Jesse Owens

James Cleveland Owens was born on 12 September 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves. He was the youngest of ten children. When his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as part of the Great Migration, a teacher mishearing his initials 'J.C.' called him Jesse — a name that stuck for life.

Owens showed exceptional athletic ability from an early age, breaking three world records and tying a fourth in a single afternoon at the Big Ten Championships in 1935 — a performance that has been called the greatest 45 minutes in athletic history. But it was at the 1936 Berlin Olympics that he made history that transcended sport.

Adolf Hitler had designed the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a showcase for Aryan supremacy. Jesse Owens destroyed that narrative single-handedly. He won four gold medals — in the 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump and 4x100 metres relay — and became the most successful athlete of the entire Games. Hitler reportedly refused to acknowledge his victories.

Owens' long jump gold was made more remarkable by the friendship he formed with his main rival, German athlete Luz Long. Long offered Owens advice before his qualifying jumps that helped him make the final — a gesture of extraordinary sportsmanship in the shadow of Nazi ideology. They remained friends until Long's death in World War II.

On his return to the United States, Owens received a ticker-tape parade in New York but was denied entry to the reception held in his honour at the Waldorf Astoria through the front door — he had to use the service entrance. Despite his Olympic glory, he remained subject to the racism of Jim Crow America. He died on 31 March 1980, having received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.