Today in History: Owens Wins 4th Gold Medal

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

09 Aug 2006 04:06 AM

Jesse Owens is an amazing figure in sports history. Winning several gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin set back Adolf Hitler's propaganda campaign for Aryan superiority.

Who Was Jesse Owens?

Born in 1913 to Alabama sharecroppers, Jesse Owens demonstrated his major track talent during high school in Cleveland, Ohio. When he went on to attend Ohio State University, he emerged as one of the greatest athletes in the world. On May 25, 1935, at the age of 20, Owen broke the world records for the 220-yard low hurdles, the running broad jump, and the 220-yard dash and tied the world record for the 100-yard dash.

If those feats were not amazing enough, he and 311 other athletes (including 17 African-Americans) from the United States traveled to Nazi Berlin to represent America at the XIth Olympiad.

In His Face

Hitler initially opposed or at least demonstrated contempt for the Olympics because of their internationalism that flew in the face of everything Nazi Germany stood for. Joseph Goebbels of all people changed his mind with the idea that the Olympics would serve as the perfect propaganda machine to showcase Aryan superiority. Hitler provided a deep pocket of funds for the Berlin Games while at the same time, systematically excluding Non-Aryans (Jewish, part-Jewish and Gypsy) athletes from their sports complexes and training facilities.

In 1935, there were a lot of groups in the United States pushing for a boycott of the Berlin games. In fact, world disapproval and heated debate prompted Spain to offer a People's Olympics to be held in Barcelona in July of 36, but the Spanish Civil War precluded that event taking place. By the time of the XI Olympiad - 49 countries sent their athletes (numbering around 4000) to Berlin to compete in the Summer Olympics.

International pressure convinced the Nazis to allow on part-Jewish athlete on their Olympic team, a fencer named Helene Mayer. The ethnicity of the fencer was forbidden from being discussed in the German Press. On August 1, Hitler opened the Olympics with the ritual lighting of the torch as the runner arrived bearing it in relay from Olympia, Greece (the first time this happened, by the way, for an International Olympics game).

Anti-Jewish signs were removed and visiting Jewish athletes were not subjected to anti-Jewish laws. It was a propaganda machine working at it's finest, determined to present to the International community the 'beauty' and 'serenity' and 'festiveness' of Nazi Germany's capital.

Contrary to Popular Mythology

Hitler did congratulate some athletes (mostly German and a select few others) on the first day of the games. Olympic organizers told him he would have to congratulate and receive all the winners or none. Hitler chose the latter. So while Jesse Owens swept his events, Hitler did not directly snub him in public.

Owens became the star of the Berlin Olympics. He broke and equaled records. He was applauded enthusiastically by the largely German crowd and developed a friendship with Luz Long, the German Silver medallist in the Long Jump.

German newspapers on the other hand demeaned Owens and other African American athletes as auxiliaries on the American team. On the 9th, when Owens helped the mixed-race American 4x100 meter relay team win the gold - the world breaking triumph was marred only by the fact that the U.S. Coaches had benched two of their Jewish-American runners the day before the event.

After the Olympics

Hitler and Nazi Germany were defeated in 1945, but the use of the Olympics for propaganda continued by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

As for Jesse Owens, he retired from amateur competition at the age of 23, just two years after those infamous Olympics. He engaged in boys' guidance activities and made goodwill visits for the United States in Asia. He also served as the Illinois State Athletic Commission Secretary. Though, Owens died in 1980, he remains a symbol of defiance against the Nazi Propaganda machine and a tribute to the American spirit.

So hats off to Jesse Owens on this day in history

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger