Jesse Owens: An American sporting legend

We are all aware of this year’s Summer Olympics to be held in Rio, Brazil. But there’s little we remember about its predecessor 80 summers ago in the year 1936, when this global sporting event was eventful for few reasons.

First, it was held in Berlin in Hitler’s Germany, overshadowed by Nazi propaganda. Second, it was also the first Olympics to be televised. Third, it also showcased the talent of Jesse Owens, the famous black athlete from United States who seized the limelight, overcoming myriads of obstacles to win four gold medals in the games.

Jesse Owens was an American icon, a symbol of black power in the sporting arena. Growing up in an era of overtly racist America, he battled poverty with a wonderful story. Hailing from a poor family in the post recession America, no one ever imagined him winning accolades in the land of ‘Hail Hitler’, putting a dent into the dictator’s theory of Aryan supremacy.

Owens’s talent was spotted during his tenure in the Ohio State University, where he created record in 100 metre dash. Soon he was a lock for the American Olympics team, selected for the mega event across the Atlantic.

After arrival in the Olympic village in that eventful summer of 1936, Jesse Owens was appalled at the disgusting sight of anti-Semitic gratifies in the Olympic village saying “dogs and Jews are not allowed”

The fitting finale came in the form of 100-metre sprint, still a prized event in the Olympics which everyone looks forward to. Owens was pitted against the local favourite Lutz Long of Germany – the symbol of Hitler’s White Aryan supremacy.

Jesse not only won that race, he went on to win 200 metres, 4×100 metre relay and long jump, defeating Long yet again in the later event. Jesse and Lutz Lung became friends and continued communicating with letters until Lung died fighting for Germany in North Africa during the World War II.

Hitler was in the stadium, watching Jesse sprint his way to a stupendous win. Here is where historians differ in their accounts. The Fuehrer supposedly left the stadium in disgust. But per Jesse Owens, Hitler acknowledged his victory by waving at him.

The German Supremo was so mesmerised by the hockey stick work of another non-white from a British Colony called India, he offered him a high post in the German Army. That man was Dhyan Chand, the star of India’s hockey team. No wonder they say that History is skewed towards the winner, perhaps we could heard a different story if the World War went in Germany’s favour.

After coming back to America, during a facilitation dinner for the US Olympics team in New York, Jesse Owens along with other Black Athletes had to use the service elevator, rather than soiling the regular elevator used by their white counterparts.

The humiliation didn’t end there. It was customary then for the Olympics medal winners to be invited to the White House. But Jesse’s name was conspicuously missing from the name of the invitees, as President Roosevelt didn’t want to be in news baking bread with a black man in White House in an election year.

What happened to Jesse after that? He continued earning money, running against race horses for the pleasure of spectators, until he became old and unfit to do so. Yet his record of four Olympics Golds was a record which stood for almost half a century. The record was emulated by his compatriot Carl Lewis in Los Angeles in ’84, only four years after the legend’s death in 1980.