Peter Norman: A 200-meter sprinting record may be gone, but his courageous human rights stand lives on

In Chapter 11 of Hero Redefined, I wrote about now-deceased Australian sprinter Peter Norman, whose dash to a silver medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City – and even more so, his courageous stand for black rights at the medal ceremony during those Games – made him a hero worth remembering.

I was very touched that Athletics Weekly magazine, known as the Bible of track-and-field coverage in the United Kingdom and much of the world, saw fit to call out Peter’s story as well. In its May 1 issue focusing on Australian track-and-field athletes, and with a wonderfully done excerpt compiled by Editorial Director Euan Crumley, AW put a renewed spotlight on the athletic and human-rights greatness Peter displayed back then:

Peter Norman, the third man - Athletics Weekly

 It’s worth noting, too, that the 200-meter final Peter ran on a high-altitude track may have left him with a second-place finish in Mexico City – but it rendered him a sprint king at home. In the years that followed Peter’s freight-train finish of 1968, no one could touch his Australian record 200 time of 20.06 seconds. It stood as the Australian national record for over a half-century.

But the saying telling us that “records are made to be broken,” is a prescient one. On Dec. 7, 2024, after Hero Redefined had been written but before my official publication date, an Australian teen-age sprinting sensation named Gout Gout nipped Peter’s record with a 20.04 finish in an Australian All Schools Championships race. Here’s the You Tube video link, where you can hear the announcers reference Peter’s iconic 1968 run and time – snd then, at the 2:05 mark of the video, they go bonkers when the official 20.04 time is revealed:

Gout Takes Down Australian 200m Record | 2024 Chemist Warehouse Australian All Schools Championships

 Since his brilliant December 2024 dash to notoriety, Gout Gout has continued to impress, running a wind-aided 19.84-second 200 in March 2025 and posting 100- and 200-meter finishing times that compare favorably to what the great Usain Bolt was able to do in advance of turning 18 years old. Gout Gout just turned 17 at the end of 2024!

So, does all this diminish the greatness and heroism of Peter Norman? In my mind, not one bit. Peter’s 200-meter national record may be gone, but his courageous human rights stand lives on.