Tonie Campbell, a San Diego resident and an Olympic track-and-field legend, discusses the events of the XIXth Olympics, his own Olympic journey, and the continued history of sports activism.
Interview by Danielle Mages Amato and Sonia Desai
When these events happened in 1968, how did you hear about them for the first time?
I was eight years old when all this happened, but that moment was a huge event. Back in the 1960s, you had one TV in the household and everybody gathered around it. If you really look back on what was going on in that decade, the 1960s, you put it in context, and 50 years later it totally makes sense what they did. You’re talking about the assassinations, the political unrest, the Vietnam War. But then on the other side, you had an explosion of culture and music and things like that.
One of the most memorable things in my life was also one of the most terrifying moments in my life: as a five year old, seeing the Watts Riots and seeing Watts burning. So at an early age, five years old, I was exposed to racism and political unrest and protest. And these kinds of things were discussed in my family, in my household.
What about your own history with the intersection of sports and political protest? You would have competed in the 1980 Olympics if the U.S. hadn’t boycotted it.
Well, when I made my first Olympic team, the 1980 team, I was 19 years old. I was the fourth-youngest track-and-field athlete on the team, I was very immature and not very worldly. But at the end of 110 meters of a brick-colored tartan track, I grew up in a moment, in an instant, because I realized, right then and there, that if you put “U.S.A.” across your chest, that politics and sports are distinctly intertwined.
I had an interview the night before the finals, and they asked me, “How do you feel about the boycott?” And I was like, “I support my president. If sacrificing my going to the Olympics will save one life, then it is well worth it.” Of course, I’m saying that from a 19-year-old’s perspective thinking I’m not going to make the Olympic team. So that’s why I say, in that moment when I crossed the finish line, the reality set in that “Oh my God, I’m on the Olympic team.” And I’m not going to be able to go. It was very hard to see that taken away from me at a young age. But at that moment, I realized that sports and politics are intimately entwined with each other, and they always will be.
(From left) Qualifying hurdlers Tonie Campbell, Greg Foster, Roger Kingdom, and Milan Stewart at the 1984 Olympic trials in Los Angeles, California
What do you think has changed for athletes in terms of sports and politics since 1968?
Not much, not much. They still are censored in terms of what they can and cannot say. There’s still a fight about an athlete’s right to free speech and right to protest. And, when there is a big event coming they warn athletes about political protest because, as we know, there is constant political upheaval around the world, and we as a society are getting more vocal. The advent of Twitter and Instagram and things like that is making the world much smaller, and we can see what is happening to our brothers across the sea and here at home. So athletes are becoming more aware. They are seeing that they have a platform and that they have a voice and that they can reach more people.
So now that you’re Coach Campbell and you’re responsible for the coming up of young athletes, do you see them as a more political generation?
I do. And I also think that they, the younger athletes, think this is the first time this has ever happened in history. And we just go, “No, let me give you some background of somebody that this has happened to and how they resolved it.”
For the athletes you are coaching now, the younger generation, do they look up to Tommie and John? Do they see them as inspirational?
Those who are politically minded, yes. Unfortunately with the majority of them, I have a picture of them right over my door, and they don’t know who they are. They go, “I think I’ve seen that picture before,” and I tell them to sit down, and that’s when I give them a history lesson. Especially my athletes of color, I want them to understand they are fortunate because these opportunities they’re asking for didn’t exist years ago. And that’s one of the reasons I have all these pictures in my office, of all the sports, because it’s not just about track and field. The kids need to realize the road was laid by many people before them through the sacrifices they made.
Tonie Campbell (far left) finishes third in the 110-meter hurdles final at the 1988 Olympics.Tonie Campbell was born in Los Angeles and began running track in the 10th grade. Among his many accomplishments, he later competed in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and then in the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, where he won the bronze medal in the 110-meter hurdles. He now resides in San Diego and is a sports consultant, motivational speaker, and head track-and-field coach at Southwestern Community College in Chula Vista.
