IOC lifts ban on sprinter Vince Matthews for racial injustice protest 50 years ago

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Lewis glad that Matthews and Collett have justice 50 years on

It was an endeavour that ultimately he had to take on alone. But for Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) secretary general, Brian Lewis, the lifting of the lifetime bans of 1972 Olympic 400-metres champion Vince Matthews and his American compatriot, silver medallist Wayne Collett, was a fight worth pursuing to right a wrong spanning half a century.

Matthews and Collett were exiled from the Games by then IOC president Avery Brundage after their medal-winning performances at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, following their racial injustice protest during the playing of the American National Anthem.