Muhammad Ali: The Olympic champ who threw his medal into river after racist humiliation

Phoenix (US), June 4: Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) became the fourth American to win a gold medal in light heavyweight boxing in Olympics in Rome in 1960. The boxer, who died on Saturday (June 3), was just 18-year-old then. [Muhammad Ali dies at 74]

On his return to the US, Clay was refused service at a small dinner party because of his race. He was so infuriarated that he had walked out of the dinner and thrown his medal (which he wore all the time) off a bridge into the Ohio River. The hurt boxer said he did not want to wear a medal in a country where he couldn't be served. [Muhammad Ali was the greatest]

Incidentally, 2016 is also an Olympic year. Will the Olympic organisers think of dedicating a medal to Ali's name from this edition onward to commemorate the champion sportsperson?

Oneindia News