Sporting Ideals: Lakeside or Lausanne?
Often encountered in the iconic photo of the medal ceremony, the Salute is the most celebrated images of human rights activism in the Olympic context. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, John Carlos and Tommie Smith engaged in a remarkably powerful protests against racial discrimination, and for human rights. Australian athlete Peter Norman, the silver medalist, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, and fully supported the protest and the sentiment. All three faced bitter recrimination and punitive response. Norman, the athlete here, remains the Australian record holder in the 200m event - his performance from that 1968 remains the best ever by an Australian. Yet he was never selected again for an Australian Olympic team, despite running performances that clearly warranted his inclusion future Olympic teams. It was only five decades later that he received an official apology from the Australian parliament, and subsequently, the Victorian government, of Norman's home state of Victoria, supported the commissioning of the statue here. It is situated near the state's premier athlete facility, Lakeside Stadium - and is around where the 200m start is placed just inside the fence.
Right: Gaussian Splat reconstruction of Peter Norman 1968 sculpture and its attached educational materials.
Memorializing Sporting Conduct: Landy & Clarke, Olympic Park, 1956
Somewhat distant from the assembly of individuated sporting heroes in the MCG - Olympic Precinct, located next to Olympic Park memorial to sportsmanship, or rather, the virtues that are typically held as 'sporting' - a kind of central pillar of the modern Olympic movement's official lexicon, and to some degree, so naturalized that I think they are learnt osmotically - from when very young.
The memorial represents the moment when John Landy, assisted a fallen competitor, Ron Clarke, in a race. Landy was Olympic bronze medallist at the 1956 Games, and world record holder at the mile just behind Roger Bannister in breaking that 4 minute barrier. Clarke would go on to many world records in his own career, a bronze medal in the 1964 Tokyo Games, and a deeply courageous race in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
The monument is situated just outside the site where the event occurred, Olympic Park, Melbourne. This was the home of track and field in Victoria until 2010, when it was supplanted by a new training venue.
The memorial represents the moment when John Landy, assisted a fallen competitor, Ron Clarke, in a race. Landy was Olympic bronze medallist at the 1956 Games, and world record holder at the mile just behind Roger Bannister in breaking that 4 minute barrier. Clarke would go on to many world records in his own career, a bronze medal in the 1964 Tokyo Games, and a deeply courageous race in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
The monument is situated just outside the site where the event occurred, Olympic Park, Melbourne. This was the home of track and field in Victoria until 2010, when it was supplanted by a new training venue.
Gaussian Splat captured in the early evening, as athletes assembled to train at the rebuilt facility that now sits on the original Olympic Park site. Source imagery captured with Xperia 1 II, processed in Jawset PostShot.
Berwick: Flack, Louis, and 1896
Louis joined his rival, Flack in October 2013, at the initiative of the Greek-Australian community. Their scales are the same, and each has equal prominence - and implicitly, esteem. Separated by approximately fifteen metres, the intervening space holds colourful seating, and umbrellas resilient to sun and rain. On the day of capturing the space, friends met and talked happily, workers rested, older citizens paused to gather strength. School children began to wander through as their day concluded.
The ways in which grand ideals and high abstractions are translated into the most everyday environs. A striking example is the dual memorial to Edwin Flack and Spyros Louis, located in Berwick, in the median park of the main commercial and civic avenue of the district. Its location - Berwick - is on the edge of the urbanised area, with horse facilities, and abundant green space. The installation very effectively draws history, and a particularized vision of the ethos of the Olympics, into the community. Proximate to the Olympic statues is a small cubic educational plaque on the origins of Berwick.