Jesse Owens

American track and field athlete

Photo by: Acme News Photos · Public Domain · Wikimedia Commons

Born:September 12, 1913

Died:March 31, 1980

Age at death:66

Manner of death:Natural Causes

Cause of death:Lung Cancer

Zodiac Sign:Virgo

Height:1.78 m (5′10″)

Born in:Oakville, United States

Buried in:United States

Languages:English

Long Jumper Olympic Champion Entrepreneur Athlete Athletics Competitor Sprinter

Links

Wikipedia Official Website IMDb

Famous For

Movies & TV

Jesse OwensBack to Berlin

Books

BlackthinkGene-sized DNA insertion at genomic safe harbors in human cells using a site-directed transposase

Awards

IAAF Hall of Fame (2012)Presidential Medal of Freedom (1976)Silver Olympic Order (1976)Theodore Roosevelt Award (1974)Associated Press Athlete of the Year (1936)

Jesse Owens

American track and field athlete

Biography

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete. He made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting individual Olympic records in each event, plus another as a member of the 400-meter relay. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history. Owens excelled in short sprints and the long jump and was lauded in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". Earlier he won four events, set five world records, and tied another—all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equaled and was called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport". He won four NCAA titles in both 1935 and 1936, bringing his total to eight—an unparalleled achievement still unmatched. He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited by ESPN with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy". The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track & Field's accolade for the year's best track and field athlete. In a 1950 Associated Press poll, Owens was voted the greatest track and field athlete for the first half of the century. In 1999, he made the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century. That same year, ESPN ranked him sixth-greatest North American athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “Jesse Owens”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.”

— As quoted in People In America : "Jesse Owens" by Barbara Dash on VOA (7 June 2002)

“Mr. Hitler had to leave the stadium early, but after winning I hurried up to the radio booth. When I passed near the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me and I waved back at him.”

— Quoted in "Owens, Back, Gets Hearty Reception" by Louis Effrat, The New York Times, (August 25, 1936), p.25. Online for subscribers only.

“Hitler didn't snub me; it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.”

— About Franklin D. Roosevelt, as quoted in Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics (2007), by Jeremy Schaap, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. 211

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "Jesse Owens", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

Photo of Jesse Owens in 1936.

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Berlin, Olympiade, Jesse Owens beim Weitsprung Jesse Owens beim Weitsprung [Berlin.- Olympische Sommerspiele, Jesse Owens beim Weitsprung] Abgebildete Personen: Owens, Jesse: Leichtathlet, Olympiateilnehmer 1936, USA (GND 118738917)

American hurdler Fred Wolcott (left) and sprinter Jesse Owens (right)

Jesse Owen's room in the 1936 Olympic Village in Berlin as seen today.

US track team house at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village

Jesse Owens competes in a broad jump event at a track meet. A crowd watches from stadium seats. James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals.

Jesse Owens pictured in a midair jump. A large crowd watches from stadium seats, possibly at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals.

Jesse Owens became Olympic champion with a jump distance of 8.06 m. This replica of his spikes is on display in the German Sport and Olympic Museum. The original can be found in the Adidas company museum.

The Harbor Gateway is a 5.14-square-mile, shoelace-shaped north-south residential and industrial neighborhood in the Los Angeles, California, Harbor Region, in the southern part of the city. It is highly diverse ethnically, and has experienced a measure of animosity between blacks and Latinos, and a gang injunction has been enforced against Latino gangs. Harbor Gateway was originally known as the Shoestring Strip and was attached to Los Angeles in 1906 to serve as a link to the Pacific Ocean port cities of Wilmington and San Pedro. It was given its present name in 1985. With a relatively youthful population of 42,000+, it is the home of Gardena High School and seven other schools. The neighborhood is bisected by Artesia Boulevard and has two neighborhood councils, one north of the boulevard and the other south of it. A large transportation center serves the south Los Angeles County area. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbor_Gateway,_Los_Angeles en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...