On October 23rd, 1968 in Mexico City, George Foreman, a 19-year-old heavyweight boxer and by his own admission a troubled youth, scored a second-round TKO victory in the gold medal match against the Soviet Union’s Ionas Chepulis.
During the same Olympics in which track stars Tommy Smith and John Carlos held up their black-gloved fists on the medal stand to signify the black power salute, Foreman, after his final bout, waved a small American flag and bowed to the cheering audience.
The victory made Foreman famous, and he went on to become a great professional heavyweight champion, who later came out of years of retirement to win the heavyweight title at the age of 45.