Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics »

Richard Hoffer has been a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for 25 years. He has written two books: A Savage Business: The Comeback and Comedown of Mike Tyson (Simon & Schuster, 1998), and Jackpot Nation (Harper, 2007). He lives in Santa Barbara, California with his wife and sons.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Richard Hoffer records the unforgettable athletic achievements of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team in Mexico City.

The New York Times - Gordon Marino

On Oct. 16, [Tommie] Smith won the gold and [John] Carlos the bronze in the 200-meter race. There they stood on the podium, heads hanging almost humbly and gloved fists raised in a defiant black power salute. Something in the Air, Richard Hoffer's skillfully told tale of the Mexico City Olympics, revolves around this arresting image…There were many other dramas played out in Mexico City—involving George Foreman, the long jumper Bob Beamon and the high jumper Dick Fosbury, among others—and Hoffer gracefully brings them all into the same arena. More important, his jaunty but disciplined prose puts the wind at the reader's back and shows us how the leaps, lifts and dashes of 1968 made a significant impact on the civil rights movement and raised the political consciousness of athletes.