Jesse Owens - Definition and Overview

Medal ceremony for the long jump at the 1936 Olympics with Tajima, Owens and Lutz Long.

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 - March 31, 1980) was an African-American athlete and civic leader. He was most famous for his participation in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany where he won four gold medals and was the star of the games.

He was born in Oakville, Alabama and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He was given the name Jesse by a Cleveland teacher who did not understand his accent when he said he was called J.C.

In a span of 45 minutes on May 25, 1935 at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he tied the record for the 100 yard (91 m) dash and set world records in the long jump, 220 yard (201 m) dash, and the 220 yard (201 m) low hurdles.

He won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics; on August 3 1936 the 100 m dash, on August 4 the long jump, on August 5 the 200 m dash, and after he was added to the 4 x 100 m relay team, on August 9 he won his fourth gold medal on the 4 x 100 m relay. It wasn't until 1984 that his performance was duplicated; in the 1984 Summer Olympics Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same events.

A persistent myth has grown up that Hitler had intended to use the games to promote "Aryan superiority", and was in the stadium for some of Owens' events but had refused to acknowledge him after his remarkable performances. In fact, in Owens' Autobiography, The Jesse Owens Story, Owens himself recounted how Hitler had stood up and waved to him:

"When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany." - Jesse Owens, The Jesse Owens Story, 1970.

In what was to become an act of extreme irony, the American president of the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, then involved in an election and concerned about the reaction in the USA's southern states, refused to see Owens at the White House: Owens was later to remark that it was Roosevelt, not Hitler, who snubbed him.

After the games, he had difficulty making a living, however, and became a sports promoter, essentially promoting himself. He would give local sprinters ten or twenty yards (metres) start and still beat them in the 100 yd (91 m) dash. He also challenged and defeated racehorses, although he revealed later that the trick was to race a high-strung thoroughbred horse that would be frightened by the starter's pistol and give him a good jump.

His promotion work eventually turned into a career in public relations, including a long stint as a popular jazz disc jockey in Chicago.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by Gerald Ford and the Congressional Gold Medal by George H. W. Bush posthumously on March 28, 1990. In 1984, a street in Berlin was renamed in his honor. All his life he attributed his career to the encouragement of Charles Riley, his junior-high track coach, who had picked him off the playground and put him on the track team. (See Harrison Dillard, a Cleveland athlete inspired by Owens.)

Owens, a pack-a-day smoker for 35 years, died of lung cancer at age 66 in Tucson, Arizona. He is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery, in Chicago, Illinois.

• Official Website (http://www.jesseowens.com/)
• His accomplishments and his encounter with Adolf Hitler (ESPN) (http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html)