One of the most historically recognized athlete protests occurred in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games when U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist to call attention to racial injustice in their home country. Perhaps less known is the involvement of the third person on the podium: white Australian Peter Norman. Informed by framing theory, memory studies, and emerging literature on allyship, this thematic analysis explores 143 news stories from six newspapers in the United States and Australia between 1968 and 2006 to consider how journalists framed white allyship over time to contextualize Norman, the protest, and implications for the contemporary reemergence of athlete activism. Four themes were identified related to Norman: athletic ability, allyship, mateship, and cautionary tale. Journalistic frame building constructed the notion of white allyship through Norman, which transformed his agentic role in the protest over time and illustrates an active and instrumental role of journalists in shaping this narrative. Leaning on framing theory to consider the movement of news language surrounding Norman, recognizes that frames construct a boundary around a story to give it focus. By centering historical attention on allyship and mateship in this singular moment, journalists revitalized and framed the cultural resonance of what it means for white athletes to support Black athlete activism.
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