Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, 36 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 12 for women. There were a total number of 1031 participating athletes from 93 countries.[1][2]

These games were notable for a number of Olympic firsts and numerous world records. These included:

• Dick Fosbury introduced the Fosbury Flop to the high Jump by jumping over backwards, whereas the prevailing methods involved jumping forwards or sideways.
• The first African Gold Medallists in the 1500m and 3000m Steeplechase, as well as many other medals in middle and long distance events. Particularly symbolic of Africa's new found dominance was the victory by Kenyan athlete Kip Keino in the 1500m final.
• Bob Beamon broke Ralph Boston's 1965 and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan's 1967 World Record in the Men's Long Jump by 55 cm (22 in). This record was not broken until 1991. It remains the second best legal jump in history.
• The World Record was broken in the Men's Triple Jump five times by three athletes, including the final jump of the event. The top five finishers all beat the previous world record.
• The Black Power salute: Tommie Smith and John Carlos wore black gloves and bowed their heads on the medal podium after their medals in the 200m.
• Jim Hines became the first sprinter to officially break the 10-second barrier in the 100 metres.[3]

This was the first Olympics to use an all-weather track surface now used in every major international athletics competition.

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Jim Hines  United States	9.95 WR	Lennox Miller  Jamaica	10.04	Charles Greene  United States	10.07
200 metres	Tommie Smith  United States	19.83 WR	Peter Norman  Australia	20.06 NR	John Carlos  United States	20.10
400 metres	Lee Evans  United States	43.86 WR	Larry James  United States	43.97	Ron Freeman  United States	44.41
800 metres	Ralph Doubell  Australia	1:44.40 WR	Wilson Kiprugut  Kenya	1:44.57	Tom Farrell  United States	1:45.46
1500 metres	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	3:34.91 OR	Jim Ryun  United States	3:37.89	Bodo Tümmler  West Germany	3:39.08
5000 metres	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia	14:05.01	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	14:05.16	Naftali Temu  Kenya	14:06.41
10,000 metres	Naftali Temu  Kenya	29:27.40	Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia	29:27.75	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia	29:34.2
110 metres hurdles	Willie Davenport  United States	13.33 OR	Ervin Hall  United States	13.42	Eddy Ottoz  Italy	13.46
400 metres hurdles	David Hemery  Great Britain	48.12 WR	Gerhard Hennige  West Germany	49.02	John Sherwood  Great Britain	49.03
3000 metres steeplechase	Amos Biwott  Kenya	8:51.02	Benjamin Kogo  Kenya	8:51.56	George Young  United States	8:51.86
4×100 metres relay	United States (USA) Charles Greene Mel Pender Ronnie Ray Smith Jim Hines	38.24 WR	Cuba (CUB) Hermes Ramírez Juan Morales Pablo Montes Enrique Figuerola	38.40	France (FRA) Gérard Fenouil Jocelyn Delecour Claude Piquemal Roger Bambuck	38.43
4×400 metres relay	United States (USA) Vincent Matthews Ron Freeman Larry James Lee Evans	2:56.16 WR	Kenya (KEN) Daniel Rudisha Munyoro Nyamau Naftali Bon Charles Asati	2:59.64	West Germany (FRG) Helmar Müller Manfred Kinder Gerhard Hennige Martin Jellinghaus	3:00.57
Marathon	Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia	2:20:27	Kenji Kimihara  Japan	2:23:31	Mike Ryan  New Zealand	2:23:45
20 kilometres walk	Volodymyr Holubnychy  Soviet Union	1:33:58	José Pedraza  Mexico	1:34:00	Nikolay Smaga  Soviet Union	1:34:03
50 kilometres walk	Christoph Höhne  East Germany	4:20:14	Antal Kiss  Hungary	4:30:17	Larry Young  United States	4:31:55
High jump	Dick Fosbury  United States	2.24 m OR	Ed Caruthers  United States	2.22 m	Valentin Gavrilov  Soviet Union	2.20 m
Pole vault	Bob Seagren  United States	5.40 m OR	Claus Schiprowski  West Germany	5.40 m	Wolfgang Nordwig  East Germany	5.40 m
Long jump	Bob Beamon  United States	8.90 m WR	Klaus Beer  East Germany	8.19 m	Ralph Boston  United States	8.16 m
Triple jump	Viktor Saneyev  Soviet Union	17.39 m WR	Nelson Prudêncio  Brazil	17.27 m	Giuseppe Gentile  Italy	17.22 m
Shot put	Randy Matson  United States	20.54 m OR	George Woods  United States	20.12 m	Eduard Gushchin  Soviet Union	20.09 m
Discus throw	Al Oerter  United States	64.78 m OR	Lothar Milde  East Germany	63.08 m	Ludvík Daněk  Czechoslovakia	62.92 m
Hammer throw	Gyula Zsivótzky  Hungary	73.36 m OR	Romuald Klim  Soviet Union	73.28 m	Lázár Lovász  Hungary	69.78 m
Javelin throw	Jānis Lūsis  Soviet Union	90.10 m OR	Jorma Kinnunen  Finland	88.58 m	Gergely Kulcsár  Hungary	87.06 m
Decathlon	Bill Toomey  United States	8193 OR	Hans-Joachim Walde  West Germany	8111	Kurt Bendlin  West Germany	8064

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Wyomia Tyus  United States	11.08 WR	Barbara Ferrell  United States	11.15	Irena Szewińska  Poland	11.19
200 metres	Irena Szewińska  Poland	22.58 WR	Raelene Boyle  Australia	22.74	Jenny Lamy  Australia	22.88
400 metres	Colette Besson  France	52.03	Lillian Board  Great Britain	52.12	Natalya Pechonkina  Soviet Union	52.25
800 metres	Madeline Manning  United States	2:00.92 OR	Ilona Silai  Romania	2:02.58	Maria Gommers  Netherlands	2:02.63
80 metres hurdles	Maureen Caird  Australia	10.39 OR	Pam Kilborn  Australia	10.46	Chi Cheng  Republic of China	10.51
4×100 metres relay	United States (USA) Margaret Bailes Barbara Ferrell Mildrette Netter Wyomia Tyus	42.88 WR	Cuba (CUB) Violetta Quesada Miguelina Cobián Marlene Elejarde Fulgencia Romay	43.36	Soviet Union (URS) Galina Bukharina Lyudmila Samotyosova Vera Popkova Lyudmila Zharkova	43.41
High jump	Miloslava Rezková  Czechoslovakia	1.82 m	Antonina Okorokova  Soviet Union	1.80 m	Valentina Kozyr  Soviet Union	1.80 m
Long jump	Viorica Viscopoleanu  Romania	6.82 m WR	Sheila Sherwood  Great Britain	6.68 m	Tatyana Talysheva  Soviet Union	6.66 m
Shot put	Margitta Gummel  East Germany	19.61 m WR	Marita Lange  East Germany	18.78 m	Nadezhda Chizhova  Soviet Union	18.19 m
Discus throw	Lia Manoliu  Romania	58.28 m OR	Liesel Westermann  West Germany	57.76 m	Jolán Kleiber-Kontsek  Hungary	54.90 m
Javelin throw	Angéla Németh  Hungary	60.36 m	Mihaela Peneş  Romania	59.92 m	Eva Janko  Austria	58.04 m
Pentathlon	Ingrid Becker  West Germany	5098	Liese Prokop  Austria	4966	Annamária Tóth  Hungary	4959

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	15	6	7	28
2	Kenya (KEN)	3	4	1	8
3	Soviet Union (URS)	3	2	8	13
4	Australia (AUS)	2	3	1	6
	East Germany (GDR)	2	3	1	6
6	Romania (ROU)	2	2	0	4
7	Hungary (HUN)	2	1	4	7
8	West Germany (FRG)	1	4	3	8
9	Great Britain (GBR)	1	2	1	4
10	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	1	0	2
11	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	0	1	2
	France (FRA)	1	0	1	2
	Poland (POL)	1	0	1	2
	Tunisia (TUN)	1	0	1	2
15	Cuba (CUB)	0	2	0	2
16	Austria (AUT)	0	1	1	2
17	Brazil (BRA)	0	1	0	1
	Finland (FIN)	0	1	0	1
	Jamaica (JAM)	0	1	0	1
	Japan (JPN)	0	1	0	1
	Mexico (MEX)	0	1	0	1
22	Italy (ITA)	0	0	2	2
23	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	1	1
	Republic of China (ROC)	0	0	1	1
Totals (25 nations)		36	36	36	108

References

1. Sports Reference
2. https://www.olympic.org/mexico-1968/athletics
3. Sports Reference Sports Reference

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia