Lewis glad that Matthews and Collett have justice 50 years on

It was an endeavour that ultimately he had to take on alone. But for Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) secretary general, Brian Lewis, the lifting of the lifetime bans of 1972 Olympic 400-metres champion Vince Matthews and his American compatriot, silver medallist Wayne Collett, was a fight worth pursuing to right a wrong spanning half a century.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the ruling earlier this month, allowing Matthews, who is now 75, to attend future Olympics. Collett passed away in 2010.

Matthews and Collett were exiled from the Games by then IOC president Avery Brundage after their medal-winning performances at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, following their racial injustice protest during the playing of the American National Anthem. It came four years after former Olympic 200-metre champion, Tommie Smith, and bronze medalist John Carlos raised their fist to protest racism and injustice at the 1968 Mexico City Games.

The ruling brought to a close two years of lobbying by Lewis who was then CANOC’s president and president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee. He said that it was difficult operating in an environment where there was hesitancy and against the backdrop of the IOC’s position in 2020 not to rewrite history regarding Brundage’s legacy which had anti-Semitic and racial attitudes.

“Given that would have been the general feel, I don’t think many people wanted to associate themselves with an effort that they may have perceived would not have made the establishment and the IOC hierarchy happy,” Lewis told The Gleaner. “It is well established in the Caribbean that there was no public support, but there was private criticism that some people felt it was necessary and unfavourable and unhelpful attention to the Caribbean and the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee.

PERSISTENCE

Lewis got support from current North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) president, Mike Sands, last September, about the issue, but no progress was made from the Pan American Sports Organisation when Lewis brought up the matter on several occasions. Despite that Lewis said that his continued persistence was because of the athletes and the need for the Caribbean to champion the cause for what Matthews and Collett have sacrificed.

“That is the reality but I persisted because of the athletes themselves and I felt it was an important issue of racial injustice within the Olympic movement. I felt it was also important as I was representing not only Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, but CANOC. It was an important initiative in the context of the Caribbean because over the history in the battle of social justice and civil rights, the Caribbean has always led,” Lewis said. “These athletes were banned, ostracised. They had their Olympic careers destroyed. In those days we didn’t have any Court of Arbitration for Sport and no recourse. It is manifestly unfair and unjust and it speaks to the reality of the world we live in.”

Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter was a part of Brundage’s legacy banning athletes from engaging in protest. It was enacted after Smith and Carlos’s actions. While crediting the IOC’s executive for the move, Lewis hopes that it will allow other instances of injustice to be corrected.

“This was a 50-year racial injustice that the Olympic movement was prepared to continue to sweep under the carpet and not have to address,” Lewis said. “Even though it may have come a little too late for Matthews because understandably he is not engaged with the Olympic movement and I don’t blame him, it goes beyond all of us. Where there are things that are slow, but wrong and unjust a way must be found to address them.”

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com