Sport - Olympic Games

Owens: athlete par excellence

If there was one athlete in Olympic history who single-handedly held off a nation from completely dominating the Games, it was Jesse Owens. The athlete par excellence took on Adolf Hitler and his machinery out to prove the superiority of the Aryan race and emerged the unlikely hero of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

The African-American athlete reached the zenith of his career by winning four Olympic gold medals, a feat unheard off till then. At the new Olympic Stadium and in front of over one lakh spectators, Owens clocked a wind-aided 10.2 in the semifinals of the 100 metres.

Owens did not stop there. In the following days, he won the 100m race at 10.3s (wind-aided), set a new Olympic record in the long jump (26’ 5 1/4); broke the Olympic record in the 200 metres with a time of 20.7s and joined the 400 metres relay quartet to set a world record at 39.8.

The records he set at the Games stood for more than two decades thus establishing the fact that his performances were quarter of a century ahead of his time.

Owens’s athletic career began in 1928 in Cleveland. His best moment came in 1935, when, competing in the ‘Big Ten’ meet at Ann Arbor, he set three world records and equalled one, an unparalleled feat in the history of athletics. He tied the world record for the 100 yards (9.4s), set records in long jump (8.13m) that lasted 25 years, 220 yards (20.7s) and the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6s).

In June, 1936, Owens, competing in the NCAA championships in Chicago, bettered the 100 metres world record, clocking 10.2 seconds. Several men equalled that record, but it took another 30 years for someone to clock 10.1 seconds. Willie Williams (US) did that in Berlin on August 3, 1956.

Owens preferred to attend Ohio State University even though it offered no scholarship.

He supported himself and his wife, Ruth, with a number of jobs all in between practice and setting records in inter-collegiate competitions.

Post-1936, back home in the United States, Jesse Owens Olympics glory failed to earn him a living. He tried many jobs but failed. Then he got involved in civic movements and public relations. Owens was named the spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1968.

The seventh child of Henry and Emma Alexander Owens was named James Cleveland when he was born on September 12, 1913. ‘J.C.’ as he was called, was nine years when the family moved to Cleveland. It was there his new schoolteacher heard him say ‘J.C.’ as Jesse. And he continued to use it since then.

Jesse Owens received many awards and tributes after his death (March 31, 1980). A few months before his death, Owens had even tried to convince President Jimmy Carter not to boycott the Olympics of 1980.

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