So You Think You Know: Jesse Owens.

History will recall that American Jesse Owens claimed four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics but there is so much more to it than simple hardware. For some, his deeds transcend simple track and field – his achievements are heralded as good triumphing over the forces of evil. For others, a powerful political statement and the embodiment of a nation - the young black American vanquishing the so called master race’s best – a result that would be repeated on a much bloodier scale less than a decade later. For still others, Owen's is the classic underdog story – one man succeeding against all the odds.

So you think you know Jesse Owens?

James Cleveland Owens was born on the 12th of September 1912 in Oakville Alabama, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of a slave. At the age of nine the Owen family moved to Cleveland, Ohio in search of prosperity. James enrolled in a public school and on his first day of class when the teacher asked his name, she heard Jesse, instead of James Cleveland due to his southern drawl.

He would be called Jesse from that point forward.

It was Coach Charlie Riley who first noticed Jesse’s remarkable talent when the students were timed over 60 yards in gym class. Coach Riley immediately invited Owens to join the school track team but due to work commitments Owens was unable to train after school so had to practice in the mornings instead. During high school Owens (nicknamed the Buckeye Bullet) first equalled the 100 yards (91.4m) world record of 9.4 seconds. He went on to equal it again at the interscholastic championships in Chicago where he also jumped 24 feet 9 5/8 inches (7.55m). Jesse was very much in demand by universities all over the United States but eventually he elected to study at Ohio State. However, in a country where racial segregation was common place and racism a fact of life for black people, Owens was forced to live off campus with other African Americans whilst continuing to fund his education and track activities with a succession of part time jobs – since he was black he was not eligible for a scholarship. In addition when he travelled to track meets he would have to stay at black only hotels and was not allowed to eat with his white peers.

But on the track things were different.

In 1935 at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on the 25th of May Owens shrugged off a back injury – the result of falling down a flight of stairs earlier that week to win the 100 yards in 9.4 seconds, once again tying the world record. Just 15 minutes later Owens took the long jump title with a new world record of 26 feet 8 1/4 inches (8.13m) beating the old record by 6 inches. That was followed by the 220 yards (201.17m) gold in a world record time of 20.3 seconds, shaving 3 tenths off of the old mark. Owens final event of the day was the 220 yard low hurdles which produced the same result – gold for Owens in a new world record time of 22.6 seconds – beating the old record by 4 tenths. As the sun set Jesse Owens had accomplished a feat never before or since equalled – he had set 3 world records and tied a fourth in a single day. Few if any now doubted Owens greatness and status as a living legend in track and field. As his sophomore year ended Jesse decided to enter the Berlin Olympic Games, better known today as the ‘Hitler games’.

It was common knowledge that Germany’s Nazi dictator sought to use the games to publicise his Aryan race – displaying them as the super humans he believed them to be. Germany did top the medal count at the games but Owens was the star with his individual wins in the 100m (10.3s), 200m (20.7s) and long jump (8.05m), all in Olympic records as well as helping the 4x100m relay team to the gold medal in a world record time of 39.8 seconds, “It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized: I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere -- one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know.” Owens was cheered enthusiastically by the 110,000 people in the Olympic Stadium and later ordinary Germans sought his autograph when they saw him on the streets.

Unlike life back in the ‘land of the free’, Owens was allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites and whilst Adolf Hitler acknowledged Owens achievements publicly the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt snubbed Owens – failing to even send him a telegram. Such was Owens lasting impact on Berliners, they named a street after the star of their Olympics. After the games Owens was invited to compete in Sweden along with the rest of the US team but decided to return home to take up several lucrative endorsement offers with the hope that the money would provide for his poor family. However, American athletics officials were furious that a black man was profiting from the sport and promptly withdrew his amateur status – effectively ending his competitive career.

Owens was crushed.

In the years that followed Owens made a living as a runner for hire racing against men, animals, motorcycles and even thoroughbred horses. The Negro baseball league often hired him to run against their fastest ball players – Owens would even give the challengers a generous head start before beating them. For the next few decades Owens continued to speak in public on topics such as motivation and religion and in 1976 president Gerald Ford presented Owens with the Medal of Freedom – the highest decoration an American civilian can attain. Finally Owens had achieved the financial success that first led to his expulsion from track and field. From the mid 1950s Owens purchased a new car every year for the rest of his life as well as large homes for himself and his parents. Through the medium of sport Owens had managed to overcome racism, bigotry and segregation to prove that black athletes could be successful on the world stage. Looking back on his Olympic success Owens commented, “For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.”

Jesse Owens died on the 31st of March 1980 in Tuscan, Arizona aged sixty-six of lung cancer. In 1990 a second American president – George Bush honoured Owens ‘triumphs of humanity’ by presenting him posthumously with the congressional gold medal. He was succeeded by his wife and three daughters who continue to run the Jesse Owens foundation for underprivileged people.