#1960 olympics

[blackisdivine]

Women's 4 x 100m relay Gold medalists in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome

Left to right: Wilma Rudolph, Lucinda Williams, Barbara Jones and Martha Hudson

Women's 4 x 100m relay Gold medalists in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris

Left to right: Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Gabrielle Thomas and Sha'Carri Richardson

Black Beauty & Excellence.

[quotesfrommyreading]

For all our queasiness about what would happen if some athletes were to get paid, there is a successful precedent for the professionalization of an amateur sports system: the Olympics. For years, Walter Byers waged war with the NCAA’s older and more powerful nemesis, the Amateur Athletic Union, which since 1894 had overseen U.S. Olympic athletes. Run in high-handed fashion, the AAU had infamously banned Jesse Owens for life in 1936—weeks after his four heroic gold medals punctured the Nazi claim of Aryan supremacy—because instead of using his sudden fame to tour and make money for the AAU at track meets across Europe, he came home early. In the early 1960s, the fights between the NCAA and the AAU over who should manage Olympic athletes become so bitter that President Kennedy called in General Douglas MacArthur to try to mediate a truce before the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Ultimately, Byers prevailed and effectively neutered the AAU. In November 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the bipartisan Amateur Sports Act. Amateurism in the Olympics soon dissolved—and the world did not end. Athletes, granted a 20 percent voting stake on every Olympic sport’s governing body, tipped balances in the United States and then inexorably around the world. First in marathon races, then in tennis tournaments, players soon were allowed to accept prize money and keep their Olympic eligibility. Athletes profited from sponsorships and endorsements. The International Olympic Committee expunged the word amateur from its charter in 1986. Olympic officials, who had once disdained the NCAA for offering scholarships in exchange for athletic performance, came to welcome millionaire athletes from every quarter, while the NCAA still refused to let the pro Olympian Michael Phelps swim for his college team at Michigan.

This sweeping shift left the Olympic reputation intact, and perhaps improved. Only hardened romantics mourned the amateur code. “Hey, come on,” said Anne Audain, a track-and-field star who once held the world record for the 5,000 meters. “It’s like losing your virginity. You’re a little misty for awhile, but then you realize, Wow, there’s a whole new world out there!”

Without logic or practicality or fairness to support amateurism, the NCAA’s final retreat is to sentiment. The Knight Commission endorsed its heartfelt cry that to pay college athletes would be “an unacceptable surrender to despair.” Many of the people I spoke with while reporting this article felt the same way. “I don’t want to pay college players,” said Wade Smith, a tough criminal lawyer and former star running back at North Carolina. “I just don’t want to do it. We’d lose something precious.”

  —  The Scandal of NCAA College Sports

[cherrylacroix]

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

Ukrainian Cossack weightlifter Leonid Zhabotinsky winning the first of his Olympic gold medals in Tokyo in 1964.

[gameraboy2]

TWA Paris Advertising Poster (1962) by David Klein

[goshyesvintageads]

Mexican National Tourist Council, 1968

[asmileworthahundredlies]

[scavengedluxury]

Olympic Village, Mexico City, 1968. From the Budapest municipal photography company archive. 

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn and her good friend Doris Brynner at Chamrousse for the Winter Olympics near Grenoble on 5 February 1968

[dozydawn]

Peggy Fleming in Geneva for the World Figure Skating Championships, 1968. Photographed by Jack Garofalo.

[victusinveritas]

At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, due to the absence of high-speed cameras, the running event required 22 observers to determine the final results.

[detroitlib]

View of crowd of well-wishers greeting Governor George Romney at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after Detroit's failed bid for the 1968 Summer Olympic Games. Signs read: "No games .. but still game. Welcome back! Thanks for a fine try," "All our thanks for a great try," "Thanks welcome home" and "'72 Olympics or bust." Crowd stands behind fence. Label on back: "Well-wishers greet Gov. Romney." Stamped on back: "Detroit Free Press, Oct. 19, 1963, photo by Jerry Heiman."

Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

[lisamarie-vee]

[your-resident-boat-person]

would u consider what happened to SS Normandie to be twink death

also WHY NO SS NORMANDIE

Hoooooooo boy. I assume you're referring to my top 25 list of ocean liners? So yeah... uh... i hate to say it, and I'm probably going to get crucified for this, buuuuut.....

I'm not a fan of the SS Normandie.

I know! I'm sorry! But of all my criteria that a ship needs to meet, she just doesn't hold up! First, her career. It was PATHETICALLY short. Only 1935 to 1939. She sat in New York for a few years until she burned down (as is the tradition of French liners cough cough). The most interesting part of her career was her rivalry with the Queen Mary, but personally, I just think that story is way more interesting from the Queen Mary's side. I think the story of her engineering is interesting, like her turboelectric engines, and her hydrodynamic hull, but I think the engineering of ships like the SS United States is just more interesting! People say she's the most beautiful ship ever engineered, buuuut....

Yeah, I just don't get it. ESPECIALLY compared to her younger fleetmate, the SS France

Or her OLDER fleetmate, the SS Île de France

Who had a MUCH more interesting career, by the way.

Anyway, people point to her interiors as an art deco masterpiece..... BUUUUUUT

Look, from an artistic standpoint, I would never argue that these interiors are gorgeous. But people often forget that this isn't an art museum. It's an ocean liner. People are expected to live in these spaces for at least 4 or 5 days. Would you feel comfortable staying in a hotel that looked like this? With all the metal and marble and stone? This cold, towering, imposing atmosphere? It feels like a goddamn palace, and not in a good way. I'd be afraid to touch anything. Like I said, it's pretty, I just dont think it serves it's purpose very well. And people from the 1930s generally agreed with me. Many people described it as being "too much" and bordering on gaudy. I vastly prefer the Queen Mary's, Queen Elizabeth's, and Caronias take on Art Deco.

They just feel so much more homey and warm and inviting. Personally, I'll always prefer the Edwardian decor, which was a more restrained version of the Victorian decor. The Olympic's grand staircase, first class lounge, and a la carte restaurant are my favorite examples.

So anyway, those are the reasons I'm not a fan of the SS Normandie. Her story is short and largely uninteresting, and the way it is interesting, other ships like the Mary and the Big U do those things better. Her exterior is weird looking and ugly, and her interiors are oppressive, gaudy, and downright uncomfortable. I just never understood the love for Normandie. Anyway, if you disagree with any of my points, PLEASE let me know! I love talking to people about this stuff ^ω^

[brianjonescollection]

Brian Jones at Olympic Sound Studios, 1969.

[vintagepromotions]

Poster for the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games (1968). Artwork by Lance Wyman.