Muhammad Ali’s story of throwing his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River is one of the most legendary stories in boxing history. In 1960, Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics. At the time Ali was only 18, a brash and confident young fighter from Louisville, Kentucky. That medal meant everything to him. It was his proof to the world and to himself that he was the best. But the pride he felt didn’t last as long as you might think.

Ali returned to the United States as an Olympic champion, expecting to be treated as a hero. But despite his achievements, he faced the harsh reality of racism. The young fighter was still a Black man in a segregated America, and that medal couldn’t shield him from the prejudice he encountered. He often told a story about a specific incident that drove home this painful truth. One day, he went to a diner in Louisville with his gold medal around his neck, hoping to get a meal. But the staff refused to serve him because of his race, as the restaurant was “whites-only.” Ali was furious and heartbroken. Here he was, a national champion, a proud American who’d represented his country on the world stage, but none of that mattered. He was still being treated as less than equal.

The story goes that at this moment Ali decided the medal wasn’t worth what he thought it was. In his frustration, he went to the nearby Ohio River and tossed it in. It was an act of defiance, a way of saying that he didn’t need a piece of metal to define him or to measure his worth. To Ali, the medal had lost its meaning because the respect it symbolized didn’t match the reality he was living.

Muhammad Ali was more than just a fighter. He was somebody who stood for what he believed in, even if it meant sacrificing what he had to prove a point. Legend.