News — Olympian

Tommie Smith, one of the Olympic Gold medalists who raised a black-gloved fist at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City, in what has become known as the “Black Power” salute, is being honored on a limited edition of ‘The breakfast for Champions’, Wheaties.

The silent protestor, whose bold statement on racial inequality in America and a pioneer athlete activist is now a part of the many athletes that the General Mills brand has paid tribute to in the last 86 years.

Photos of Smith will be put on the limited-edition of the cereal box which will sell online at $5 and all proceeds will go to the NAACP, the nation’s long-time advocate of civil rights for Black Americans. Advance sales which opened last Friday are ongoing with shipments expected to be made in April.

Smith appears on both sides of the box. One side showing the iconic fist raised and the other showing the gold medalist in full sprint.

“As a world champion, I always wanted to be on a Wheaties box,” the 76-year-old Smith said in a statement released by the retail food giant. “To now be recognized by Wheaties and selected to grace the cover of their box, in the class with other great champion athletes, is an honor.”

On the morning of October 16, Smith won the 200m race, setting a world record of 19.83 seconds. Australia’s Peter Norman came in second, with American John Carlos coming in at third. As a custom, the three athletes went to the podium to accept their medals.

Smith and Carlos did not wear shoes on the podium. Instead, they wore black socks to represent Black poverty. Smith also wore a black scarf to highlight Black pride.

“While Tommie was a world champion runner, his work as one of the original activist athletes laid the foundation for champions to use their platform and stand for something extraordinary,” Wheaties executive Taylor Gessell said in a statement released by General Mills.

The photo of the iconic, black-gloved protest was taken by John Dominis, and still resonates heavily to this day. Smith said that the raised fists were not a Black Power gesture but a “Human Rights” salute.

The acts cost them a whole lot. They were met with abuse and death threats for their brave action and they were subsequently dismissed from the team.

Fast forward to 2005, the pair were honored with a 22-foot statue of one of the most iconic moments in black history in the United States. It was unveiled at San Jose State.

Then 51 years after receiving their medals from the podium in a silent protest, the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2019 inducted the duo into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame on November 1 that year for their “character, conduct and off-field contributions,” according to USA TODAY.

For 12 years, Lauryn Williams had seen it all in the field of sports. She became the first African-American to win gold in the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and silver medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2007 World Championships, and 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships.

As an athlete, Williams earned more than she was spending and didn’t pay attention to building a sound savings culture. When she ended her career in sports, and with a degree in finance from the University of Miami, she transitioned into entrepreneurship. She launched Worth Winning in March of 2016, a year after retiring, to help others achieve their financial goals.

Her company offers virtual services to help young professionals get the answers to the financial questions that matter most to them.

“This quest for my own money knowledge is what eventually led me down the path of becoming a certified financial planner,” she said. “While learning how to handle my own money, it became so important to me to help others, especially young professionals, do the same thing.”

Williams had been moved to become a financial planner after many of the financial planners she had while a professional athlete failed her. She then started to self-educate and told people she wanted to help them organize their finances while she tried to do that for herself.

Williams subsequently enrolled in the Certified Financial Planner program and then in a National Association of Personal Financial Advisors program before becoming an intern at an advisory firm.

When she finally started her company, her passion clouded her judgment when it came to spending. The Olympian said she could buy all the latest software without clients to support the tools she was using or pay to get in front of an audience of athletes that yielded zero clients.

She changed course and started implementing a budget for both her business and personal finances, and that became one of the best decisions she could have made. “I was not great at it initially,” she said. “It took time to understand how to best categorize my expenses and track my purchases.”

Maintaining a budget now became the foundation of Williams’ decision-making process and helped her see in real-time how her company was growing to its full potential. Just like her days as an athlete, she wanted to be the gold medalist in financial planning.

“I thought it would automatically happen overnight,” she said. “The truth was I had to retrain my brain. I had to learn, in this new career, how to set realistic goals for myself and define what success meant for me now, and not spend time comparing myself to others.”

In her track and field days, Williams was responsible for her successes and failures. It is a completely different ball game when it comes to managing finances or a business. And so she found herself some mentors to share what works and what doesn’t work for the growth of her company.

“Today, I belong to a networking mastermind group of eight other financial planners who run a similar business. I have two wonderful industry mentors who have been at this for a long time, and I talk with them regularly about my goals for the company,” she said.

As a startup, small wins matter, she said. Her first real small win came when a couple she had never met before decided to work with her, she said. Four years later, they are still her clients. For her, being able to retain her original customers shows her company is doing something right.

“Even if you’re an expert in your industry, there are things that you don’t know when you’re starting to run your own business. So as you retrain your brain and throw out old assumptions about success, give yourself a break if things don’t go perfectly. And celebrate the wins as they come.”

Jamaican Olympian Michael Frater has opened a medical marijuana dispensary – 4/20 Sports Therapeutic Bliss – in Kingston, Jamaica, to treat career-threatening inquires, the Jamaican Observer reports.

The building of the therapeutic facility was influenced by the athlete’s persistent problems with his knees which forced him to retire five years ago. According to the 38-year-old, doctors could not find a solution to his bad knee after visits to The University Hospital of the West Indies and a hospital in France.

He, therefore, resorted to cannabis treatment which helped him to recover from his knee injury. “I tried it and within a month I was feeling brand new. I started studying about it and I realized that this drug which has been a taboo for most of my life is a miracle drug,” said Frater.

“It’s really a drug that once taken properly with the proper prescription, the medicinal purposes are exponential,” he added.

Frater’s effort has earned applause from Jamaica’s minister of sports, Olivia Grange, who attended the opening of his marijuana dispensary. She used the occasion to urge Jamaican athletes to get involved in business on the island.

“What is important about what you are doing is that you are not just an athlete who at the end of your active career, sit down, fold your arms and wait for something to happen, you have set an excellent example for others to follow,” said Grange.

“I always knew that you were special. There was a group of you during your era of active running that I considered special athletes,” she added, highlighting Usain Bolt’s business ventures.

For more than a decade, Frater represented Jamaica in the field of athletes. The sprinter was a member of the world record-setting 4×100 metres relay team from the 2012 London Olympics.

Marijuana is still a controversial drug even though many claim that it has helped them cope with various diseases and situations. For many years now, such people have been pushing for its legalization. And as more and more states, particularly in America, pass laws allowing the sale of marijuana in some form, entrepreneurs, including celebrities, are flocking into the industry to make some cash.