Olympic games 1968

Olympic Games 1968

On October 1968 Olympic Games were held in Mexico, this games were the first games hosted by a developing country and the only ever held in Latin-America, it was also thefirst games hosted by Spanish-speaking country and the second to be hosted outside Europe, Australia or the United States of America.
On this Olympic games hosted by Mexico City participated 112 nationswith 5,530 athletes 4,750 were men and 780 women, the opening ceremony was on October 12 and the closing ceremony on October 27 in the Estadio Olímpico Universitario, it was officially opened by thepresident of Mexico Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, the athlete`s oath was pronounced by Pablo Garrido and the Olympic torch was turned on by Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo. The nation with more medals wasUnited States with 107, followed by Soviet Union with 91, next Hungary with 32, Japan with 25 and East Germany with 25, Mexico was on the fifteenth place with 9 medals.
In this Olympic games weresome controversies, one of them was the Tlatelolco massacre, this massacre happened 10 days before the event, some students and civilians went to Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco to protestpeacefully against the government but there was a confusion between Mexican army and the members of a security group called Batallón Olimpia, this security group opened fire against military and civilianpeople, the army responds shooting people to restore order. The Mexican government reported that this day 20 to 28 people had been killed, hundreds were injured and hundreds were arrested. The othercontroversy was Black Power salute against racism, some athletes took their places in the podium wearing black socks with out shoes and civil rights badges, some African-American athletes when theywere in the podium they rise their right wielded hand to represent the fight against racism.
Even tough the controversies the Olympic Games in Mexico were celebrated in that date and it was one of...