A True Athlete - Jesse owens
#)Jesse Owens is still considered as one of the greatest track-and-field athletes of all time.
#)He was born as James Cleveland Owens on September 12, 1913, in a small town in Alabama, the son of a sharecropper.
#)He was called as JC during his school days, and later, when the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, a teacher in the school heard his name as “Jesse” and wrote it down.
#)That name remained as such as he remained Jesse Owens for the rest of his life.
#)While attending high school, Owens competed in interscholastic track meets, excelling in the running broad jump, the 100-yd dash, and the 220-yd dash.
#)After finishing his high school he studied at Ohio State University.
#)In 1935 he established a world record of 26 feet and 8 inches, for the running broad jump, as a member of the university’s track squad
#)In the next year in 1936the next year he went further set a new world record of 10.2 sec for the 100-m dash.
#)Owens won four gold medals for the United States in the 11th Olympic Games, which was held in Belin,Germany in August 1936.
#)The four events where he won Gold medals were
1)100-m dash in 10.3 sec
2)200 meter dash,he set a new Olympic and world record of 20.7 sec in the 200-m dash;
3)Running broad jump with a leap of 26 ft 5 in., setting a new Olympic record.
4)He was also a member of the U.S. 400-m relay team that year, which set a new Olympic and world record of 39.8 sec.
#)in the Long jump event he was in a danger to not qualify for the finals and later the advice from Luz Long the German Athlete made him to qualify for finals and eventually made him to win the Gold Medal in that event
#)The picture below is that of Luz long and Jesse owens
#)Inspite of Owens’s outstanding athletic performance, German leader Adolf Hitler refused to acknowledge his Olympic victories because Owens was black
#)He went on to play an active role in youth athletic programs and later he established his own public relations firm.
#)His autobiography, "The Jesse Owens Story", was published in 1970.
#)Owens died on March 31, 1980, in Tucson, Arizona, due to lung cancer
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