomes a deeply political and deeply polarizing figure.
“That intensifies in 1967 when he refused to be drafted for Vietnam.”
I’m just thinking about the amount of personal bravery it must have taken for a man who was known for his physical prowess to emerge like that. Do you see that?
“Certainly, there’s a lot of bravery to present himself like that, but he was often someone who was willing to kind of be vulnerable. To open up his doors to talk to people. To engage and to reveal who he was. So I’m not surprised by the fact that he decided to take part in this moment.”
How else do you think the torch adds to the story of the U.S. 250 years after it was born?
“I think it’s important to reflect on this particular torch because the Atlanta Games are so important in American history. It marks a moment of progress, a moment of reflection, and a moment of recommitting ourselves to the Olympic values.
“And so for me, it’s a moment that signifies America’s commitment to our ideals of freedom, democracy and liberty. But also to the Olympic ideas of collaboration, friendliness, and getting along as a collection of nations and human beings.”
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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Will Walkey produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Walkey also adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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