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The Peter Norman Story
Who is Peter Norman? He's the greatest Australian hero you don't know. Peter Norman is the 'forgotten man' in one of the most powerful and influential photos of all time. Peter is in the photo because he won Australia a silver medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympics after running the 200 metres in 20.06 seconds. In 2018, 50 years on, it is still the Australian record. But Peter Norman is a hero to millions today not for the race or the record, but for what he did next. Hearing of US medallists John Carlos and Tommie Smith's plans to protest against inequality on the dais, Peter pinned an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on his green and gold tracksuit and 'I'll stand with you.' That act of solidarity cost Peter Norman everything. All three men were cast into exile, their lives sent spiralling. But it secured a unique friendship - and a legend that, in its 50th anniversary, is more powerful than ever. This is the extraordinary story of the man behind the photo and a moment that changed the world. It's a strange odyssey of a working-class, Salvation Army-raised boy from Melbourne who became a global icon for equality and courage, yet who remained an enigma to even those closest to him. It's a story about taking a stand and inspiring people everywhere to stand with you. The story of a unique hero who has gone unsung for too long. The Peter Norman Story.
304 pages, Paperback
Published October 9, 2018
8 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Webster
7 books1 followerAndrew Webster is chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. He has authored several books, ghost-written some others and covered Olympics and World Cups all over the planet. Andrew appears regularly on TV and radio.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 25, 2020
This was a struggle to read. Not because the topic wasn't interesting - it most definitely was - but I found it jumped around and was at times rambling and repetitive. A shame, as I think a tighter edit would have improved this book significantly.
September 17, 2019
I found the Peter Norman story to be an interested and enlightening read. It explores the life of Peter Norman, an Australian athlete who broke Australian records and won silver at the Mexico City Olympics. However, after supporting black athletes he was shunned by much of society. Peter was not perfect and made many bad decisions (like associating with drugs and alcohol) however what he did at the Olympics is important to remember and recognise.
I had never heard Peter’s story before, so it exposed me to more Australian history.
I liked how quotations were used in the book and the colour pictures in the middle were an added bonus.
I found the chapters to be rather long, and as I am rather busy, I found it hard to finish them in one go.
Overall, I would recommend this book!
I had never heard Peter’s story before, so it exposed me to more Australian history.
I liked how quotations were used in the book and the colour pictures in the middle were an added bonus.
I found the chapters to be rather long, and as I am rather busy, I found it hard to finish them in one go.
Overall, I would recommend this book!
July 24, 2024
The life story of Peter Norman, the lesser-known silver medalist on the 200m podium next to Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. All three of them paid a heavy price for their stance against racial injustice; in Peter's case, for merely wearing a OPHR badge (Olympic Project for Human Rights). If reading about these men, I'd start with Victory. Stand! by Tommie Smith.
December 6, 2020
It's a good story; one worth telling. The intrigue around the authorities' alleged conspiracy to shun Peter Norman after 1968 doesn't materialise, possibly because it doesn't exist. There is a big difference between what one person (with a vested interest) believes and what might actually be the truth.
It's perhaps a pity that the tale was written by a sports journalist, they being often saddled with the mistaken belief that sport is important. Everything in this book is couched in those precepts.
The book goes on for at least three chapters too many. The motivation of the nephew is almost irrelevant.
Perhaps the real story is the way that elite athletes struggle to cope with anonymity after the glow of the success fades away. That was Peter Norman's problem and it's a problem shared by a great number of successful sportspeople. They are elite athletes because they hanker for popularity and publicity. When it isn't there, they have difficulty filling the void. The comparison in this book between American track and field treatment of Peter Norman and the Australian establishment's treatment of him is an odious one. These are subsets of two different cultures. We in Australia don't idolise the individual. We congratulate them, admire them, remember them, but we then let them get on with ordinary lives, like the rest of us.
The authors are guilty of dumbing down the language in this book. That is unnecessary and unfitting of the subject matter. The chronology of events is quite well done and the authors refrain from telling us what to think but it could represent a lost opportunity.
It's perhaps a pity that the tale was written by a sports journalist, they being often saddled with the mistaken belief that sport is important. Everything in this book is couched in those precepts.
The book goes on for at least three chapters too many. The motivation of the nephew is almost irrelevant.
Perhaps the real story is the way that elite athletes struggle to cope with anonymity after the glow of the success fades away. That was Peter Norman's problem and it's a problem shared by a great number of successful sportspeople. They are elite athletes because they hanker for popularity and publicity. When it isn't there, they have difficulty filling the void. The comparison in this book between American track and field treatment of Peter Norman and the Australian establishment's treatment of him is an odious one. These are subsets of two different cultures. We in Australia don't idolise the individual. We congratulate them, admire them, remember them, but we then let them get on with ordinary lives, like the rest of us.
The authors are guilty of dumbing down the language in this book. That is unnecessary and unfitting of the subject matter. The chronology of events is quite well done and the authors refrain from telling us what to think but it could represent a lost opportunity.
June 4, 2020
This is a great yarn, and the most illuminating portrayal of the biggest character in Australian track and field.
The man himself is complex. He's happy to turn heads with fanatical religious tracksuits, but could barely be a worse role model for aspiring Christians. In his own way, he is deeply moralistic, yet he hurt and betrayed the people closest to him. To other (especially younger) athletes he was a totemic role model in working hard to achieve set goals. The book explores him from all sides, and despite a leading hand by one of his closest non-estranged family members, tells his story with fine balance.
There were times when the book's non-chronological timeline made the story a little difficult to follow, especially when editing lacks (an athlete was given two different times for the same race on two adjacent pages, for instance). However, the authors got away with it because it allowed twists and turns to play out as well as any good fiction. I genuinely didn't see it coming when he walked out on his marriage, nor when his estranged wife expressed her lifelong love and admiration for Peter despite what he put her through.
Global turmoil of late has led some to compare our times with 1968 - which of course is nonsense, but there is something that is either contemporary or timeless in the story of the famous photo, and the cause Peter steadfastly supported. A must-read for any Australian athletics fan, history nut, or social justice warrior.
The man himself is complex. He's happy to turn heads with fanatical religious tracksuits, but could barely be a worse role model for aspiring Christians. In his own way, he is deeply moralistic, yet he hurt and betrayed the people closest to him. To other (especially younger) athletes he was a totemic role model in working hard to achieve set goals. The book explores him from all sides, and despite a leading hand by one of his closest non-estranged family members, tells his story with fine balance.
There were times when the book's non-chronological timeline made the story a little difficult to follow, especially when editing lacks (an athlete was given two different times for the same race on two adjacent pages, for instance). However, the authors got away with it because it allowed twists and turns to play out as well as any good fiction. I genuinely didn't see it coming when he walked out on his marriage, nor when his estranged wife expressed her lifelong love and admiration for Peter despite what he put her through.
Global turmoil of late has led some to compare our times with 1968 - which of course is nonsense, but there is something that is either contemporary or timeless in the story of the famous photo, and the cause Peter steadfastly supported. A must-read for any Australian athletics fan, history nut, or social justice warrior.
November 12, 2018
An interesting story of a complicated man who stood against inequality - and his career suffered for it - but who also failed spectacularly with his family life. What endures is the tale of the three men in this extraordinary historical event who became friends for life.
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September 2, 2019Page 52
“I’ve had many people come up to me and ask what it stands for,“ he told a reporter from the sun when asked about his “God is love“ trackie. “It gives me the opportunity to tell them what I believe in.“
Soon after, he bought another tracksuit and asked Ruth to sew a new message across the back:
JESUS SAVES.
Page 59
The Los Angeles Coliseum was a sporting cathedral. … It’s also where Peter Norman first computer against the best athlete in the world.
Page 60
America at that time was ablaze. The rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement in the United States was echoing around the world, much of it from the melodic voice of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the rhyming oratory of world champion boxer Muhammad Ali, about the securing the worsening plate of African-Americans.
In 1966, there was one athlete the whole world was talking about. Peter had heard all about Tommy Smith, a 200 m specialist from San Jose State University who could “run like the wind“ with his “Tommy jet gear“.
Page 63
His father made a deal with him. Keep winning, you can keep running. “If not, you have to go back in the field and work with the other kids.“ Running, Smith explains, was his way out. “I ran to keep from failing.
Page 79
The whole world seem to be burning in 1968. The Olympic Project for Human Rights had lost its most important patron when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, but the implications of his death reached far wider.
Page 80
Peter knew about all this. He read the newspapers. He was well informed. He also knew about the black athletes’ threat to possibly boycott the Olympics. He could not understand the prejudice or narrowmindedness. It was not how he was raised. It was not how he rolled. “I always had my views on “ racial tolerance“,“ he said. “I couldn’t see why anyone would dislike or hate someone simply because they were a different colour. It wasn’t a matter of colour. You liked someone because you liked them.“
Peter knew who Tommie Smith was, of course. After racing against each other in the one-off meet at the LA Coliseum on route to the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, they met for a second time in Australia in December 1967. The wild notion of beating Smith in Mexico helped bring Peter in from the cold: the challenge of Smith had been as fundamental to Peter being there as Neville Sillitoe.
Page 122
“I couldn’t have caught him on a Harley-Davidson,“ Peter joked afterwards.
Page 163
One of the reasons I moved away from the Army was because I was supporting a little girl in India.
“I’ve had many people come up to me and ask what it stands for,“ he told a reporter from the sun when asked about his “God is love“ trackie. “It gives me the opportunity to tell them what I believe in.“
Soon after, he bought another tracksuit and asked Ruth to sew a new message across the back:
JESUS SAVES.
Page 59
The Los Angeles Coliseum was a sporting cathedral. … It’s also where Peter Norman first computer against the best athlete in the world.
Page 60
America at that time was ablaze. The rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement in the United States was echoing around the world, much of it from the melodic voice of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the rhyming oratory of world champion boxer Muhammad Ali, about the securing the worsening plate of African-Americans.
In 1966, there was one athlete the whole world was talking about. Peter had heard all about Tommy Smith, a 200 m specialist from San Jose State University who could “run like the wind“ with his “Tommy jet gear“.
Page 63
His father made a deal with him. Keep winning, you can keep running. “If not, you have to go back in the field and work with the other kids.“ Running, Smith explains, was his way out. “I ran to keep from failing.
Page 79
The whole world seem to be burning in 1968. The Olympic Project for Human Rights had lost its most important patron when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, but the implications of his death reached far wider.
Page 80
Peter knew about all this. He read the newspapers. He was well informed. He also knew about the black athletes’ threat to possibly boycott the Olympics. He could not understand the prejudice or narrowmindedness. It was not how he was raised. It was not how he rolled. “I always had my views on “ racial tolerance“,“ he said. “I couldn’t see why anyone would dislike or hate someone simply because they were a different colour. It wasn’t a matter of colour. You liked someone because you liked them.“
Peter knew who Tommie Smith was, of course. After racing against each other in the one-off meet at the LA Coliseum on route to the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, they met for a second time in Australia in December 1967. The wild notion of beating Smith in Mexico helped bring Peter in from the cold: the challenge of Smith had been as fundamental to Peter being there as Neville Sillitoe.
Page 122
“I couldn’t have caught him on a Harley-Davidson,“ Peter joked afterwards.
Page 163
One of the reasons I moved away from the Army was because I was supporting a little girl in India.
November 9, 2019
4.5. Okay, I admittedly downloaded this because it was one of the very few audiobooks available at my library and I wanted to see how it worked. But what a surprise this book was. I'd not heard of Peter Norman before, which is what the book states. He's the hero you've probably never heard of. Upon downloading this book, the name meant nothing to me. But as I was listening and got deeper into his story, I was finding myself Googling information and watching videos, etc. I really enjoyed this book, the story of Peter Norman and learning about a lot of the history of America in the 1960's and Australia in the 1960's.
I have given it 4.5 because of the prose of the book itself. It was written by a sports commentator and Peter Norman's nephew, so non-professional authors. So sometimes it didn't flow like a book should, in my opinion.
I have given it 4.5 because of the prose of the book itself. It was written by a sports commentator and Peter Norman's nephew, so non-professional authors. So sometimes it didn't flow like a book should, in my opinion.
May 7, 2020
Finished, not because I liked the way the story was written, or the man the story was about, because I dislike not finishing books.
He did a good, brave thing in 1968. He wasn't a good person.
Story jumps all over the place. It would be better if events were told chronologically.
Didn't know anything about this man. Started to like him as a person, even though he was preachy about his religion via his tracksuit, and even though his story was poorly told. It felt enough for me to continue to read. 2/3 through he cheats on his wife abandoning his wife and 3 kids (including a 2 week old baby). I dislike him now. Took a lot to bother finishing.
Began reading this as part of Autumn book binge. It was supposed to be the biography of someone I admire. It no longer qualifies for that category.
He did a good, brave thing in 1968. He wasn't a good person.
Story jumps all over the place. It would be better if events were told chronologically.
Didn't know anything about this man. Started to like him as a person, even though he was preachy about his religion via his tracksuit, and even though his story was poorly told. It felt enough for me to continue to read. 2/3 through he cheats on his wife abandoning his wife and 3 kids (including a 2 week old baby). I dislike him now. Took a lot to bother finishing.
Began reading this as part of Autumn book binge. It was supposed to be the biography of someone I admire. It no longer qualifies for that category.
October 31, 2018
I really loved this book. I'm a huge fan of Webster's. He toed the perfect line of not making this flawed bloke to be a hero, but celebrating what was amazing about his athletics career and actions in Mexico City.
An easy, emotional and powerful page turner, for anyone with a passing interest in Athletics, social justice or good Aussie yarns in general.
An easy, emotional and powerful page turner, for anyone with a passing interest in Athletics, social justice or good Aussie yarns in general.
March 9, 2019
Just an amazing story - this book really delves into all the little details that led to this iconic moment in sports history as well as the aftermath afterwards. I would highly recommend for fans of any sports!
January 10, 2025
The first half of this book is interesting.
The second half might also have been interesting but is so badly written.
Possibly the first half is also badly written but it’s interesting enough.
It’s a shame because it should be a most interesting story!
The second half might also have been interesting but is so badly written.
Possibly the first half is also badly written but it’s interesting enough.
It’s a shame because it should be a most interesting story!
July 27, 2019
Unsung Aussie hero
September 18, 2020
A well researched insight into one of the most important moment's in our sporting history.
April 4, 2021
Overall I enjoyed this book but I found there to be a lack of editing as I was reading. I often had to read over some sentences in the book to try and make sense of it. Rip to a real 1.
August 8, 2021
A crucial part of Australia's sporting history, told with great insight.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews