By: Laila Schwin and Valery Warner
February 11, 2022
Jesse Owens is considered to be one of the best track and field athletes of all time and is well-known for earning four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. He also broke several world records for various track and field events throughout his athletic career.
Jesse Owens was the youngest of ten children, born to Henry Cleveland Owen and Mary Emma Fitzgerald in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913. Early on in his life, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio. He was moving North in hopes of more opportunities and freedom. Owens attended Fairmont Junior High School. While there, he began to realize his passion for running. Owens attributed the success of his athletic career to the encouragement of Charles Riley, his junior high school track coach.
He then went on to attend East Technical High School in Cleveland, Ohio. While in high school, he met his future wife, Minnie Ruth Solomon. Their first daughter was born in 1932, and they went on to get married in 1935, later having two more daughters. They remained married until Owens’ death in 1980.
After high school, he attended Ohio State University. While attending OSU, Owens continued his athletic career and won eight different NCAA championships, four in 1935 and another four in 1936. He became known as the “Buckeye Bullet” for his athletic achievements and speed. Owens strongly solidified his athletic skill at the Big Ten track meet in 1935. During this meet, he broke three world records and tied with a fourth. His world records were in the long jump, 220-yard sprint, and the 220-yard low hurdles. He matched the record time for the 100-yard dash.
Despite original protests from American athletes about participating in the Berlin Olympics due to discrimination going on in Germany at the time were raised, Owens was one of the athletes who raised the concerns. Ultimately, most of the protests were quelled, and the athletes went on to participate in the Olympics.
Upon reaching Berlin, Owens was a well-known name within the Olympics with, allegedly, a large number of German fans waiting to cheer for him. Owens was also quickly approached by the founder of Adidas, Adi Dassler, and offered a sponsorship upon convincing Owens to wear his company’s shoes while competing.
While competing in the Olympics, Jesse Owens won gold in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.3 seconds, gold for the long jump with a distance of 8.06 meters, and gold for the 200-meter sprint with a time of 20.7 seconds. In the following days, Owens was added to the team for the 4×100-meter sprint relay and went on to win gold for this event as well.
Owens was honored by the German leader Adolph Hitler for his achievements, although there were later reports that Hitler wanted to use the Olympics results as a justification to exclude black athletes from further competitions as they had an “unfair” strength advantage.
Jesse Owens was also notably rejected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who did not invite him to the White House to meet him like the other American Olympic athletes were. He was, however, invited to compete in Sweden along with the rest of the American Olympic team. He rejected this offer in favor of endorsements and had his amateur status revoked, which barred him from further participation in the Olympics.
Owens went on with his life with very little success and little-to-no access to actual participation in sports because of his removed amateur status. He took to racing against horses for money, amongst other events, and would struggle financially until being recognized by President Dwight Eisenhower, who allowed him to travel the world under a designation as a goodwill ambassador who would teach people about athletics.
At the beginning of December in 1979, Owens was hospitalized, on and off, with an extremely aggressive and drug-resistant type of lung cancer. He died from lung cancer at the age 66 in Tucson, Arizona, on March 31, 1980, with his family by his side. He was buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.
Despite the untimely end to his Olympic career, Jesse Owens had a large influence and countless records for track and field events and will be remembered for his outstanding athletic ability.
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 