Black American female Olympic Athletes have not reaped the same social standing and economic benefits that their counterparts have since the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City

Abstract

This paper presents an abbreviated version of an ‘elite’ interview conducted with Madeline Manning-Mims. The 1968 Olympic protest was a pivotal moment in Olympic and American sports history. At the forefront of the protest was the pre-eminent sport sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards. Edwards’ leadership catalyzed the African American boycott of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, however, Black female athletes were either silenced or recused themselves from the protest. A series of semi-structured, retrospective interview questions were posed to Manning-Mims to gather her perspectives on the progress that Black American, women Olympic athletes have made in the USA from 1968 to present. Analysis of the ‘expert’ interview with Mims indicated that: 1) the social conditions in the United States that have plagued Black female athletes in 1968 had changed for the better; 2) on the whole Black U.S. athletes in the second millennium have become “commoditized” after the Olympics and gain substantially from their celebrity; and 3) Black female athletes can become enslaved to the economics of their celebrity if they are not careful.