A Very Brief Story Of Jesse Owens At The Olympics

In 1936, a young Jesse Owens, who just graduated from the Ohio State University made history at the Olympics in Berlin, where the most physically fit push themselves to win against other nations. Jesse set a record at that Olympics that would stand for a remarkable 48 years, but what he had to go against, “During a time of deep-rooted segregation, he not only discredited Hitler's master race theory, but also affirmed that individual excellence, rather than race or national origin, distinguishes one man from another.”This is why Jesse Owens is in the record books for the rest of time. Jesse Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama on September 12th , 1913, and was the seventh child of Henry and Emma Alexander Owens. Jesse was a son of a sharecropper
and grandson of a slave and by the time he turned nine years old his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio to find better work opportunities. When Jesse was only in Junior High School, he set the record for high jump by clearing six feet, and also leaping 22 feet 11 ¾ inches in long jump. Jesse was already showing signs that he was going to be a very special athlete when he grows up. By high school, he won all of the major track events, including the Ohio State Championship three years in a row. He set a new high school world record by running the 100-yard dash at a very speedy 9.4 seconds, a new high school world record in the 220-yard dash by running the distance in 20.7 seconds, and a new world high school record in the long jump at 24 feet 11 ¾ inches. Owens amazing high school track career led him into being recruited by colleges across the United States but chose the Ohio State University out of all of them. Jesse Owens also excelled at track and field at a collegiate level. While at the Big Ten Champion Ship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in May 25, 1935, Jesse Owens would set three world records and tie a forth, all in a time span of 45 minutes that would last for 25 years. With this accomplishment, Jesse Owens had done many experts would say the greatest athletic feat in history by setting 3 world records and tying a forth in just four track events. With all this success at his track and field Big Ten Championship, led him to gain confidence he was ready to excel at the highest level.

Germany was awarded the Olympic Games of 1936 in a showdown vote against Barcelona in 1931. During this no one knew what Germany would turn into because Hitler didn’t become the Chancellor until January 30th, 1933. This Olympic game were just the third Olympics to have an Olympic Torch. The Nazis wanted to make sure theirs were unique, so they chose to have the torch to be lit in Greece using the sun’s rays, then the torch would travel across Europe until it reached Berlin, finally lighting the Olympic Cauldron. In total there were over 3,300 torch bearers who would bring the torch from Olympia to Berlin, which this started the modern-day Olympic torch relay. But the 1936 Olympic games were full of controversy, the Nazis didn’t want Jews or Black People to participate which led to several countries talking about boycotting the Olympic games all together. Serval countries like France and the United Kingdom were trying to have the games moved to their countries, but the Boycott efforts were unsuccessful as 49 countries went to participate in the games, which was the most countries at an Olympic game ever at that time. The only country to Boycott the 1936 Olympics were the Soviet Union. One of the nasty things the Nazis did during the time of the 1936 Olympics was the Party believed that Berlin was a bit dirty with a certain group of people, so their attempt in cleaning the city up was giving police authorization to arrest all those of Romani decent and take them to the Berlin-Marzahn Concentration Camp. Hitler and the Germans skillfully promoted the Olympics with colorful posters and magazine spreads. The athletic imagery drew a connection between ancient Greece and Nazi Germany. These portrayals symbolized the Nazi racial myth that a superior German civilization was the rightful heir of an "Aryan" culture: heroic, blue-eyed blonds with fine features like those on classical statues.

As the Olympics draw closer, the NAACP asked Jesse not to go to Berlin for political reasons.. But at home, the United States was still bad with racism. In one of the letters sent to the President during the mid 30s, a African American man from Reidsville Georgia was talking about how the white Relief Officials directing the relief work in Georgia were using up most everything that the president sent for themselves and their friends. They gave out each African American “few cans of pickle meat and to white folks they give blankets, bolts of cloth and things like that.” This person had to write this letter to the president anonymous because “Yours truly cant sign my name Mr President they will beat me up and run me away from here and this is my home.” Racism was even in the government when, “The yammering in the senate continued, Mississippi’s Bilbo warning of black-and-white “amalgamation,” while Louisiana’s Ellender urged his colleagues to “at all cost preserve the white supremacy of America.” During this Jesse Owens had to fight the racist ideology of Germany and to fight racism in America. After all of this to take in and Jesse Owens being conflicted whether or not to go to Berlin to compete, runner Eulace Peacock urges Jesse to compete to defy Nazi racial ideology.

When Jesse arrived at the 1936 Olympics he became an instant star.
He won four gold medals, in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, and the long jump. He was able to break or equal nine Olympic records and also set three world records, the record in the 4x100m relay wouldn’t be broken until 20 years later. He also became the first American track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad until the 1984 Olympics Games in Los Angeles, when Carl Lewis matched Jesse’s feat. He was “the darling of the German crowd, but readers of the Atlanta Constitution and other newspapers of the white American South did not see any picture of him, while most of the German press celebrated him as much as warranted a four-time gold medal winner and hero of the Games.” This irritated Adolf Hitler, although he did applaud Owens speed, he didn’t want anybody of African descent to be allowed to participate in the first place. An passage from a newspaper article in the book “The Nazi Olympics”, “Chancellor Hitler, who has yet to pay homage to any of the Negroes whose spectacular performance has done more than any other single factor to make these the greatest Olympics in history, left the stadium immediately after the conclusion of [Owens’s] race.” Hitler would only meet with white athletes who won gold and non-other athletes in public and his VIP box at the games. The public waited for Hitler to give a gesture toward the towering Jesse Owens but he never did. Jesse Owens said in his
biography was “That what hurt the most were not the actions of Hitler, but that of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt failed to warrant even a telegram congratulating him for his achievements in the Games.”

After only competing in one Olympic Game of his amazing career he became an an inspirational speaker, sought to address youth groups, professional organizations, civic meetings, sports banquets, PTAs, church organizations, brotherhood and black history programs, as well as high school and college commencements and ceremonies.
“He was a dreamer who could make the dreams of others come true, a speaker who could make the world listen and a man who held out hope to millions of young people.” In 1976, Jesse was awarded the highest civilian honor in the United States when President Gerald Ford presented him with the Medal of Freedom. President Carter said Jesse was "A young man who possibly didn't even realize the superb nature of his own capabilities went to the Olympics and performed in a way that I don't believe has ever been equaled since...and since this superb achievement, he has continued in his own dedicated but modest way to inspire others to reach for greatness.” Jesse Owens died from complications due to lung cancer on March 31, 1980. His legacy still lives where his three daughters, Gloria, Marlene, and Beverly, and their work with the Jesse Owens Foundation continues to carry on his legacy by providing financial assistance, support, and services to young individuals with untapped potential in order to develop their talents, broaden their horizons, and become better citizens. Adolf Hitler hoped that the 1936 Berlin Games would prove his theory of Aryan racial
superiority, but instead, Jesse Owens achievement led the people of Berlin to hail him, as an African-American, as a hero.