Jesse Owens' Olympic Career
Jesse Owens was first exposed to his athletic side when he was in junior high. His physical education teacher, Charles Riley, trained him and prepared him to set many track records in high school. In 1932, Jesse got the opportunity to compete to be in the olympics. He barely missed the mark to be on the olympic team. He tried out for the olympic team a second time in 1936. This time he made it! This is where he would become a legend. The Olympic in 1936 where located in Berlin during World War II. Hitler was often seen there supporting German athletes. There was a lot of tension because Hitler was known for his hatred for other races, including blacks. This cause a lot of people to be concerned with how Hitler was going to react to Jesse Owens completing. His performance this day was the greatest single day performance of athletics. This day was May 25, 1935 on Michigan Ferry Field. The day started with Jesse doubting whether he could complete because his back was injured. He decided to fight through the pain and compete. At 3:15 he had his first event, the 100 meter dash. His winning time was 9.4, but many people timed him at 9.3. This was a new world record. At 3:25 Jesse competed in his second event, Long Jump. In his first jump, he had already beat the world record by a foot and a half. The new world record was 26 feet and 8 1/4 inches. At 3:34 the next completion Jesse was participating in started. This was the 220 meter dash. Jesse again crushed the world record beating it by .3 second. His time was 20.3. Because the 220 meter dash is longer than the 200 meter dash, Owens also recieved the award for the record for the 200 meter dash. At 4:00 he headed the 220 low hurdles to compete in his last race. He was the first runner to ever break 23 seconds in this race. His time was 22.6 seconds and he won by 5 yards. Just like the 220 meter dash, he also was awarded the record for the 200 low hurdle race. Owens set 4 world records in 45 minutes and averaged a world record every 11 minutes. He also won 4 gold medals right in front of Hitler. Tension was high and people were wondering what Hitler's reaction was going to be to Jesse beating his white, German, athletes. News reporters reported that Hitler shook the hand of all the German athletes, but left before Jesse Owens came around to shake his hand. Hitler actually left the stadium before the award ceremony even started. Outside of the public Hitler told people of his disgust for Jesse Owens. Eventually Jesse Owens did see Hitler and he politely waved to him. Hitler surprisingly returned the wave. It was an even bigger shock to Americans when Jesse Owens got more recognition from Hitler than he did from FDR, the president of the United States at the time. Jesse Owens was expected to get rewards and a lot of recognition, but he did not even get a telegram from the president. This never stopped Jesse though. He continued to run because he never did it for the recognition.