The debate started by Six about Dwayne Chambers return from a drug ban and whether or not he should be allowed to compete now the ban is served took me back nearly forty years to when I was eight years old. At the Primary School I attended we were allowed to watch the 1968 Olympic Games from Mexico City during our lunch break, two years later we would be allowed to watch the World Cup as well. My two memories from such an early age were of Lillian Board just losing out to Colette Besson of France in the 400 metres final (the difference was 1/10th of a second) and Tommy Smith and John Carlos giving the black power salute after the 200 metres final.

Tommy Smith was born on June 6th, 1944 in Clarksville, Texas. As a young child, the future Olympic 200m champion, survived a serious bout of pneumonia. Joining San Jose State University, Smith started to make an impact in athletics. He was selected for the American team for the 1968 Mexico Olympic games - competing in the 200 meters. Smith was one of the favourites for this event. While at San Jose University, he had become friends with Harry Edwards, a member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). This had tried to organise a boycott of the games but many athletes did not support this.

Smith won the 200 meters final and equaled the world record time of 19.8 seconds - a time few athletes have bettered now in an era of professional athletics. As both men climbed the medals podium, it became clear that they were wearing one black glove; Smith on his right hand, Carlos on his left. Smith later stated that his right handed demonstration was meant to represent Black Power in America. The left hand demo of Carlos was meant to represent unity in Black America. The archway that their raised arms created was meant to represent black power and unity in America. The black socks that both wore (and no shoes) represented black poverty in America. Both men also wore beads at the ceremony.

I know detractors will say that Smith's time was set at altitude but only Shawn Crawford's winning time of 19.79s at the 2004 Olympics was faster than Smith's out of the 57 athletes who took part in the event. Both Smith and Carlos were expelled from the games and returned to America. Carlos himself had set a World Record in the Olympic Trials in 1968 but the record was not allowed to stand because the spike formation on the running shoes Carlos was wearing had not been ratified by the athletics authorities at the time.

John Carlos said after the protest: "We wanted the world to know that in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Central Los Angeles, Chicago, that people were still walking back and forth in poverty without even the necessary clothes to live. The beads were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage. We were trying to wake the country up and wake the world up to."

To many in the civil rights movement they were heroes - others saw both men as unpatriotic troublemakers who had brought shame on the American nation for tarnishing the Olympic Games. John Carlos claims that both men received huge support from the less well-off African-Americans but that black business leaders and black political groups were less than supportive. One of the great ironies of their ban was that the silver medalist who was Australia's Peter Norman is actually wearing the badge of the OPHR but this was not noticed at the time and so unlike the two black athletes Norman did not receive a ban and was able to keep his medal.

However, what they had done was to internationalise the civil rights issue in America in what was voted the sixth most memorable television image of the Twentieth Century. I remember Smith appearing on the BBC's Nationwide programme during the mid seventies, serving a life ban from athletics events he had played American Football for the Cincinatti Bengals for three years and had come to England in the close season to coach Rugby League.

In 1978, Smith was made a member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. He was a coach for the 1995 US World Indoor Athletics Championships team in Barcelona. Smith currently works at Santa Monica College and is head of the Men's Cross-Country and Track and Field Coach.