The Track in the Forest: The Creation of a Legendary 1968 US Olympic Team

by Bob Burns

The 1968 US men's Olympic track and field team won 12 gold medals and set six world records at the Mexico City Games, one of the most dominant performances in Olympic history. The team featured such legends as Tommie Smith, Bob Beamon, Al Oerter, and Dick Fosbury. Fifty years later, the team is mostly remembered for embodying the tumultuous social and racial climate of 1968. The Black Power protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the victory stand in Mexico City remains one of the most enduring images of the 1960s. Less known is the role that a 400-meter track carved out of the Eldorado National Forest above Lake Tahoe played in molding that juggernaut. To acclimate US athletes for the 7,300-foot elevation of Mexico City, the US Olympic Committee held a two-month training camp and final Olympic selection meet for the ages at Echo Summit near the California-Nevada border. Never has a sporting event of such consequence been held in such an ethereal setting. On a track in which hundreds of trees were left standing on the infield to minimize the environmental impact, four world records fell—more than have been set at any US meet since (including the 1984 and 1996 Olympics). But the road to Echo Summit was tortuous—the Vietnam War was raging, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, and a group of athletes based out of San Jose State had been threatening to boycott the Mexico City Games to protest racial injustice. Informed by dozens of interviews by longtime sports journalist and track enthusiast Bob Burns, this is the story of how in one of the most divisive years in American history, a California mountaintop provided an incomparable group of Americans shelter from the storm.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2018

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The civil rights movement was in full swing in 1968 when the athletes were training for the Mexico City Olympic Games. This is the year Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kenedy were killed. The racial tensions in the country were very high. The Olympics were held in Mexico City which is at an altitude of over 7000 feet (2200m). The USA track team built a track above Lake Tahoe, at Echo City, to help the men train at altitude. The women did not train with the men, that is mentioned, but the women's equality was still a way off in the future. There is still work to do to get there. Reading about the many amazing athletes was a treat. Reading about the Olympic Project for Human Rights and the way that the black athletes were under so much pressure to not only train and compete but also use the platform for shining a light on injustice was sad and fascinating at the same time. John Carlos and Tommie Smith protested on the medal stand and that is one of the most iconic photos from Olympic history.

Disk Fosbury introduced the world to the Fosbury flop during the 1968 Olympic games. He revolutionized the high jump. That must have taken some courage. Overall a great read. We also get a glimpse into the distance runners training and races. The Olympic qualifying meet at Echo City is said to be one of the best track and field meets of all time, that barely anyone witnessed.

[Leslie Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the 1968 Olympic training site at Echo Summit and some of the history of that era was interesting. But the author included so much sports data about so many athletes that he wasn't able to go into much depth on any of them. I had a difficult time remembering who was who or what each one was like. Someone who was more into the history of track and field or the Olympics or even just sports might appreciate this book more than I did.

[Neil Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustively researched and well written book. I heartily recommend!

[Kimberley]

Thank you Edelweiss+ for this advanced eGalley of "The Track in the Forest: The Creation of a Legendary 1968 US Olympic Team" by Bob Burns.

I expected more of a focus on the socio-cultural impact of fielding a team during a time when the Vietnam War, racial injustice, and the assassinations of MLK and RFK Jr. loomed large. However, what I actually received was a book filled mostly with the stats and accomplishments of the best the track and field world had to offer, at that time.

That's fine if you are a track and field fan but, for those who aren't as versed in either Olympic, or track and field history, this might be a slog of a read.

The most interesting chapters, for me, were the ones heavy on the Olympic Project for Human Rights. Those chapters offered insight into what took place, behind the scenes, to get the world to that moment when Tommie Smith and John Carlos hoisted their fists into the air.

That said, where we now see an indelible image, Burns sheds a light on all the ways in which that particular moment might have never happened.

For me, those were the parts that pushed me to keep reading--even though they were offered few and far between--but most of the time I felt like I was reading a stat guide.

I did somewhat enjoy the story behind the building of Echo Summit, and learning how the Olympics came to be held in Mexico City that year, but mostly I was disinterested because I have little (almost no) interest in the titans of the track and field world.

As a result I offer 'no rating', because I didn't think it fair to rate a book that, had I been more aware of its content, I might never have picked up at all.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember the 1960s? Heard about that decade? Track in the Forest takes the reader there.

Meticulously researched, reported and annotated, Track in the Forest tells the story of how, in months leading up to the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, U.S. track and field athletes practiced peacefully in the woods, high in the Sierras.

Right in the midst of one hell of a year.

Nineteen-hundred sixty eight. Remember? The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy? The ongoing turmoil of the Vietnam War? Street riots at the Chicago Democratic National Convention? Remember?

Camp Echo Summit was an improbable training ground carved out of a highway-maintenance parking lot and surrounding pine trees, 7,382 feet above sea level and just around a couple of bends from South Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. (The elevation was sought out in order to approximate lung-busting, thin-air conditions to be found in Mexico City.)

Ah, 1968. Also in the mix that year was Black Power-advocate Harry Edwards' call for an Olympic boycott by black athletes "to protest racial segregation and discrimination in the United States and around the world.'' That, of course, put athletes -- black and white -- on the spot. Would they or would they not sacrifice personal goals for the cause? They squabbled. Rivalries fomented. In the end they competed.

The culmination of it all was the iconic photo of 200-meter winner Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos on the victory stand-- black-gloved fists raised in solidarity with the Black Power movement.

Then came the blowback. The U.S. Olympic Committee, pressured by the International Olympic Committee, sent Smith and Carlos home to the U.S., and the story exploded in newspaper coverage.

"Overnight news reports didn't make a big deal of the protests,'' Burns writes, but when the IOC and USOC laid the hammer down the following day, press coverage turned against the sprinters. A young Chicago American columnist named Brent Musburger referred to Smith and Carlos as ''black-skinned storm troopers.'' John Hall of the Los Angeles Times called their action "a discredit to their race -- the human race.''''

Anything sound slightly familiar here? Heard of football quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the National Anthem while a member of the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 and was vilified not only in the mainstream media but also across social-media platforms? Now he's a man without a team. Collusion?

It's been 51 years since Smith and Carlos first trained in the idyllic setting of Echo Summit and then made history in competition. Since then the U.S. has had its first Afro-American President. Yet racial conflicts continue in cities and towns all over the country -- police shootings and other horrors. Twenty-eighteen -- now nineteen -- sure is a long way from 1968, eh?

Or is it?

"The Track in the Forest'' (Chicago Review Press Inc., 2019) brings up issues and questions. Readers will be rewarded with a renewed sense of social awareness, not to mention a wide-ranging body of track-and-field lore, with plenty of statistics, reflecting Burns'passion for the sport.

In 1968 Tommie Smith won the 200 meters in a world-record 19.83 seconds; the current record ( Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 2009), is 19.19. The more things change the more they remain the same, sometimes.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thirty percent of this is about the turbulent year of 1968 with shootings of famous people, riots, and the general bad treatment of certain people groups as well as talk of a potential boycott.

It eventually gets into profiles of participants in the trials and the Los Angles trials that were actually just for show.. Mentions 'roid use and shoe makers dispensing shoes and fund$.

They get to Mexico where demonstrations over poverty and then deaths occur. Events and winners mentioned as well as questionable judging. When two runners win and then perform a protest they are sent packing and the story of the games becomes them rather than anybody else and their results.

Concludes with some 'where are they now' which explains that some of the runners aspired to be football players but accomplished little other than be teachers. They eventually received some notoriety as trailblazers, but to what result? Considering current climate of division what impact are the actions of Olympic runners FIVE DECADES AGO on Americans/Earthlings?

B/W images and listing of medal winners. Received as a promotion, had no impact upon review.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t learned as many entirely new facts from a book in quite some time! This was an insightful look into the 1968 Olympic Track Trials, held on a mountaintop in Lake Tahoe, and the subsequent Olympiad in Mexico City. Set against the backdrop of the sociopolitical upheaval of 1968, we grow to know and root for almost the entire U.S. Track and Field roster, especially in the black sprinters’ brave stand against racism — which, I might add, is covered with very balanced perspectives.

As a sub-elite distance runner myself, I would have appreciated more focus on the longer events; the author focused sprints and field events, with short passages on the 5K and 10K and but two or three sentences about the marathon. Still, I appreciate any information on the early years of the sport and its iconic personalities like Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting look back at the 1968 Olympic Trials for the men's track team, and how the trials came to be held on a mountain near Lake Tahoe. Sports became inextricably linked with racial awareness, and the Olympics with politics, during this tumultuous year, and it's clear that there's no going back. The reflections of the athletes involved are integral to the book, and they're fascinating to read. Both success and failure, and their consequences, are woven together, as are the motivations and decisions by the black team members to shine a spotlight onto their situations. The focal event, from the perspective of outsiders, is the medal stand gesture by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and that event is thoroughly examined. A very worthwhile read.

[Glen House · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read and a nice history about how the years 1968 impacted the U.S. track and field team heading into the Mexico City Olympics. Bob Burns does a very nice job of chronicling the events and the athletes who competed in the trials and then the Mexico City Olympics. Special focus is put on the trials that were held at altitude in the middle of a forest on a mountain overlooking Lake Tahoe. He also does a nice job of focusing on the people and personalities that were on the team or trying to make the team. The book not only focuses on the athletic events themselves but also the political and social backdrop that influenced events. I highly recommend this book if you are a track and field fan or have interest in the Olympics or the history of the 1960s.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fascinating! It was a great overview of the amazing talent on the 1968 Men's Olympic Track and Field team, as well as the intense training and altitude training that the team underwent at Echo Summit. I enjoyed that Burns also wove in the story of racial and social rioting and protests that were happening in the world at the time, as well as on the team. This was a really interesting book and I flew through it--would definitely recommend to other sports, running, or history fans.

[Elstirling · Rating 5 out of 5]

1968, a year of Black Power, Vietnam War, and the Mexico Olympics. Very educational read.

[Keith Comfort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting story of the '68 Olympic team and how events happening shaped the team.

[JP Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing stories, but the writing and editing was a bit disjointed

[Anu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched book that touches on so many different issues - societal but also shoe companies, athlete payments etc.

[Trey Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A time when the United States found men to match its mountains.”

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bob Burns does a terrific job of presenting the tumult and violence of the late 1960s and at the same time of capturing the almost surreal tranquility of the track at Echo Summit, the high altitude training site for the 1968 Olympic men's track and field team. The social history portion of the book is good, but Burns's lasting contribution is the record of events he's created from numerous interviews with those who were there. Burns himself visited the training site as a boy, so the mist of nostalgia sometimes obscures the rougher edges of the controversial trials, but just when the narrative edges toward unrealistic serenity, a detail or event breaks the spell, reminding the reader of how the tensions of the time affected the trials. It's a well balanced account for fans of track and field and for those interested in the broader historical moment within which athletes made a bold social statement and affected conversations about race and equality. Colin Kaepernick was not the first. Long before he took a knee, other athletes raised a fist.