Four-time Olympic Gold medal winner who embarrassed Hitler

Jesse Owens, who died on 31 March, 1980, aged 66, is probably the best-remembered of all Olympic athletes due to his stunning victories and achievement of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Fast and fierce, Jesse Owens sprinted his way into the history books with his performance in the ‘Hitler Olympics’ where his victories prevented Hitler from proving that German ‘Aryan’ people were the superior race.

James Cleveland Owens was born on 12 September, 1913, in Lawrence County, Alabama in the Oakville community. He was the seventh child of Mr and Mrs Henry and Emma Owens and was the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper. When James (JC) was nine years old, the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in the hope that James’ father would find a better job there as they did not have much money.

The young Owens was often sick with what his mother reportedly called “the devil’s cold” and was given the name Jesse by a teacher who did not understand his accent when he said he was called JC. From then on, he was called Jesse.

Cleveland was not as prosperous as Henry and Emma had hoped and the family remained very poor. Jesse took on different jobs in his spare time including delivering groceries, loading freight cars and working in a shoe repair shop. During this time, he discovered that he enjoyed running. This would prove to be the turning point in his life.

Coach Charlie Riley first saw the raw yet natural talent that the youngster had when the students were timed doing 60-yard dash one day in gym class. The coach immediately invited him to run for the track team but Jesse was unable to participate in after-school practices because of work. Coach Riley, however, offered to train him before school and Jesse agreed.

Jesse went on to become a track star at Cleveland East Technical High School. As a senior, he tied the world record in the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.4 seconds, only to tie it again while running in the Interscholastic Championships in Chicago. While in Chicago, he also leaped a distance of more than 24 feet in the broad jump (standing long jump).

Many colleges and universities tried to recruit Jesse but he chose to attend Ohio State University. Here, he met both his fiercest competition and had many difficult experiences due to the ongoing struggle to desegregate the United States in 1933.

He was required to live off campus with other African-American athletes and when he travelled with the team, Jesse had to eat at "blacks-only" restaurants and stay in "blacks-only" hotels. Occasionally, a "white" hotel would allow black athletes to stay but they had to use the back door and the stairs instead of the lift. Because Jesse was not awarded a scholarship from the university, he continued to do part-time jobs to pay for school.

In the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on 25 May, 1935, despite having fallen down a flight of stairs and his ability to compete being questioned the week before, he set three world records and tied a fourth, all in a span of about 45 minutes.

Even though he was in pain, Jesse proceeded to set a new world record in the broad jump, the 220-yard dash and the 220-yard low hurdles and matched the 100-yard dash record. Jesse Owens had completed a task that had never been accomplished in the history of track and field. He had set three new world records and equalled a fourth. He received treatment right up to race time.

Realising his potential for competitive success, Jesse entered the 1936 Olympics, often known as the Hitler Olympics. The games were held in Nazi Germany and Hitler was hoping to prove to the world that the German ‘Aryan’ people were the physically superior race.

Jesse, however, had different plans and by the end of the games, even German fans cheered for him. He won gold medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the broad jump and the 400-meter relay. In all but one of these events he set Olympic records and became the first American in the history of Olympic Track and Field to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

One the first day, Hitler shook hands only with German victors and then left the stadium. Some claimed this was to avoid having to shake hands with Cornelius Johnson, an African-American athlete, but a Nazi spokesman claimed that Hitler’s exit had been pre-scheduled because of a previous appointment.

Olympic committee officials then insisted that Hitler greet all medalists or none at all. He opted for the latter and did not attend any future medal presentations. In response to reports that Hitler had deliberately avoided acknowledging his victories and had refused to shake his hand, Jesse recounted: “Hitler didn't snub me – it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.”

Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House or bestowed any honours by presidents Franklin D Roosevelt or Harry S Truman during their terms. In 1955, however, President Dwight D Eisenhower named him an ‘ambassador of sports’.

Incredibly, the financial instability of the Owens family continued and Jesse was not offered any endorsement deals because he was black. In an effort to provide for his family, Jesse left school before his senior year to run professionally. For a while he was a runner-for-hire, racing against anything from people, to horses, to motorcycles. The Negro Baseball league often hired him to race against thoroughbred horses in an exhibition before every game. Jesse even raced against the some of the Major League’s fastest players, always giving them a 10-yard head start before beating them.

He soon found himself running a dry-cleaning business and then even working as a gas station attendant. He eventually filed for bankruptcy and in 1966 he was successfully prosecuted for tax evasion. At rock bottom, the rehabilitation began and he started work as a US ‘goodwill ambassador’.

Jesse started his own public relations firm, travelling around the country speaking on behalf of companies like Ford and the United States Olympic Committee, stressing the importance of religion, hard work and loyalty. He emerged an articulate and enjoyable lecturer and public speaker. He also sponsored and participated in many youth sports programmes in underprivileged neighbourhoods.

Jesse was a devoted and loving family man. In 1935, he married his longtime high school sweetheart, Ruth Solomon. Together they had three daughters, Gloria, Beverly and Marlene. To this day, his widow Ruth and daughter Marlene operate the Jesse Owens Foundation, striving to provide financial assistance and support to deserving young individuals that otherwise would not have the opportunity to pursue their goals.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded him the Medal of Freedom. Jesse overcame segregation, racism and bigotry to prove to the world that African-Americans belonged in the world of athletics. After his death, in 1990 Jesse was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George Bush in recognition of his "triumphs for humanity".

A few months before his death, he tried unsuccessfully to convince President Jimmy Carter not to boycott the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow, arguing that the Olympic ideal was to be a ‘time-out’ from war and above politics. A pack-a-day smoker for 35 years, Owens died of lung cancer in Tucson, Arizona, and is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.