It was shortly before the war took place in 1939, and Jesse Owens headed to the 1936 Olympics. Jesse Cleveland Owens won four gold medals during the Olympics that year. Owens attended The Ohio State University.
He was the first ever American to win four Olympic Gold Medals in a single Olympic Games, but gained fame doing so in Berlin the center of the Nazi regime. In the picture to the left he stands on first place along side a German and a Japanese citizen. As we know now Japan and Germany became allies during the war.
"He won the 100m in 10.30 seconds, the 200m in 20.70 seconds, and then the long jump, with an impressive leap of 8.06 metres – apparently after getting some advice about his run-up from a German competitor, Luz Long. His fourth gold came in the 4x100m relay, in which Owens formed a key part of the team that set a new world record of 39.80 seconds."
Jesse Owens is often regarded as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history"
Comments