Tommie Smith is selling the gold medal

Tommie Smith is selling the gold medal he won in the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympics, where his black-gloved salute on the podium led to his ban from the rest of the Mexico City Games. Smith, 66, put his medal and running shoes up for auction at M.I.T. Memorabilia in New York. The bidding starts at $250,000; the sale closes Nov. 4. Gary Zimet of M.I.T. said Smith was selling the medal for the money and because he wanted to share it with the public. smith

Tommie Smith (born June 6, 1944)[1] is an African American former track & field athlete and wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith won the 200-meter dash finals in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20 second barrier was broken. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium caused controversy at the time as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. After his track career, he became a member of the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978. In 1996, Smith was inducted into the California Black Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1999 he received that organization's Sportsman of the Millennium Award. In 2000 - 2001 the County of Los Angeles and the State of Texas presented Smith with Commendation, Recognition and Proclamation Awards.

He later became a track coach at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he also taught sociology and until recently was a faculty member at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.

For his life-long commitment to athletics, education, and human rights following his silent gesture of protest at the '68 Olympics in Mexico City, Smith received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts.

In 2005, a statue showing Smith and Carlos on the medal stand was constructed by political artist Rigo 23 and dedicated on the campus of San Jose State University.

With author David Steele, Smith wrote his autobiography, entitled Silent Gesture, published in February 2007 by Temple University Press.

A mural of the photo taken with Smith on the podium at the 1968 Olympics with Carlos and Norman was painted on the brick wall of a residence in Newtown, New South Wales, Australia, titled "Three Proud People, Mexico, 1968". The mural faces the train tracks linking Sydney city to the Western and Southern Suburbs, and is no longer visible by thousands of commuters every day. Smith, along with Carlos, was a pallbearer at Norman's funeral in Melbourne in 2006.

On July 16, 2008, John Carlos and Tommie Smith accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for their salute at the 2008 ESPY Awards held at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles, California.

In August 2008, Tommie Smith gave 2008 Olympic triple gold winner Usain Bolt of Jamaica one of his shoes from the 1968 Olympics as a birthday gift.

Smith announced that he is selling the gold medal he won at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He put his gold medal for the 200 meters and spikes up for auction. The bid starts at $250,000, and the sale is scheduled to close November 4, 2010. Source : http://en.wikipedia.org ; http://www.nytimes.com