Virgin Islands viewers may have been surprised to see local attorney/businessman Paul Hoffman on the HBO Sports documentary "Fists of Freedom" which has been playing over the past several weeks. They shouldn't have been.
Hoffman was not only the first Virgin Islander to win a gold medal at the Pan Am games (in Winnipeg in 1967), but the two-time Olympian was also the first V.I. resident to win a medal at the Olympics.
The coxswain of the eight-oared crew, Hoffman won a silver medal in Munich in 1972. His crews also won three national championships and a silver medal in the European Championships, as well as several other international regattas. Hoffman went on to coach boats that competed in two World Championships.
The HBO special focused on the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and the Olympic Project for Human Rights. The image of Tommie Smith's and John Carlos' raised fists during the awards ceremony for the 200-meter race remains the lasting image of the Mexico games. It also resonates as the most powerful symbol of the athletes' — especially African-American athletes — demand for equality and justice.
Hoffman and his Harvard crew members were among a handful of white athletes who actively supported the Olympic Project for Human Rights and its efforts to demonstrate the inequalities that existed in sports and American society at large.
For these actions, they were ostracized and harassed by the U.S. Olympic Committee, which even demanded that Hoffman appear for a hearing to determine whether his participation in the Olympic Project was cause for him to be prevented from competing in the finals at Mexico.
Contacted by St. Thomas Source, Hoffman recalled the extraordinary tension at the Games in Mexico City. "Certainly Tommie Smith and John Carlos were brave — and tremendously important in pushing forward the cause of freedom and equality. They provided an abiding symbol of the struggle of Black athletes. My oarsmen and I only did what we thought was right. We are proud we took a stand."
Editors' note: HBO could not be reached for information on when the special will run again.