Greatest Olympic Prize: Context and Summary

Greatest Olympic Prize: Context and Summary

Context

Jesse Owens was born as James Cleveland Owens in 1913 in Alabama, USA in a poor African American household. A school teacher misheard the initials of his name U.C.) as 'Jesse' and the name stuck.

Jesse's talent in athletics was evident right from his school days, and he went on to become one of the greatest American athletes of all time. He represented the USA in the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he bagged four gold medals. This was a historic feat, not only because of the records Owens broke, but also because of the political context of the time.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi ideology had already gained ground in Germany. Hitler wanted to use the Olympics as a platform to prove his belief that the Aryan race was superior to all other races, including the African race. He was even critical of the USA's decision to include African American athletes in its contingent. In this context, the success of Jesse Owens, an African American, is truly special.

My Greatest Olympic Prize is an article by Jesse Owens that appeared in the Reader's Digest in 1960. It is an autobiographical account chronicling Owens's interaction with German athlete Luz Long and the events that led to his historic broad jump gold medal win in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Owens's experience is testimony to sportsman spirit and shows how a friendly gesture sometimes comes from the most unexpected places.

Summary

Here is a summary of the article My Greatest Olympic Prize by Jesse Owens.

Jesse Owens was on his way to Germany to participate in the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany. He recounts how he was not worried about the nationalistic sentiment prevalent in the country at the time. He had trained hard for the Olympics and was focused on his objective-winning a couple

of gold medals, especially one for broad jump. He was a favourite to win that Olympic event since he had set a world record in the sport the previous year.

On the day of the qualifying trials for broad jump, Owens was intimidated by the sight of a tall, blue-eyed, blonde German practising. This man, Luz Long, was taking jumps in the 26-foot range even though it was not the actual competition! At that moment, Owens remembered Hitler's theory of Aryan superiority and got riled. He went ahead for his qualifying jump feeling angry and determined to prove Hitler wrong.

However, because he was distracted by these thoughts, Owens leapt from several inches beyond the take-off board. He fouled again on his second attempt. He had one last chance- a third foul would eliminate him from the competition. It was at this point that help came to him from an unexpected source,