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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3100444, member: 289"] John Thomas was a heavy favorite to win the high jump in the 1960 Olympics. He finished third and, at the height of the cold war, a Russian won the event for the first time ever. It probably didn't help that Thomas was a black athlete, for whom white audiences of the time would likely root for only if he was competing against a Russian. He was very unpopular when he got back to the states. His response: "That was the first time I learned people didn't like me. They only like winners. They don't give credit to a man for trying. I was called a quitter, a man with no heart. it left me sick. American spectators are frustrated athletes. In the champion, they see what they'd like to be. In the loser, they see what they actually are and they treat him with scorn." [/QUOTE]