Childhood into Olympian
On September 12, 1913 James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama. He became known as Jesse because of a misinterpretation of his childhood nickname of J.C. He was trained by his Junior High School teacher to become one heck of an amazing high school track athlete. His first touch of the Olympics was at the Olympic trails in 1932 which he barley missed qualifying for the Olympics and went to college as a black student. He was enrolled at Ohio Student in 1933 and faced many struggles of raising a child with his high school sweetheart and keeping up his academics in college. He made it through college and broke many world records through his college career under the supervision of his coach, Larry Snyder. A key moment of showing his excellence," As a sophomore at the Big Ten championships, held on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan, on 25 May 1935 he broke world records in the 220-yard sprint, the 220-yard hurdles, and the long jump, and equaled the world record in the 100-yard dash" (Baker). He broke and tied these records within 45 minutes with a recording being broken every 11 minutes and doing all of these events with an injured back. Owens was destined to be great and become a great silent activist for those who are faced with troubles of racism in his country.