1968 ROUNDTABLE
- Jack Felling / NBC Sports Network
Half a century since the Olympic Games in Mexico City, NBC Sports brings viewers back to one of the most transformative years in modern history. America was never the same after 1968. It was the deadliest year of the Vietnam War. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated. Decades of racial injustice came to a reckoning in the form of the civil rights movement. Meanwhile, conflict raged around the world. Soviet troops crushed the Prague Spring. In Mexico City, just 10 days before Opening Ceremony, government troops opened fire on students protesting The Games. In the midst of that global turmoil, The Olympics came to Mexico City. While many viewers watching at home wished for The Olympics to provide an escape from the harsh realities of a tumultuous year, The Games instead shined a light on those conflicts. Like never before, athletes used their platform to call attention to the struggles they faced at home. The silent protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos became one of the enduring images of the twentieth century. Narrated by four-time Olympic gold medalist and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams, 1968 Roundtable tells the story of a year, and an Olympics, that changed the Games forever.