Vince Matthews

Vince Matthews 2011

Vince Matthews (actually Vincent Edward Matthews ; born December 16, 1947 in New York City ) is a retired American athlete and Olympic champion .

Matthews was one of the strongest runners over 400 meters in the 1960s and early 1970s and was in an ongoing rivalry with eventual Olympic champion Lee Evans . These two met as teens, dueling each other in the AAU championships and in the Pan American Games in 1967 . During a preparatory training two weeks before the 1968 Olympic Trials, Matthews set a new world record over 400 meters with 44.4 s, which was not recognized, however, because he used brush shoes from the sporting goods manufacturer Puma with unauthorized spikes. In the actual Olympic qualification, he was beaten by three runners, Lee Evans, Larry James and Ron Freeman .

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City , he won the gold medal in the 4 x 400 meter relay together with his teammates Ron Freeman, Larry James and Lee Evans in front of the teams from Kenya (silver) and Germany (bronze). The relay world record of 2: 56.1 minutes set by these four runners was not beaten until 1992. After Mexico, Matthews gave up athletics, got married, and went to work. But somehow his path led him back to the sport, and in the US trials he finished third over 400 meters.

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich he was in top form and won the gold medal in front of the other American Wayne Collett (silver) and the Kenyan Julius Sang (bronze). At the awards ceremony and the playing of the US national anthem, Matthews and Collett talked and smirked, standing on the top step of the winners podium together. Many viewers, who had applauded Matthews after his run, whistled because of what they saw as disrespectful and unworthy behavior. Since Collett had raised his right fist when leaving the stadium and the colored supporters in the stands had reciprocated this gesture, it was assumed that both athletes wanted to demonstrate for Black Power , as did Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968 , who thereby against the discrimination of the African American population protested. Matthews and Collett denied this intention and Matthews explained his behavior with pent-up rebellion against endured injustices, since as an Olympic champion in Mexico he had to fight to get back into the American Olympic team and an athletics magazine back home put him in sixth place in an Olympic forecast Ranked place. Both athletes were banned from any further participation in the Olympic Games by the IOC . This meant that the US team no longer had enough runners to participate in the 4 x 400 meter relay and had to withdraw the relay. Both Matthews and Collett later admitted that they did demonstrate for the rights of black Americans.

literature

• Bill Mallon & Ian Buchanan: Quest for Gold. Leisure Press, New York City 1984, ISBN 0-88011-217-4

Web links

• Vince Matthews in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Protest on the winners podium? , Column "Auditor reports", evening newspaper of September 8, 1972, page 5, viewed on June 21, 2017