Mexico City Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Opening ceremony was held Oct. 12, 1968 for Mexico City, closing ceremony on Oct. 27. A then record 112 countries participated with 5,500 athletes. (Getty) On Oct. 27, the anniversary of the closing ceremony for the 1968 Games, the federal government announced renovations of three venues, including the Francisco Marquez Olympic Pool and Juan de la Barra Gymnasium. The venues are said to be in desperate need of repair with broken windows, sagging facades and barely-working facilities.

The ceremony for the natatorium renovation included the re-naming of the pool for Felipe Munoz, the Mexican swimmer who won gold in the 200-meter butterfly at the Games, and now serves as Mexican Olympic Committee president.

The Mexico City Olympics were one of the most transformational, coming at a time of rising political causes around the globe. Indeed, Mexico City was wracked with protests as the Games approached. Just 10 days before the opening ceremony, police opened fire on a mass demonstration. Some protestors fired back. Official accounts say four dozen were killed, others claim a death toll into the hundreds.

Politics spilled into the Olympics, too. Perhaps one of the most lasting images of the Games came when sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists in a black power salute as a stance against black poverty during the U.S. anthem in the men's 200-meter medals ceremony. The duo, who were immediately sent home, received death threats and were ostracized after returning to the U.S.

Away from the politics, many athletes made news in competition Tommie Smith and John Carlos in protest 40 years ago. (Getty Images)in Mexico City. U.S. high jumper Dick Fosbury changed the event when he introduced the “Fosbury Flop” and won gold.

Bob Beamon set a staggering record in the long jump in Mexico City. Beamon, then 22, jumped 8.90 meters, obliterating the previous world record by 55 cm, the largest increase in the event’s world record ever. His world record stood for 23 years and that jump is still the Olympic record and the second longest jump of all time.

Mexican hurdler Enriqueta Basilio also made history, Bob Beamon in flight, about to set a new world record at the Mexico City Olympics. (Getty Images)becoming the first woman to light the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremonies.

With drug testing being used for the first time in Mexico City, Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall became the first athlete to be cut from the Games for doping. He admitted to drinking two beers before the pistol event to calm his nerves. The beers cost him a bronze medal.

The Games were also the first for many IOC members, including a young sailor from Belgium, Jacques Rogge, who has moved up the ladder in the Olympic world since then. Mario Vazquez Rana, now IOC member and leader of the Association of National Olympic Committees, worked as a member of the organizing committee. His brother, Olegario Vazquez Rana competed in shooting, and is now an IOC member as well as president of the ISSF, the federation for shooting. Another IOC member, Kip Keino, won the first of his distance event Olympic gold medals in Mexico.

Written by Ed Hula III.